Valencia is the capital city of the autonomous region called Comunitat Valenciana, and with more than a million inhabitants in the metropolitan area it's Spain's third largest city. Situated by the Mediterranean Sea it's an important harbour and industrial centre on the east coast of Spain. The city has a unique park in the former river bed of the Turia river under which two stations, Túria and Alameda, are situated.

The Valencia Metro has been developed out of a former regional narrow-gauge network opened as soon as 1888 and called El Trenet de València. Still under FEVE's administration in the early 1980's, it was decided to build a tunnel through the city centre in order to connect two of the northern lines with the one in the south. After all narrow-gauge lines were taken over by the Valencian Government in 1987, Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat Valenciana (FGV) opened the cross-city tunnel on 8 Oct 1988, 100 years after the inauguration of the first narrow-gauge line in Valencia, and began to call the new service Metro de Valencia.

Stations on line 1 are very functional and quite uniform, but along the newer Line 3, some artistic elements like wall reliefs and sculptures were incorporated into underground stations. Alameda has an outstanding architectural design by Santiago Calatrava. This station has two island platforms with four tracks to allow convenient transfer between lines 3 and 5. All stations have high platforms.

Apart from the FGV metro system, RENFE (Spanish National Railways) runs a regional service (Cercanías) which is especially busy on the southern lines C1-C2. Xàtiva on Line 3 is a direct transfer point in the city centre between RENFE trains and FGV metro.

Although this line has a very regional character outside the city it can be considered a metro line within the city, i.e. between Empalme (formerly Ademuz) in the north and Torrent in the south with trains every 7.5 minutes (Beniferri - Safranar underground 6.7 km).
Before 8 Oct 1988 all 3 northern lines to Llíria, Bétera and Rafelbunyol left Valencia from Pont de Fusta (now on tram line 4). On that day the city tunnel was taken into service between Empalme (formerly Ademuz) and Safranar (formerly Hospital). Previously, the southern line had its city terminus at Jesús (now Joaquín Sorolla).

Line 1 can be divided into 4 sectors:

_ Empalme - Bétera 14 km, 11 stations, 5.8 km double-track (Empalme - Seminari), 8.2 km single-track (Seminari - Bétera), suburban service.
_ Empalme - Llíria 24 km, 16 stations, 4 km double-track (Empalme - Paterna incl. approx. 1.5 km underground in Benimàmet), 20 km single-track (Paterna - Llíria), suburban service, this branch was called Línia 2 until 1998.
_ Empalme - Torrent Avinguda 15.8 km (6.7 km underground through Valencia + 2.3 km in Torrent), 15 stations, metro service.
_ Torrent - Villanueva de Castellón 43.8 km, single track, suburban service.

 Lines 3 & 5

Line 3 follows an older regional line to Rafelbunyol, which also used to have its city terminus at Pont de Fusta (now on tram line T4). The city section was built as a modern metro line initially running underground from Alboraya-Palmaret into the city to Alameda (1995, 3 km).

In 1998, the first stretch of what was originally planned as line 5, opened between Alameda and Av. del Cid (3.2 km) with a branch from Colón to Jesús (now Joaquín Sorolla; 2.4 km) to allow through trains between Torrent in the south and Palmaret in the north. Another section towards the west (to Mislata-Almassil, 3 stations, 2.4 km) opened in 1999. Line 5 was originally designed to run from Mislata to Cabanyal Railway Station in the east. This line soon became buy as it serves the central shopping district around Colón station and the main railway station at Xàtiva.

Plans for the eastern section between Alameda and Cabanyal were changed in the late 1990s. Instead of going to Cabanyal Railway Station (RENFE is planning a cross-city tunnel which would not serve that station), the new Line 5 was to become similar to a German Stadtbahn running under Santos Justos y Pastor Streets (like those seen in Stuttgart, Frankfurt or Hannover) with light rail vehicles using high platforms in tunnel stations but lower platforms at the three eastern stops planned on street level. Eventually the line was built underground as far as Ayora and opened in April 2003. It was extended in April 2007 by one underground station to Marítim-Serrería, where transfer is provided across the platform to tram lines 5 & 6. The tram line from Marítim Serrería to Neptú, via Plaça de l'Armada Espanyola, opened on 17 April 2007.

In late 2002, a western extension of Line 5 under the Turia river towards Manises Airport was approved. This extension, which is totally underground, replaced the former Renfe line, which was handed over to FGV in early 2005 (service was suspended on 1 April 2005). The Airport line was brought into service in April 2007.

The northern line 3 tunnel was extended in Dec. 2010 by 1.6 km, with two new underground stations in Alboraya.

Photos © Robert Schwandl

08 Oct. 1988 - Line 1 [Bétera/Llíria -] Ademuz (now Empalme) - Hospital [- Castelló de la Ribera (now Villanueva de Castellón)]
05 May 1995 - Line 3 Alameda - Palmaret [- Rafelbunyol]
16 Sept 1998 - Line 3 Alameda - Av. del Cid / Jesús (now Joaquín Sorolla) [-Torrent]
20 May 1999 - Line 3 Av. del Cid - Mislata-Almassil
30 April 2003 - Line 5 Alameda - Ayora (2.3km)
22 Sept 2004 - Line 1/5 Torrent - Torrent Avinguda (2.3 km)
03 Oct 2005 - Line 5 Bailén station added
02 April 2007 - Line 5 Ayora - Marítim Serrería
18 April 2007 - Line 3/5 Mislata-Almassil - Aeroport
12 Dec 2010 - Alboraya-Peris Aragó and Alboraya-Palmaret stations put underground
15 May 2011 - Benimàmet and Les Carolines-Fira stations put underground

Line 4 is a standard tram line that runs east-west through the northern part of the city connecting Line 1 at Empalme with Pont de Fusta in central Valencia (at the other side of the river bed park), the new University campus developments and the beaches. An extension from Empalme to TVV (Valencia TV) opened in March 1999. A further extension to Fira de Mostres (Trade Fair) was taken into service in 2000 (only served during trade fair periods, and to Mas del Rosari and to Lloma Llarga/ Terramelarin in 2005.

Line 6 was brought into service on 28 Sept 2007, running on a new 2.4 km section to Orriols and Torrefiel, most of the rest being shared with line T4. In the port area it links with line T5, both terminating underground at Marítim-Serrería.

 Metro & Tram Projects

- Line 5 is being extended further west along the exisiting railway right-of-way to Riba-Roja (9.5 km), later possibly to Vilamarxant. Although mostly finished, construction was stopped in 2011 due to a lack of funds. There will be three intermediate stations, La Cova, La Presa and Masia de Traver.

- Another partly underground north-south route (Line 2) is planned. It will run from Orriols in the north to the Science City and Natzaret in the south. Coming from Orriols in the north (Ciutat de Valencia stadium, L6) it will enter the north-south tunnel at Pont de Fusta. There will be underground stops in the old city centre at Museus (under the old riverbed), Carme and Mercat before reaching Xàtiva. The new central station is to be built a bit further south from its current location with an underground station called Alacant (transfer to the added Bailèn station on line 5).
The new line will continue underground along Av. del Regne de Valènica, turning right into Luís de Santángel and General Urrutia with 2-3 underground stations and finally come to the surface near the crossroads Gral. Urrutia/Av. de la Plata. From there it will run on the surface to the Museu de les Ciències, now a major tourist attraction, and the Natzaret neighbourhood. This line is planned to use low-floor trams, so it can also be used by T4 trains. The northern surface section was completed in 2007 (to be initially operated as L6), but the completion of the rest is uncertain.

See map with all planned extensions (showing 2005 project status) and new tram routes (thanks to Fernando Verdú)

- Along Line 1, also Burjassot-Godella and Godella stations (1.8 km) on the Bétera branch are to be put underground. In the south, a new route is planned from Pl. Espanya towards La Nova Fe Hospital.

metrovalencia (FGV) (Official site)

Renfe Cercanías

Entitat de Transport Metropolità de València (Official site)

GTP - Gestor de la Red de Transportes y Puertos (Infrastructure Projects)

Metro Valencia at Wikipedia.es

Your webmaster's 2012 Valencia impressions on UrbanRail.blog

2 Articles by Rafael Alcaide on the Valencia Metro:

"El trenet de Valencia (1888-2000) la dimensión histórica y tecnológica de un transporte público"

"El ferrocarril en España (1829-1844). Las primeras concesiones..."

Robert Schwandl: METROS IN SPAIN. The Underground Railways of Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Bilbao.- Capital Transport Publishing, London, July 2001- ISBN 1854142429

Rafael Alcaide González: El Trenet de València
Edición Lluís Prieto, Monografías del Ferrocarril 9, Barcelona, 1998. ISBN 84-921005-8-3
This book narrates the full history of Valencia's metro (in Spanish) with lots of old and new pictures.