Future Metro de Madrid. The innovation that will transform the way you travel
- Trem-din
- Apr 14
- 4 min read
Metro de Madrid is immersed in modernization to adapt to the new needs of Smart Cities, with a strong commitment to greater attention to the user experience, sustainable solutions and careful energy efficiency.
Metro de Madrid is one of the largest and fastest growing networks in Europe. Approximately 300 km long and with 302 stations, the Madrid metro has experienced a significant increase in the number of passengers, reaching 715.2 million in 2024. It has 13 lines, making it the second longest metro in Europe, behind only Moscow.
The transformation to Smart Cities is underway
Metro de Madrid is almost a city within a city, counting for example with 2,003 cars, 1,704 escalators, 559 elevators or 1,279 vending machines.
To adapt this enormous network to the immediate future, implementations are already underway that will affect the modernization of half a dozen stations, the renovation of 125 elevators and the incorporation of intelligent turnstiles based on the Metro 4.0 vision, with a more intuitive interface, screens that inform the user, acoustic warnings and informative LED lighting.
It is envisaged that in 2027, on line 6, this new version of the metro will be in operation, and 450 million euros will be invested in the purchase of the new cars for the purchase of 40 new units.
Automatic trains. More efficient, faster, more sustainable.
One of the protagonists of this new face of Metro will be the new trains, which will be more efficient, making the most of energy in acceleration and braking, reducing weight and optimizing the relationship with signaling, reducing consumption by 20% and increasing its speed by 33%.
They will also have a greater capacity, 17% more than the current one, with each train being able to transport 1,385 passengers.
Another important factor in the new Metro is sustainability, with the use of recyclable materials, optimizing energy efficiency and the capacity to move the greatest number of people in the shortest possible time. Also, the high reliability and optimized maintenance of the new trains allows to make the most of the available units and have a greater efficiency of use.
The interior of the cars includes a design with greater chromatic contrast, allowing greater differentiation of areas, facilitating access for people with some type of disability. Larger information screens or the installation of the inductive loop system, which is a technology that transmits sound directly to hearing aids or cochlear implants by means of a magnetic field, improving hearing in noisy environments, are also incorporated.
Safety as a backbone
To make the incorporation of these modern trains possible, it is necessary to fit out the stations with innovative PSD (Platform Screen Doors) systems, named after the automatic closures that prevent access to the tracks and allow access to the interior of the trains when the car doors are opened.
These systems maximize platform safety, preventing from accesing into the rails and improving passenger flow on the platform.
Trem's contribution to this project is focused on the formal design of these structures where we have given great importance to several factors such as user experience, functionality and accessibility. (If you are interested in more information, at the end you will find one of our blogs dedicated to this project).
One of the key points of our design was to reduce as much as possible the feeling of enclosure, creating a dynamic and functional aesthetic, while providing a pleasant and fluid transit both in platforms and in the access to cars.
In order to adapt to the different stations that make up the wide Metro network, we created a modular system with interchangeable and scalable elements that can be integrated into any of the spaces that can be renovated.
The signage, the information offered by screens, the warning lighting, have been designed to provide clear and precise information, allowing a better use of space, which together with a minimalist, elegant and futuristic aesthetic, allows for a better user experience.
Better experiences for future cities
As a result of the use of new technologies, as well as the paradigm shift in the vision of what we want cities to be, which are home to many of us, will allow us to coexist in them, in a more pleasant and sustainable way, taking advantage of public transport as the main mode of travel, facilitating the creation of more pedestrianized areas by reducing the footprint of private vehicles, in turn reinforcing road safety and optimizing point-to-point transportation in the most efficient way possible.
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