Hi all, just a warning to all of you who planned on taking the METRO from Madrid Barajas Airport to the city center or vice versa during the next few months.
The Airport line, LINE #8, will be closed for renovation and improvement from Dec. 1st 2001 until mid January 2002.
This affects the stations between "Mar de Cristal" and "Barajas" town and the reasons for this closing are twofold:
1) To facilitate the passing of the new series 8000 metro cars which are wider and hold more passengers.
2) To extend the line to reach the "Nuevos Ministerios" metro station.
Some good news though. As usual the city will provide a FREE bus service from "Mar de Cristal" to "Barajas" Airport (Terminal 2, the international terminal) and vice versa
A free bus from the Airport, take advantage of it while you can.
What we do not yet know is if this FREE bus will be equiped with luggage racks like the Metro cars that run on the Airport line.
I will check it out personally and get back to you with the update on this same thread.
Hi Jer, Many thanks for the information. I was planning on using the Metro to get to my hotel. Now I will use the Free bus to get to the Metro then to my hotel! I am traveling light so have only carry on luggage, and my son, who's a weight lifter will have no trouble whatsoever maneuvering my little carry on!
Gracias for the update! Booklady
Posts: 697 | Location: Florida | Registered: 24 August 2001
As long as you are travelling light (and with a strappin' son) the free bus should be OK.
You will be taking the bus from T2 (Terminal 2) international arrivals, to the Mar de Cristal Metro station where you can get the 4 line to the center (may have to change again depending on where your hotel is).
Usually the construction projects here draaaaaaag on but I think they will move their "culos" ("asses") on this one since it is a pretty big deal closing the Airport line.
Lets hope it is all claered up by mid Jan. as they say.
One more thing, if you want an alternative to the Bus/Metro combo and then walking to your hotel/hostel from the Metro stop which may be tiring after a long flight, you might want to give the airport shuttle at www.aerocity.com a try.
Construction is completed and the line is now open & the free bus is no longer (as of Monday, Jan. 14th). Right on schedule as they promised :
Not only that but the improvements are nothing we have ever seen in Madrid before with a new Metro car design, a few open cars connected by rubber betweeen them (looooong cars instead of like 6 seperate smaller ones), bigger luggage racks and even a new system to open the doors with a 2 bi directional button that lights up when pressed, what will they think of next.
Would I ever leave you just imagining what it was like
Saludos, Jer...
p.d. and they finally placed bars to hold onto going from the floor to the ceiling VISIBLE IN THIS PICTURE. Yippppeeeee, now I won't fall down so much!
Yeah David, do you (or anyone else) know of a better Metro than the one we have here in Madrid? I am curious to know. And pleeeeeaaaassssseeee nobody say New York, it is crap!
Saludos, jer...
p.d. I just broke my record for speed in replying to a post, 2 minutes.
just look at the post times:
yours - "posted 18 january 2002 01:07" mine - "posted 18 january 2002 01:09"
Also, if you click on the "Facturar Equipaje" button it shows you a cool virtual lesson on checking your luggage at the Nuevos Ministerios station.
Even a little phrase that says "jugar mientras esperas" ("play while you wait") at the bottom, click it, hit the space bar to start and each time you want to jump a bag or suitcase
- rent or buy a cell phone from me for your stay in spain, more info at 
- already have a cell phone, get a spanish SIM card for it at 
