Transport in Madrid
Road, rail and air links are vital to maintain the economic position of Madrid as a leading centre of employment, enterprise, trade and tourism, providing effective connections with not only other parts of the region, but also the rest of Spain and Europe as a whole.
[1]: 62–4 In terms of longer-distance transport, Madrid is the central node of the system of autovías and of the high-speed rail network (AVE), which has brought major cities such as Seville and Barcelona within 2.5 hours travel time.
Thus passenger flows are predominantly into and out of the city centre, although further decentralisation of economic activity to the outskirts is altering this pattern.
The weak points appear in the "new peripheries", with low-density residential developments and dispersal of journey destinations, leading to higher car use.
The scheme implemented at the end of the 1980s consisted of nine radial autovías (those toward Burgos, Barcelona, Valencia, Andalucía, Toledo, Fuenlabrada, Extremadura, A Coruña and Colmenar Viejo) but just the one orbital route – the M-30.
Significant portions of M30 run underground and its urban motorway tunnels have sections of more than 6 km (3.73 mi) in length and 3 to 6 lanes in each direction.
[6] With the addition of a loop serving suburbs to Madrid's south-west called Metrosur or Line 12, it is now the second longest metro system in Western Europe after London's Underground.
After numerous extension projects in the early 2000s, it currently consists of 293 kilometres (182 mi) of mostly underground railway tracks and a total of 302 stations.
Its fast growth in the last 20 years has put it among the fastest growing networks in the world, on par with the Shanghai Metro and the Beijing Subway.
The average amount of time people spend commuting with public transit in Madrid, for example to and from work, on a weekday is 62 min.
There has been large investment in transport infrastructure focussing on Madrid, including radial autovías, high-speed rail, and Madrid-Barajas airport.
[1]: 70 As noted above, Madrid is the focal point of the high-capacity autovía network, linking it with most parts of the country as well as France and Portugal.
There are now 2,900 km of AVE track, connecting Madrid with Barcelona, Málaga, Seville, Valencia, Valladolid, Zaragoza and 11 other provincial capitals.
The radial character and great extension of the AVE network confer on Madrid exceptional accessibility by rail: the journey time is only 2 hours 30 minutes to Barcelona and Seville.
Connection from Madrid by AVE will further increase due to lines under construction to Galicia, Asturias, País Vasco, Alicante, Murcia and Extremadura.
AVE has taken a large share of travel on the routes served: since the opening of the line to Seville, journeys by train between the two places increased from 14% to 50%, while air fell from 11% to 4% and road from 75% to 46%.
Important to the city's economy as the largest business in Madrid, estimated to generate 44,000 jobs directly and 210,000 indirectly,[1]: 76 it serves as the main gateway to the Iberian peninsula from Europe, America and the rest of the world.
[1]: 78 A new fourth terminal has been constructed, which has significantly reduced delays and doubled the capacity of the airport to more than 70 million passengers per year.
Two additional runways have also been constructed, making Barajas a fully operational four-runway airport that can handle 120 flights per hour.
A regional plan seeks to create nine new logistical centres outside the city, in order to decongest the central areas and rationalise distribution chains.
