Madrid’s New Metro Map

Actually, it’s not so new – the redesigned map for Madrid’s underground public travel system – El Metro – has been out for a couple of months now, but I thought it was worth a post anyway. The re-design was prompted by the rapid growth of the Metro, which has added some 81 stations and 87 kilometres of tracks in less than 40 years, representing a 30% increase and making it the third largest underground system in the world – a fact of which they’re very proud. The new map is based on the London Underground’s iconic version whereby actual, or real, distances are subverted in the cause of clarity. The colours of the different lines remain the same with the addition of a pink colour for the new light-railway (the ML – Metro Light) in the West of the city, but the other main change is that the plan is represented with 90 degree vertical and horizontal lines at right-angles, as you can hopefully see in the piccie. Click here to see a better, full version of the new map

Trouble At Metro

Over the last week the Madrid Metro stations have started to build up with rubbish. By Christmas eve some of the larger stations on lines 3 and 8 were overflowing with discarded newspapers, fruit peel, and other general commuter detritus as the bins filled up and spilled over. The reason? We have an ‘indefinite strike’ by the cleaners (part of the UGT union) over pay and conditions.

Eventually, conditions got so bad that ‘black-leg’ cleaners were brought in before the mess became a health-hazard but this provoked scuffles between pickets and the freelance cleaners with one incident at Plaza Elíptica escalating to such an extent that Local Police officers were forced to intervene to disperse the brawling protesters. 

And today, caught on camera, we had a masked man pouring olive oil over the floor at the entrance barriers concourse of one station. The evening news reports showed the deed done followed by lots of travellers slipping, sliding and falling over as they tried to pass through the gates.