The Community of Madrid is set to undertake the largest Metro expansion of this parliamentary term, with an investment of €880.6 million to extend Line 11 to Valdebebas Norte. Today, the Governing Council has authorised the commissioning of works on this new section, which will improve transport links in the north-east of the Spanish capital, create a new metropolitan corridor between Mar de Cristal and Valdebebas Norte, and facilitate access to some of the region’s main economic, healthcare, judicial and transport hubs.

The project covers a 7.2-kilometre section, with four newly built stations – IFEMA-Cárcavas, Ciudad de la Justicia, Hospital Isabel Zendal and Valdebebas Norte – and two connecting stations on existing infrastructure: Mar de Cristal, where Line 11 will connect with Lines 4 and 8, and Airport Terminal 4, which will link up with Line 8 and the Cercanías network, thereby strengthening the intermodal connectivity of Madrid’s public transport system.

From Mar de Cristal, the new infrastructure will extend to IFEMA-Cárcavas, serving the expansion of the exhibition centre, the future MADRING street circuit and the wider economic activity area in the surrounding region. From there, it will continue to the Valdebebas interchange, improving connections with the southern part of the urban development and with the future City of Justice.

The route will continue to the Hospital Enfermera Isabel Zendal station, providing access to the hospital complex and its entire catchment area, before continuing on to the T4 Metro station, thereby strengthening the link with Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport and the future growth areas planned for the surrounding area. Finally, the project will be completed in Valdebebas Norte, where it will serve the new residents of this area and complete the public transport network in one of the region’s largest urban developments.

This extension, which will reduce journey times and help to ease congestion on other metro lines – particularly L6 – comes on top of the works currently being carried out by the Community of Madrid between Plaza Elíptica and Conde de Casal, the first section at the opposite end of the future major diagonal metro line.

Work is progressing at a good pace and has already reached one of its key milestones with the arrival of the Mayrit tunnel-boring machine at the new Madrid Río station, in the Arganzuela district, marking the completion of the connection between the two excavation fronts between Comillas and this new halt after crossing the M-30.