Madrid Public Transport

Mainline train above and metro train below.

The tall and thin sculpture to the right of the shot is called, irreverently, the Hypodermic Needle.

Welcome back! Principe Pio mainline and metro station - formerly Estacción del Norte, one of the main Madrid termini.

A walk to a class. I escaped! Walkway above the M40 motorway ring road! Yes I know, the same name as the London ring road!

Taken from near the front of my flat, last year. The building with the rounded frontage is a famous Madrid music school. Even though my flat is some way behind the front entrance of the block (which contains 288 flats), agreeable wafts of music can often be heard! Look at the date (30/08). In the UK it would be typical weather for the Late Summer Bank Holiday! I can't say I felt homesick because of it!

Not a mask to be seen. Atocha Station, Madrid.

Somosaguas Centro, Metro Ligero (Metro light) station, by La Finca Business Park, where I taught many hours a week at one time.

A pleasing walk along Madrid's River. They sank a motorway below it and freed up the surface to make this totally pedestrian riverside park.

Not sure what the purpose of the lighthouse is but there is (or maybe was - thanks to Covid 19 and acess only by lift) a restaurant up there. On the ground are two of the few remaining sections of track from the old tramway system.

Well its obviously a bridge of some sort in Bellas Vistas, Madrid and I came across it on a walk today. It nagged me that I felt sure I had seen it before and that I knew what it was but had forgotten how, why or when! Well later today I remembered. I had seen it before but from up a tower block where I gave a few classes some years ago. From the student's window it was quite clearly used at one time for carrying a track of some kind but now all there was to see was grass growing there. I asked my student who explained it was part of Madrid's long defunct tramway system! I was pleased that my annoying mental itch earlier in the day had been gently scratched away! Having said all that, I have just seen from Google Maps that its called Aquaducto de Amaniel! So I am again none the wiser! A former guest member wrote; Thank you for showing this interesting bridge. I tried to find some information, and on structurae.net/de/bauwerke/amaniel-aquaedukt they say that it is an active aqueduct. The site has been updated a last time actually in 2018 and they show two photos. As I do not know so much spanish, I was not able to collect much information, but for example www.exclusivasimanara.com/blog/galeria/374-el-acueducto-de-amaniel-en-1857 seems to say something similar. I was not able to find information in connection with a tramway, but at www.iagua.es/noticias/ayuntamiento-madrid/ayuntamiento-madrid-recupera-tramo-historico-viaje-agua-amaniel the spanish word "tramo" is being used which might have been misunderstood. I would suppose, in this text, "tramo" stands for construction section (Bauabschnitt, in german) At commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Acueducto_de_Amaniel they show several photos of it, but I do not find a verbal explication at wikipedia sites. Best wishes and have a great day

Colombia Metro Station, Madrid. I just LIKE this station. They didn't have to do this but I'm pleased they did. Just about every other metro station has something of interest to see, admire, like, enjoy the vibrant colours of, etc!

Again, I just liked the lines and forms here.

90% of the bus station is on 3 levels below ground here. It's one of the major transport interchange stations for all points north of Madrid. Norman Foster's Torre Cepsa (the tallest building in Spain) is in the distance.

OK, it's another station shot, but I like the lines.

Príncipe Pío transport hub. Metro train below, mainline train above.

A bit of a shock if your carriage pulls up alongside this oversized print of Hans Holbein The Younger's Henry VIII on the Madrid metro. Totally unexpected! It's advertising the nearby Museo Reína Sofia, where it resides. Henry VIII of England and Friedrich II Hohenstaufen, Holy Roman Emperor. These two were surely twins, seperated by 300 years! Battles with the Papacy, dynastic considerations, etc. I read their life stories and there is no difference at all!

The original 1919 metro trains (called 'clasicos') restored and on display at Chamartín station on an unused section of track, but they don't seem to be available to view close up. The fences have always been in place and guards patrol whenever I pass by, which is often (and slightly worrying; do they see me coming and think; "Here comes that hooligan Englishman again with his dastardly camera!")? BTW when I first visited Madrid in 1981 to see my sister who had moved here that year, these 'clasicos' were still in circulation and I used them a lot. They were horribly hot and rickety by then. I think they were finally de-commisioned the following year.

This station is huge. If you want to change metro lines here, in some instances you have a 12 minute walk. This mainline section of the station effectively cuts the metro element in two, hence the long walks to get under or over this between lines!