Madrid Barajas Airport, whose annual passenger handling figures for 2000 amounted to 29.4 million passengers, is a major national and European airport and has enormous growth expectancy for the forthcoming years. Its location, 12 km away, on the East of the Madrid municipal area puts Barajas in a privileged position as regards easy access, especially in private vehicle or taxi. Up to 1998, public transport services to the airport consisted of one city bus route, run by the municipal bus operator EMT at a special passenger fare, that connected the airport to the city centre at the Plaza de Colon and still does, in addition to local bus services connecting the airport terminals to the closest metro stations. The development projects covered by the 1995-99 Metro Extension Plan included construction of a new underground line (Line 8), 7.9 km length and 4 new stations, to link the terminals at Barajas Airport to the city at a peripheral station, Mar de Cristal, on Line 4 of the Metro, which would then permit interchange with the rest of the Madrid Metro network. The latest 1999-2003 Metro Extension Plan envisages an extension of Line 8, 5.9 km further to the downtown in order to improve access by public transport on all its stations and increase the possibilities of interchange with the Madrid public transport system as a whole. This extension will link Mar de Cristal Station with a full-scale interchange at Nuevos Ministerios Station, a terminal with check-in facilities. Thus, the project will provide a direct and fast connection, less than 15 minutes travel time and 5 minutes frequency, between the core business centre of Madrid city and Barajas International Airport. This paper focuses on the impact on modal split and public transport patronage, since it was commissioned, caused by the implementation of the first stage, the forecast in relation with the large-scale operation involved at Nuevos Ministerios Interchange and its effect on the mobility channelled from the airport.
Abstract