The year that has just begun is expected to be very eventful for Metro de Madrid because it will face a series of milestones that will be very relevant for its immediate future and for that of the two million travelers who, on average, board it every day. The 2025 calendar of the most used means of public transport in the region has marked in red from the inauguration of line 3 (L3) to Getafe, which will arrive in March, to the comprehensive reform of the most used line, L6, with which The first steps towards driverless trains will be taken already in the second half of the year.
The passing of the days will also bring the start of work to bring the L5 to the Barajas airport and news about the future station of the L9 Ahijones-Berrocales and the L11, both in the Plaza Elíptica-Conde de Casal section – already in construction – as on the north and south slopes. But not everything is certain for the metro service in this year that has just begun: uncertainty continues to loom over the L7B, with a section closed for two and a half years that at the moment has no reopening date, and also over the central section of the L11, paralyzed for more than one year.
These are all the projects related to the Madrid Metro about which news is expected in the next 12 months.
Inauguration of the L3 to Getafe
The regional government hopes to inaugurate the 2.6 kilometer route between the Villaverde Alto and El Casar stations, in Getafenext March. This will complete three years of work, work that initially suffered a significant delay due to the Covid pandemic and in its final stretch due to the appearance of leaks in the tunnel.
The commissioning of This section will be a double milestone. On the one hand, El Casar will become the second connection of the network that structures the capital with Metrosur (L12), the line that runs through the cities of Alcorcón, Fuenlabrada, Leganés, Móstoles and Getafe and that now only has correspondence in Puerta south. On the other hand, it will be the first ‘growth’ of the network in a decade. The last inauguration so far dates back to 2015, when the trains arrived at Mirasierra and Paco de Lucía (L9), although in 2019 the Arroyofresno station was opened, but it did not represent an expansion of the network because it had been built for years.
The L5 ‘grows’ to the airport
In the first quarter of the year, the Department of Transport also trusts that the machines will start working to carry L5 from Alameda de Osuna to terminals 1, 2 and 3 of Barajas. It is a very small expansion – barely 1.5 kilometers – but it will have great operational importance because it will increase the number of metro connections with the Madrid airport to two.
This extension will also mean the first connection directly from the center of Madridsince the L8 that currently provides service has its head in Nuevos Ministerios. The regional Executive considers that direct communication with Barajas from stops such as Ópera, Callao or Gran Vía will be one of the main attractions of a project that it trusts can work towards the year 2028.
Works on L6: cuts to go to the train without a driver
The comprehensive renovation of the circular line promises to be the protagonist of the second half of 2025. The depth of the works will force L6 to be closed to the public in two phases: the first cut will be from June to September 2025 between Moncloa and Méndez Álvaro and the second from September to December between Moncloa and Legazpi, in accordance with the Executive’s forecasts.
While the intervention lasts, The Community will enable a special bus service which will run the metro on the surface and will have no cost for users. It is a mobility device that has to be designed by the Regional Transport Consortium and that will be communicated in detail a few weeks before the line’s closure date.
The work on L6 will serve to adapt the route to the new trains that are already being manufactured and that they will be able to travel without a driver on the line, one of which Metro plans to automate. In fact, this summer, in parallel with the work in the tunnels and on the tracks, doors will begin to be placed on the circular platforms.
The L11: from the tunnel boring machine to the next expansions
The Transportation area headed by Jorge Rodrigo expects a relevant milestone for one of its large ongoing projects, the expansion of L11, with the arrival of the heat. Construction is scheduled to be completed in June. ‘Mayrit’, the 9 meter diameter and 98 meter long tunnel boring machine that will execute the tunnel from Comillas park, in Carabanchel, to Conde de Casal, in the Retiro district.
Once completed in Germany, the machine will be disassembled and traveled to the capital in parts to be reassembleda complex operation that could last about three months. Estimates from the regional government suggest that towards the end of the year, or early 2026 at the latest, Mayrit could be working underground.
Until then, progress will continue in the construction of the future stations of L11 (Comillas, Madrid Río, Palos de la Frontera, Atocha and Conde de Casal) and also in the first section of tunnel that is being executed by the traditional method. The technicians of the Ministry of Transportation will also be focused on advancing on the northern slopes (Mar de Cristal-Valdebebas) and southern slopes (La Fortuna-Cuatro Vientos), which are in different phases of administrative processing.
The situation of both ends of the future diagonal line of the Madrid metro contrasts with the situation of the central section (Conde de Casal-Mar de Cristal), paralyzed for more than a year. In December 2023, the Community suspended the tender to award the contract for which the construction project was to be drawn up due to the lack of definition of the sections with which it had to connect and has not relaunched the process despite the fact that it has been advanced on the other routes. It is foreseeable that, to pace the works, this project will be resumed this year, but the Transport plans and deadlines in this matter are a mystery and the truth is that work has been done on alternative scenarios, such as the L11 being able to operate on the slopes. without waiting for the execution of the central section.
The mystery of the L7B
But the greatest uncertainty that Metro de Madrid faces today is the one that has to do with L7B. The San Fernando-Hospital del Henares section is about to be closed for two and a half years and nothing has been said about a reopening date. The works that began at the end of August 2022 had the objective of stabilizing a land that has not stopped moving since the line was inaugurated in 2007, and that has taken away several housing blocks, municipal infrastructure and daily life. of about 200 Sanfernandinos. These works may not be giving the results expected by the technicians, as revealed in June 2024, when Isabel Díaz Ayuso alluded to a possible permanent closure of the line.
To the closure of the aforementioned section of line 7B Last year the one that goes from Barrio del Puerto, in Coslada, to San Fernando was added. The trains stopped running between these stations on July 27 for “renovation” works, as explained by the department, which would last nine months, so their reopening to the public should occur at the end of next March, although for now no date has been communicated. What emerged in September 2024 was a report that stated that water had been detected in the L7B tunnel in Coslada, although at that time the Transport Minister assured that the situation had “nothing to do” with the San Fernando route.
The future Ahijones-Berrocales stop
Jorge Rodrigo’s department will also work to advance throughout this year in the project with which he wants bring the metro to the new urban developments of Los Ahijones and Los Berrocaleslocated east of the capital. At the beginning of 2024, the contract to design the L9 suburban station that would be located on the surface between the current Puerta de Arganda and Rivas-Urbanizaciones stops was void and was relaunched in mid-September.
The tender, which took the form of a negotiated procedure without publicity to avoid a repeat failure, it hasn’t finished yetbut it could be definitively resolved in a short period of time and for the winning company to begin designing the future halt, a task for which it would have a period of 14 months.
Other transportation-related projects
Although they are substantial, these are not the only plans that Metro de Madrid has on the table for 2025. The public company will continue with the accessibility plan for the oldest stations in the transport network and will progress in one of the major modernization initiatives : the implementation of payment by bank card directly at the access turnstiles, which implies the progressive replacement of old equipment with the latest generation that began to be installed in 2021. It will also continue to renew its official store and the future of the ‘Last Mile’ transport project will have to be communicated. of goods and packages after the pilot phase that began in September.
In terms of public transport, there are other issues to keep an eye on this year that has just begun. For example, the beginning of works on the Conde de Casal transport interchangewhich the regional Executive plans to begin this first quarter of the year, and the publication of the new and definitive map of the interurban bus network on which they have been working for years.
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