The Madrid Cercanías commuter rail network closed the first half of 2025 with positive results, both in terms of passenger numbers and operational performance. Between January 1 and June 30, the number of passengers rose by 7.9% compared to the same period in 2024, reaching 132.2 million passengers, up from 122.5 million the previous year. This translates to nearly 10 million additional passengers (9.7 million).
This increased demand has been accompanied by various measures aimed at optimizing service quality, reflected in improved regularity, defined as maintaining the originally scheduled train frequencies, which improved by 2.1 percentage points, reaching 85.3% of services.
Similarly, adherence to scheduled timetables also improved, with an increase of 3.1 percentage points compared to the first half of 2024.
During this same period, service supply also increased, with a total of 204,700 train operations — a 3.9% rise over the previous year.
In terms of customer service, significant improvements were also observed. Passenger complaints decreased by 12.6%, representing 1,870 fewer complaints compared to the same period last year.
Measures to Improve Service
Since October 2024, Cercanías Madrid has implemented a series of measures aimed at improving service quality and mitigating the effects of incidents involving both trains and railway infrastructure.
These actions have enabled greater availability of train units, allowing reserve trains to be stationed at strategic points in the network for rapid deployment in the event of unexpected service disruptions.
Maintenance efforts have also been intensified, both for rolling stock, managed by Renfe Ingeniería y Mantenimiento, and for the rail infrastructure, managed by Adif, with the aim of reducing service disruptions.
In parallel, the C5 line of Renfe Cercanías Madrid saw a 33% increase in station entries during this period, largely due to the reinforcement of services in response to the A5 highway tunneling works that began in January. The line recorded nearly 50 million passengers (49.6 million). Currently, around 4 out of every 10 Cercanías Madrid boardings occur on the C5 line.
These figures were made possible by Renfe’s reinforcement of service, which increased the train supply on certain time slots of the C5 line by up to 40%, offering more than 42,000 additional daily seats, successfully absorbing the surge in demand caused by the A5 tunneling project.
Other additional service improvements, such as increased service during the university entrance exams (PAU) and the provision of transfer options at Sol station during safety-related closures, also contributed to the rise in Cercanías Madrid usage.