Madrid confirms its low-cost approach

International Railway Journal, May, 2003 by Steve Bennett

Madrid Metro continues to expand on schedule and at low cost. On April 11, the Spanish capital celebrated the opening of its new MetroSur line together with an extension of Line 10.

MADRID has the fourth largest metro in Europe and it expanded further last month when Madrid Metro opened Metrosur, a 40.5km circular line in the south of the city, plus an 8.2km extension of Line 10 which connects the new line to the rest of the network.

Despite the importance of the occasion, the opening of Metrosur and its vital connection was a relatively low-key affair, dictated by the fact that local elections are taking place this month and it was felt that the presence of King Juan Cabs may have had too much of an impact politically.

However, there is no doubt that the new lines extend the range of metro services massively throughout the city. Metrosur serves the the suburbs of Alcorcon, Leganes, Fuenlabrada, Getafe, and Mostoles, covering a population of just under one million. It has 29 stations, including six which interchange with the suburban rail network operated by Spanish National Railways (Renfe). The new circular line was built at a cost of [euro]1.55 billion, while the Line 10 extension linking Casa de Campo to Puerta del Sur, including three intermediate stations, was completed at a cost of [euro]500 million.

Madrid Metro's president, Mr Manuel Melis, told IRJ in Madrid that construction had gone according to plan, though he admitted that the timescale could have been even shorter than originally planned. He said: "We completed everything on time and within budget In fact, we could have finished six months earlier because we were too conservative in our planning. Tunnel construction on the bored sections, using three boring machines, went faster than we expected. In retrospect, we could have saved time by using the same tunnelling method on the southern section, which was constructed using the cut-and-cover method."

Melis is a strong proponent of a cheap and efficient construction process, and he has put his philosophy into practice in Madrid, where the entire cost of the 1999-2003 metro development programme amounted to [euro]3.16 billion. These projects, incorporating Metrosur and the Line 10 extension, included planning, civil works, electrical and mechanical installations, interchanges, maintenance facilities, and rolling stock at an average cost of [euro]42 million/km.

Previous projects have been undertaken successfully on the same basis, as Melis explained last year in an article on project management (IRJ Rail Outlook 2002 p16). He said on that occasion: "I believe that rail transport projects are simple engineering projects, easy to design and build, and, with the appropriate staff and management techniques, they can easily be completed on time and within budget I refer particularly to those Madrid Metro projects where completion dates have not only been met, but have been beaten by several years in comparison with similar projects elsewhere."

The completion of Metrosur and the Line 10 extension have given Melis similar cause for satisfaction. He declared: "This latest project demonstrates again the importance of our philosophy. Many cities around the world desperately need new metro lines, but they cannot afford to build them at an estimated [euro]150 million to [euro]200 million/kin, nor be forced to wait a dozen years for the lines to become reality. The truth is that these estimates of costs and time are simply wrong. In Madrid, with all humbleness, we have now proved it on more than one occasion.

"Civil works amounted to about 70% of the total cost of our programmes. The most important part of this cost is the tunnel part. I believe that Madrid has shown that Earth Pressure Balance (EPB) tunnels in soft ground are far less expensive, but much safer than open face tunnel construction methods such as the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM), sprayed concrete lining (SCL), Adeco, or pre-cutting.

"Transport infrastructure projects can be divided easily into manageable parts. Each section of the project can be designed simultaneously and all construction contracts can be awarded simultaneously, so that any manageable contract worth up to [euro]150 million, for example, can be completed within three years. Even enormous tunnelling projects such as the Channel Tunnel have been excavated in this timescale. Therefore, provided that funds are available, any lineal project such as a metro can be designed and built in 40 to 45 months, as we have demonstrated.

"Station architecture is an important factor, too. It should never be handed over to world-renowned architects. A transport project is a serious engineering work that should not be confused with a museum or an emblematic building for a city. Several million passengers/day may move through metro stations, so their design must take into account this fact by giving easy access from the street to the trains, via wide escalators and corridors and shallow station platforms.