Metro de Madrid

Yet another year the Autonomous Community of Madrid has become further consolidated as an international benchmark in the field of transport after receiving in the course of 2009 seventy delegations from all over the world interested in finding out about the construction of new infrastructure in the region and the integrated management system of Madrid’s public transport system, which has a level of efficiency that enjoys worldwide recognition. Within this line of international cooperation, this week Metro de Madrid has received a delegation from Kuwait, interested in getting to know the underground network and its Command Post management system.

This year the Transport and Infrastructure Department engineers, headed by José Ignacio Echeverría, of Metro de Madrid, the company Mintra (Madrid, Transport Infrastructure) and the Madrid Regional Transport Consortium have received transport authorities and experts from numerous Spanish and foreign cities, to whom they have offered not only their experience in the area of planning, building and management of transport infrastructure, but also their cooperation and advice.

The countries that have shown their interest in Madrid infrastructure have a wide variety of origins as they come from all corners of the world. To be exact, in the course of 2009 the Autonomous Community of Madrid received delegations from different Spanish and many other foreign cities, from such countries as Germany, France, Sweden, Poland or Norway, in Europe; China, in Asia; the USA, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Brazil, Panama and Ecuador, in America; and South Africa, in Africa. Similarly, last year Metro de Madrid showed its facilities to experts from the five continents, from such countries as France, Australia, Brazil, USA, Algeria, Sweden, Venezuela, Japan, Kuwait, Chile, Holland, Libya, Norway, Mexico, Panama, Colombia, China, Ecuador, Switzerland, Vietnam, UK, Finland, Poland and Lithuania.

Besides receiving such delegations, the international cooperation of the Autonomous Community of Madrid also includes the participation of its professionals in major projects enjoying the cooperation of different countries, such as congresses and research projects. In this respect, we may make special mention of the fact that the Autonomous Community of Madrid plays a leading role in the direction of the most important transport association on an international level, the International Public Transport Union (IPTU), of which the directors of the Regional Transport Consortium and the general manager of Metro de Madrid are members, which confers a more active function on Madrid in worldwide decisions.

Kuwait praises Metro de Madrid management

International interest in the management of Madrid transport systems continues in 2010. This very week, in their visit to Madrid, a Kuwait delegation, made up of 7 representatives of different ministries (Public Works, Interior and Transport), in the company of municipal representatives from the capital, did not fail to take the opportunity, in their visit to Madrid to get to know the Madrid underground, to take special interest in the use of the new technologies applied to the management of the system at the Command Post. The purpose of this visit was to get first-hand knowledge of some of the new stations, such as Chamartín, on account of its size, architecture and its different connections with other lines and other means of transport, as is the case of the Light Metro and the Suburban Railway Network.

Accompanied by the general manager of Metro de Madrid, Ildefonso de Matías, and representatives of other areas of Metro, the delegation was able to get first-hand knowledge of the working and management of the Command Post, one of the leading cutting-edge facilities in the world’s underground systems, from which everything that happens in the network is controlled and which accommodates all the metro safety, surveillance, energy management and passenger information systems.

The Kuwait representatives also expressed their interest in the way in which the greatest Expansion Plan in history has been implemented over the last four years. For this purpose, they also visited Chamartín Station, one of the largest, due to its numerous connections and prepared, furthermore, to take on additional enlargements in the future.

Visits to Metro de Madrid, an international reference

Besides the foreign delegations, every year the Madrid public transport network receives numerous visits from professionals, students, institutions and even private individuals, interested in learning how it operates. By way of example, we may mention that last year alone the Madrid Command Post received 150 visits.

“The case of Madrid” has become quite an example for a number of underground systems in the world. The clearest example is the Santo Domingo subway, where its first line has exactly the same design and conception as the Madrid lines. In addition, Metro advises and performs consultancy and technical service assignments for other countries in America, Europe and Asia. These projects may even increase, as the number of visits that have been paid to Metro de Madrid to find out about its building methods and the new line commissioning and network operating system have been numerous, placing Metro de Madrid in the sights of many government bodies, authorities and companies worldwide. In this way, an agreement has been concluded recently with the Quito City Council (Ecuador) for the consultancy and technical assistance that is going to be provided by Metro de Madrid in the design and building of this city’s subway system.