The Madrid Cercanas network carried 204.4 million passengers in 2025, a 3.8% year-on-year increase, and the first time ridership has exceeded pre-pandemic levels. This is according to the budget closure report of the Consorcio Regional de Transportes de Madrid (CRTM), presented today to its Board of Directors.
The figure is particularly noteworthy given that the central government’s free-fare scheme — operated through the recurring season ticket — was withdrawn on 1 July 2025. Single tickets recorded a 52% surge, surpassing five million journeys, whilst the Abono Transporte season ticket grew by 10.8%, with 2.5 million additional journeys recorded in October alone.
The report further highlights that, for the first time since the pandemic-induced ridership collapse, Madrid Cercanías has posted a positive balance of 1.86 million additional passengers compared with 2019.
On the operational side, service delivery reached 98.3%, punctuality improved by 1.3 percentage points to 85.5%, and on-time performance rose 2.5 points to 68.4%. These results were achieved despite the nationwide power outage in April, engineering works at Atocha and the Sol tunnel throughout the summer, and a series of external incidents beyond Renfe’s operational control.