Thirty-five special buses will replace trains along a busy central stretch of Metro de Madrid’s Line 6 during the upcoming La Almudena holiday weekend, as transport authorities accelerate technical trials for a fleet of driverless trains scheduled to launch in 2027.
Service on the capital’s underground “Circular” route will be suspended between Arganzuela-Planetario and Ciudad Universitaria from November 7 through November 9, 20minutos.es reported. Both terminal stations will remain fully operational as temporary endpoints while engineers test the automated signaling and control systems.
Deploy Dedicated Shuttle Route to Mitigate Travel Disruptions
To mitigate travel disruptions during the closure, the Municipal Transport Company (EMT) has deployed a dedicated shuttle route designated as SE6. Up to 35 buses will run along the affected corridor, maintaining a frequency of three to four minutes during peak travel hours.
In the direction of Ciudad Universitaria, the earliest departures are scheduled for 6:05 a.m. from Legazpi, Pacífico, Manuel Becerra, and Cuatro Caminos. Services toward Legazpi will begin at the same hour from Ciudad Universitaria, Cuatro Caminos, Manuel Becerra, and Pacífico. Night operations wrap up earlier: Saturday departures run until 2:03 a.m. from Legazpi and 2:05 a.m. from Ciudad Universitaria, while holiday schedule departures conclude at 11:24 p.m. and 11:29 p.m. respectively.
Metro de Madrid officials scheduled the intervention over a weekend and regional holiday to minimize passenger impact. The temporary suspension forms part of an exhaustive safety testing protocol designed to validate the integration of new automated hardware with existing track infrastructure.
Run Driverless Rolling Stock Through Controlled Trials
The engineering teams will run the driverless rolling stock through controlled trials, gradually increasing operating speeds until the trains match standard commercial parameters. This phased approach allows technicians to analyze vehicle behavior under realistic conditions and verify that signaling, station interfaces, and track systems function together without errors.
The modernization of Line 6 ranks among the metro network’s most ambitious technological overhauls. Once the full automation project goes live, the line’s daily passenger capacity is projected to surge from 400,000 to 730,000 riders, a significant expansion meant to handle rising demand along one of Madrid’s busiest transit corridors.
Transportation authorities confirmed that the temporary closures will be repeated under identical conditions on the weekend of November 21 and 22.
