Madrid’s latest developments

The integration of different modes of public transport has always been a high priority for CRTM. This, combined with an extensive programme of development, has seen the use of public transport rise dramatically in Madrid over the last 20 years.

Territorial and socio-economic framework

The Spanish State is organised on the basis of a Central Government, seventeen Autonomous Regions with wide ranging powers at the regional level, and Municipalities representing towns and villages at the local level. The Region of Madrid (8,028km2) is composed of 179 municipalities located in three functional areas (or rings):

• Madrid City, the largest city and the focal point of the region, with 3.1 million inhabitants in 2005 (53% of the total population of the region) living in 606km2.
• The metropolitan ring, consisting of closely linked medium sized and large municipalities, located in the metropolitan area immediately around the city of Madrid (2,280km2), accounting for 2.4 million inhabitants (41%).
• The regional ring, consisting of a number of small and medium-sized municipalities, with 0.37 million residents (6%) in 5,142km2.

Population distribution patterns in these three areas have shifted considerably over recent years. The number of people living in Madrid City began to decline from 1975, although increases have begun to be recorded since 1996. The population of the metropolitan ring, meanwhile, has shown steady increases in the same period. These changes have meant a greater demand for mobility and a considerable increase in journey frequencies.

The Public Transport Authority and the mobility context

Since its creation in 1985, Consorcio Regional de Transportes de Madrid (CRTM), the Public Transport Authority for the Madrid Region, has considered the integration of the different modes of public transport to be a high-priority objective in its operations:

• planning of infrastructures and services
• pricing framework and multi-trip tickets (a contactless card has been recently introduced); and
• image of, and information relating to, the public transport system.

CRTM acts as a regulatory and coordinating body for public transport operations in the Region, ensuring a stable framework for the funding of transport services with an annual budget of ?1,700 million (2005). A total of €970 million were sourced in the form of subsidies from the Region of Madrid (62%), the Spanish Government (15%), Madrid City Council (22%) and other Municipalities (the remaining 1%).

The total number of journeys in the Madrid Region during a single working day in 2004, according to the last Household Mobility Survey (EDM 2004), was 14.5 million, or an average of 2.6 journeys per inhabitant, distributed as follows:

Of the 2.8 million workers recorded in the Household Mobility Survey (EDM 2004), 63.5% were located in Madrid municipality. The population of Madrid city itself mostly work in the city (82.1%) and of the population living in the rest of the Region, 42.6% work in Madrid city. With regards to the location of jobs, it was found that 68.5% of employment in Madrid city is for people who live in the capital, whereas 73.9% of employment in the rest of the Region is for people resident there.

Madrid public transport system

The public transport system for the Madrid Region is currently based on four transport modes: two urban transport modes, metro and city bus services, and two metropolitan transport modes, suburban rail services and suburban buses.

CRTM coordinates both public and private operators without distinction. There are 36 primary transport operators within the system:

• Metro de Madrid, which operates the underground system, is a public company owned by Madrid City Council (75%) and the Region of Madrid (25%). From 17 October 1919, when the first section of the Madrid underground was opened to the public, until present day, Metro de Madrid has grown enormously, agreeing with the economic development of both Madrid itself and the country as a whole.

The Underground Extension Plan 1995-1999, implemented by the Regional Government of Madrid, marked a milestone in the extension of the Madrid Metro system. 56.3km of new track were laid, increasing the length of existing track by almost 50%. 38 new stations were built, 9 of which were exchange terminals, 6 for changing to other metro lines and 3 for changing to the Cercanías suburban rail network. Total investment was €1,622.7 million, €223 million of which was for new rolling stock.

The Underground Extension Plan for the Region of Madrid for the period 1999 to 2003 has involved the construction of an additional 54.6km of underground line, along with 36 new stations, eleven of which are interchange facilities. The total investment was €2,787.7 million, €419.3 million of which corresponded to rolling stock.

• EMT, which operates bus services in the city of Madrid, is wholly owned by Madrid City Council. Since the first city bus route was inaugurated in 1924 the growth of the bus network has been no less than spectacular.

The typical features of an EMT bus route are a length of 8,400 metres, serving 24 bus stops by direction located at intervals of 344 metres. The average passenger journey distance is 3.1km.

The fleet consists of 1,994 vehicles with an average age of 5.2 years. 93% of these have low floors. 165 buses are environmentally friendly, powered by compressed natural gas (CNG), a fuel which is cleaner and more environmentally friendly than diesel. Another 20 buses are powered by hybrid diesel-electric engines and three buses are powered by hydrogen.

• Cercanías-Renfe, a public company dependent on the Spanish Ministry of Public Works, operates suburban rail services.

In the last twenty years, the Madrid railway network, dating back to the mid-19th century, has undergone a radical change to turn it into a modern commuter rail network. During this period, the demand has increased by 320%, making it an essential mode of transport in the region.

• Private companies operate the suburban bus services and urban services in other municipalities.

Fleets of buses (with an average age of 4.9 years) operated by private companies are largely responsible for public road connections between the different municipalities in the Region of Madrid and between Madrid and the metropolitan ring. Thirty-three private companies have been granted 44 administrative concession contracts with CRTM, to which a further five town bus concessions and two municipal company service contracts can be added.

Although most town transport services in the municipalities outside Madrid in the Region are provided by the same suburban bus routes, by 2005 a total of 32 municipalities had their own network of municipal bus routes, all dependent on CRTM.

The global public transport system demand in 2005 was in the order of 1,591.8 million journeys, with an average of journeys/inhabitant that places Madrid among the most frequent public transport users in both Spain and Europe.

Recent developments

The Regional Madrid Government is continuing with its policy of developing the Region’s public transport network in all its modes:

METRO AND LIGHT RAIL

In the 2003–2007 period, 94km of new lines will be built, including both underground (59km) and light rail system (35km), and major improvements will be made to the existing system, with new exchange terminals etc. – all with the following objectives:

• Extend the conventional metro to reach suburbs with Lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 11. An innovative funding system has been applied to the metro extension of Line 1 to Ensanche de Vallecas, with 37% of the construction costs to be privately funded by land property developers.
• Provide a metro connection between Madrid and adjacent boroughs, like Alcobendas and San Sebastián de los Reyes to the north, and Coslada and San Fernando de Henares to the east.
• Connect Madrid CBD with the new Barajas airport terminal, by extending line 8.
• Link the major planning developments to the transport network, either with the conventional metro or with a light railway. This includes the Las Tablas, Montecarmelo, Sanchinarro, Carabanchel and the Vallecas residential developments.
• The extension of Line 7 will connect the Olympic Stadium and the future Olympic Village with the city centre, as part of the Madrid Olympic project.
• The Extension Plan 2003–2007 earmarks major budget resources for improving the existing metro system in the city centre. This will include the ambitious improvement programme for Line 3, extending the length of stations and enhancing access for people with reduced mobility.
• There are also plans for building intermediate metro stations that were part of the original projects and in sections of the network where there have been major urban changes, like Aviacion Española on Line 10, Arganzuela on Line 6 and Pinar del Rey on Line 8.
• Finally, 35km of light rail system in different municipalities of the region like Pozuelo de Alarcón, Boadilla del Monte and Parla, and in the new developments of northern Madrid, in which the population density, planning infrastructure and morphology mean that light rail was the ideal mode of transport, as has been demonstrated in other European and Spanish cities.

URBAN BUSES

Madrid has 104km of bus lanes that have been recently protected by a specially designed barrier. Nowadays 36km of bus lanes have been provided with these barriers, with a significant increase in commercial speed.

EMT has a Vehicle Scheduling and Control System (VSCS) that uses GPS to locate the position of the buses, which is transmitted in real time to a Central Control Post. The VSCS system has been implemented in the entire fleet leading to a policy aimed at reinforcing service information for users in real time.

Apart from the Bus Stop Information Terminals, which display the next bus time of arrival at the stop, a new service has been recently created to provide this same information via SMS to a mobile telephone. This service has been extended to cover the whole network by January 2006.

SUBURBAN RAILWAYS

Current projects by the Ministry of Public Works regarding the suburban rail network include building a new tunnel crossing the centre of Madrid from Atocha to Chamartín with three new stations (Sol, Alonso Martínez and Nuevos Ministerios), that will reinforce connections with the city’s metro network. With this new tunnel, southern lines which nowadays finish at Atocha main station will continue into the city centre.

Madrid Regional Government is also extending the suburban rail network, constructing a new 13.5km line connecting Móstoles and Navalcarnero municipalities, in the south-west metropolitan area.

SUBURBAN BUSES AND INTERCHANGE PLAN

Multi-modal transport interchanges are the best example of the integration of the various public transport networks and, since its beginnings, CRTM has constructed various peripheral interchanges, located in the intersections between the border of the city centre and its six main radial corridors. The idea is to facilitate at these points the transfer between suburban buses and urban modes (metro and municipal buses) to achieve a seamless journey. These interchanges are Plaza de Castilla (A-1 and M-607 corridors), Avenida de América (A-2 corridor), Conde de Casal (A-3 corridor), Legazpi (A-4 corridor), Plaza Elíptica (A-42 corridor), Aluche and Príncipe Pío (A-5 corridors) and Moncloa (A-6 corridor).

Many locations at present are historical, based as they are on the traditional points of entry to the city. Many other bus lines have had to modify their routes, some no longer go the centre and a number of terminals have been relocated. The general aim has been to ensure that all the buses serving a corridor terminate in a single location, thus facilitating mobility for both the regular user and the sporadic one.

Using the experience gained from these interchanges, via an agreement in 2004 between Madrid City Council, Madrid Regional Government and CRTM itself, CRTM drafted the specifications to place out to public tender the construction works, operation and maintenance of six new large transport interchanges (Conde de Casal, Plaza Elíptica, Príncipe Pío, Moncloa, Plaza de Castilla and Chamartín) all included within the 2004–2007 Interchanges Plan.

Four of these large intermodal centres are already under construction (total budget around ?300 million) with quality and safety requirements regulated through the Operation and Maintenance Programme, suitably incorporated in the concession contracts.

In order to achieve the fulfilment of the Operation and Maintenance Programme objectives to provide a high-quality service (interchange building and access management, facilities and equipment supervision and control, traffic management, safety and security issues,…) to the end-user, CRTM is implementing a common Integrated Management System to monitor in real time all the new interchanges.

All in all, since the creation of CRTM, all these projects and measures have led to an increase in the number of public transports users by 67.5%.