The best way to get around inside Madrid or its region is by means of public transportation. One of them is the short distance railway network (Renfe), which is very efficient .Using these kind of trains you can arrive quickly to the neighbouring autonomous regions of Castilla y León and Castilla-La Mancha.
Metro de Madrid is an essential transportation network for the city, it is fast, punctual, efficient and modern, it is our star offer. Some of our transportation means are not public, such as taxis, which offer the possibility of moving around quickly. If you are not in a hurry and want to see our city's charming sites, we recommend the use of our tour buses and our unique and only cable car.
Without the service given by Renfe's short distance train public transportation the inhabitants of Madrid and its region would be lost. This service allows a great number of citizens to come into the city on time and confortably.
Thanks to the existence of these trains traffic jams are reduced , and the connection between great part of our autonomous region's territory and between this one and the neighbouring regions of Castilla y León and Castilla-La Mancha is easier and faster. In many points this network and the subway's are connected, as a result of this, the city of Madrid is connected to the main cities within its region and viceversa.
Touristic routes
Renfe's short distance train service within the Autonomous Region of Madrid has many possibilities available to carry out interesting trips to the region's towns.
Tel.: 902 24 02 02
Special routes
This is Renfe's name for a series of proposed routes which allow people to get to Warner Brothers amusement park in San Martín de la Vega, to Faunia in Vilcálvaro, to Madrid's amusement park / Zoo Aquarium both in Casa de Campo or to be able to discover the very special and distinguished cities of Aranjuez and Alcalá de Henares.
On Ocober the 17th 1919, King Alphonse XIII oficially inaugurated the first subway line, which was a very important means of transportation for the city of Madrid. This line linked the Puerta del Sol and Cuatro Caminos. Fourteen days after its inauguration the service was open to the public.
This suburban network is formed by twelve lines. These lines allow passengers to move around the city quickly and puctually, the trains run nonstop from six a.m. to two a.m.
Tel.: 902 444 403
Line 1
Plaza de Castilla-Congosto. This underground train crosses the city from north to south, from the very traditional plaza de Castilla to the Vallecan station of Congosto. This seventeen kilometer long line crosses two short distance train stations, one of them long distance too, as well as an AVE train station plus an important bus station. It crosses a part of Madrid's historical heart and it has a stop at a classic artery: the popular Gran Vía street.
One hundred and three million passengers travel on it every year.
Line 2
Ventas-Cuatro Caminos. Twenty eight million passengers travel every year on this eight kilometer long subway line that separates the populated neighbourhoods of Ventas and Cuatro Caminos. From one of its fifteen stations (Ópera) you can get to the train station Príncipe Pío. This line links the east and west of Madrid's center.
Line 3
Legazpi-Moncloa. Aproximately forty million passengers use the eleven station six kilometer long subway line every year. On it we can travel from the southern neighbourhoods, the city's central almond, to the northwest of Madrid. This line joins the southern areas of Legazpi to one of the main bus stations of the Autonomous Region of Madrid, Moncloa.
Line 4
Parque de Santa María-Argüelles. This thirteen kilometer long subway line, formed by twenty stations, takes us from the northeast of the city to the most western area of the center of the capital. Aproximately forty four million passengers use this line every year. Line 4's main and most habitual station is Avda. de América, which is a communication nucleus that allows you to connect to one of the largest bus stations in Madrid.
Line 5
Alameda de Osuna-Casa de Campo. This thirty station line takes you from the northeast to the west, or viceversa, of the city. This eighteen kilometer long line transports an average of seventy six and a half million passengers per year, from close to the Barcelona highway to Madrid's great lung, the Casa de Campo. Three of its stations are connected to the short distance train network and to the line that takes you to the Príncipe Pío train station.
Line 6
Circular. As its name shows it is a real circular route that takes you all along the limits of the great almond or historical quarters of the city of Madrid. If you wanted to, although it is not its aim, you would be able to go from the Legazpi neighbouhood, in the Arganzuela district, to the nearby Usera neighbouhood, after crossing twenty seven stations along an aproximately twenty three kilometer long line. More than one hundred and twenty passengers use this line every year.
Line 7
Las Musas-Pitis. This nineteen kilometer long line crosses Madrid from west to east, having twenty two stops and transporting almost forty two million passengers per year, connecting the north of the old locality of Pitis to the notheast and the San Blas district.
Line 8
Nuevos Ministerios-Barajas. This fourteen kilometer long line joins the center of Madrid to Barajas airport, so as a result this line represents to Madrid a great communication link. More than fifteen million passengers use any of its six stations every year.
Line 9
Herrera Oria-Arganda del Rey. This thirty eight kilometer long line is the longest of all the subway network. It connects the north of the city of Madrid to two localities located on the southeast of the capital, Rivas-Vaciamadrid and Arganda del Rey, so twenty six stations are needed, in some of its stretches forty seven million passengers travel on it every year. It also connects you to a bus station and a short distance train station.
Line 10
Fuencarral-Puerta del Sur. One of the subway's most used lines, with more than fifty five million passengers per year, it crosses the city from north to south. It is twenty four kilometers long, having nineteen stations and going along Castellana and the center of Madrid.
Line 11
Plaza Elíptica-La Peseta. It is at the south of the city and links the Pan Bendito and Abrantes stations to the circular line at Plaza Elíptica. It is only two kilometers long and has three stations, more than two million passengers use it per year.
Line 12
MetroSur. It is a bet to enlarge Metro's network to a great number of localities within the Autonomous Region of Madrid and linking them to the capital. In a circular way it joins the cities of Alcorcón, Móstoles, Fuenlabrada, Getafe and Leganés, the main industrial and southern belt of Madrid, it connects to line 10. Also connecting the short distance train stations within these cities. It is forty point six kilometers long traveling along twenty eight stations. Around thirty six million passengers use it every year.
Line R
Ópera-Príncipe Pío. This branch links Príncipe Pío's bus station to Ópera, it is only one kilometer long and three and a half million passengers travel in it every year.
In the city of Madrid the regular bus service is run by the Empresa Minicipal de Transportes (EMT). It has one hundred and fifty regular lines that connect every street within Madrid, one of them takes you to the Barajas airport, it has more than twenty night lines, popularly called owls and eight lines that service the surroundings of some university campuses.
Tel.: 91 406 88 00
Eventhough the largest localities in the region have their own taxi network, the ones used the most are the capital's taxis, white with a diagonal maroon line. They run around the city every day and it is easy to find them on the streets.
Radio Taxi: 91 447 51 80/91 405 55 00
Taxis for disabled citizens: 91 547 86 00
Tele Taxi: 91 445 90 08
It takes us on a pretty air trip from Parque del Oeste (Western Park) to the Casa de Campo. Below you are able to see the Manzanares river, the Egiptian temple of Debod, the Plaza de España, the Royal Palace and its pretty gardens, the Almudena Cathedral and the church of San Francisco el Grande. It does not run all year round.
Tel.: 91 541 74 50
