Madrid Metro: Google Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of Metro de Madrid with animated Doodle

Today’s Google animated Doodle celebrates the 100th Anniversary of Metro de Madrid (Madrid Metro), a rapid transit system serving the city of Madrid, capital of Spain. Presently, the Madrid Metro (Spanish: Metro de Madrid) is the 6th longest underground railroad in the world with somewhere in the range of 293 kilometers (around 182 miles) of the track.

On 19 September 1916, a royal pronouncement approved the 4-line plan for the production of the metro of Madrid. King Alfonso XIII interceded and contributed 1.45 million pesetas of his own cash. On this day in 1919, King Alfonso XIII introduced the Metro de Madrid, a new transportation system for Spain’s capital city. The Metro’s distinctive diamond-shaped logo was made by acclaimed Spanish architect Antonio Palacios, who additionally designed the entrances, corridors, and platforms of some of the early stations.

The Metro has made some amazing progress during its first century of operation. On opening day, the route covered a minor 3.48 kilometers (about 2.16 miles), taking 10 minutes to travel 8 stops from Cuatro Caminos to Puerta del Sol. That first day, a little more than 56,000 travelers rode what was then called the North-South Line. After two days, on 19 October 1919, the Madrid metro was opened to the public.

Its development somewhere in the range of 1995 and 2007 put it among the quickest developing systems in the world at the time, equaling numerous Asian metros, for example, the Shanghai Metro, Guangzhou Metro, Beijing Subway, and Delhi Metro.

Nonetheless, the European debt emergency incredibly slowed expansion plans, with numerous projects being delayed and dropped. Unlike normal Spanish street and rail traffic, which utilize right-hand drive, Madrid Metro trains utilize left-hand running on all lines since traffic in Madrid drove on the left until 1924, well after the Madrid Metro began operation. The Madrid Metro works every day from 6:00 am until 1:30 am. There are, in any case, solid intends to have the system work continuously at weekends.

A light rail system encouraging the metro opened in 2007 called Metro Ligero (“light metro”). The Cercanías system works related to the metro servicing passenger train services to and over the city.

Some underground stations are enormous enough to hold public events, for example, the three-day fitness festival in May 2011, which pulled in 2,600 guests. One station contains a 200-square-meter archeological museum.

The Madrid Metro has 1,705 escalators and 529 elevators.

Presently, near 2.3 million riders take the Metro every day. Serving more than 300 stations, the train stays one of the most effective approaches to move around Madrid.

To pay tribute to the Metro’s 100th birthday celebration, the Regional Government of Madrid has installed an educational exhibition all through the original route, presently called the ‘Centenary Line.’ Period photos will feature the Metro’s history, and a new vinyl-wrapped train evoking the first train will keep running along the rails.

Chamartín Station will host a permanent exhibition of vintage trains, and keeping in mind that Palacios’ original entrance to the Metro de la Red de San Luis was disassembled and gave to the architect’s hometown of Porriño, a reproduction of the striking design will recover its previous magnificence.

On October 17, 2019, Google celebrated the 100th anniversary of Madrid Metro with an animated Doodle.