New Rules for Using the Metro

By Richard Morley.

For the past couple of weeks the Madrid Metro has been hosting an exhibition of paintings which are the work of its own employees. The exhibition, named for one of the paintings, is called, "The Rose that Broke the Vase", which is another way of saying "The straw that broke the Camel's back". Considering that the continuing strike is trying everyone's patience, the exhibition is incredibly apt.

A new publicity campaign, (which is hardly needed - they have a rival??), claims we can travel rapidly and arrive on time wherever we want to go. I really think that those who are holding the working people of this town to ransom have a lot of work to do to win back the support of the public.

A veces (Sometimes!)

For two days last week we had no services at all until the drivers, faced with prosecution, returned to providing the contracted "Minimal Services". To give them their due, they are providing a normal service to allow the revellers of the Gay Pride weekend to get around the town, but this is no comfort to the two million commuters who face another week of threatened disruption.

“Servicios mínimos” is meant to mean only half the usual number of trains on the Metro will be running, so mathematically one could expect there to be twice as many passengers travelling on each train that does run. So why does it seem like much much more? Thanks to the drivers who sit alone in their spacious air-conditioned cabs up front, us poor people behind them have been pushed, squeezed, bent, folded, spindled and mutilated like grilled squashed sardines in a crushed can.

In the light of this new way of travelling I suggest there should be some rules that would make journeys on the metro more comfortable for all.

#1. On arrival at a platform that is obviously already packed from edge to wall, do not try and barge your way through. This applies double if you are carrying, pushing or pulling something larger than a reasonably sized handbag, such as a suitcase, backpack or large overstuffed bag filled with things you think you might need during the day. If you are carrying such items please avoid all stations during rush hour or walk. Honestly, you don’t need all that stuff.

#2. As the train comes to a stop check the inside of the carriage through the windows provided. If existing passengers have their faces squashed against the window it is probably full. If you open the doors from outside and passengers cascade onto the platform in a heap it was overfull. To gain entry to the carriage do not tread on these passengers. Push them gently to one side. Do not kick them. Do not use elbows. Do not use your suitcase, backpack or overstuffed bag filled with items you don’t really need as a battering ram. See rule #1

#3. You will find more room in the carriage if you allow passengers who actually want to get off to do so before you attempt to barge your way on. Nothing is gained if you try to push alighting passengers further into the train. Please bear in mind the law of quarts and pint pots. You are not conquistadores raiding some far off country. A few “Perdones”, “discúlpenmes”, “por favores” and “lo sientos” would make your new fellow passengers accept your presence in a better light, you mal educado zoquete!

#4. Given the fact that you will be standing much closer to fellow passengers than normal please bathe or shower before leaving your house. Before entering the station sniff your armpits. If you stink of sweat, please walk home and desist from using the metro until you have bathed, showered and changed your clothes. The exercise will do you good. Regard this as your good deed for the day.

#5. Vests and shirts that reveal sweaty, hairy armpits, of either sex, should only be worn during athletics practice or while running the Madrid Marathon. If I am forced to have a close encounter with your strap-hanging hairy smelly armpit I would prefer there were at least a single layer of cloth between it and my nose.

#6. If you have just eaten a meal containing garlic, onions or curry sauce please refrain from boarding until a completely empty carriage appears. It would be quicker for you and better for us if you walked. Ever heard of mints?

#7. Metro carriages are public areas. You cannot claim the part you are standing in as a sovereign country. It will not be recognised by the United Nations and so you should be prepared to move to another part of the carriage. This rule particularly applies if you insist on standing just inside the doors. Remember, you are not aboard ship. It is not your job to repel all boarders. Give others a chance.

#8. Finally, spare a thought for the hard-working drivers that have given up their valuable strike time to bring you their personal train. As they slow down along the crowed platform all those on the edge should wave at the drivers to thank them for their efforts. How many fingers you chose to hold up in this salute of thanks and welcome is up to you.

Long-suffering queues on Friday.

I am open to other suggestions ..........?
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Madrid's Metro Goes On Strike

In the past couple of days I have witnessed great patience and great anger in Madrid. I have seen tired resignation and very vocal frustration.

On Monday employees of the Madrid Metro began what was meant to be a three day strike in protest against a cut in wages. All workers for government departments, both local and national, have had to take a five percent pay cut in the face of Spain’s severe debts. Despite an attempt by the unions of the “funcionarios” to organise demonstrations of protest, which were not well attended, and a day long strike which the vast majority of the civil servants ignored, government departments have continued more or less as normal.

But the staff of the Metro, despite working for what has to be the most subsidized public utility in Spain, do not consider themselves “funcionarios”. They claim that they are employees of a public company, but not a government department. Years ago they reached an agreement over pay and conditions which stated that in the event of a dispute they would continue to operate “servicios mínimo”, a much reduced service which would at least allow the citizens to get to their jobs. This agreement carried the weight of law.

On Monday, this was what happened, and despite grumbles on the platforms, people did get to work. But negotiations between the comunidad, who own Metro Madrid, and the unions broke down. So on Tuesday the workers refused to provide even the minimum service they are required by law to do.

According to comments on Facebook, tweets on twitter, TV and newspapers, Madrid “Colapso”. Well, not exactly. The people of Madrid are made of strong stuff. But when, at a stroke, the means of moving two million people a day disappears, confusion is bound to result.

Yesterday, luckily, I did not need to use the Metro, but I did have to take three buses. I stood at the stop and watched as two buses passed me by as they were already bursting at the seams. One, after failing to stop for passengers had to come to rest a few metres further on because the traffic lights were at red. Some of my fellow would-be travellers rushed to the bus and began pounding on the doors. But you cannot put a quart into a pint pot and the driver refused to open up.

As well as the bus service, which is excellent but subject to traffic delays, Madrid does had the Cercanías, a suburban network of trains that come right into the heart of the city. These were running as normal and today have been augmented, as have the buses. And I would imagine it’s been a profitable time for the taxi drivers.

If I remember correctly Madrid buses have seating for 33 and standing room for a further 66. That’s 99 people squeezed into one bus. There were scenes on last evening’s news that showed that figure was being exceeded in many cases, but I remember the large lady attempting to board a bus at the Plaza de Castilla which hadn’t a spare inch to spare hanging out of the door and expecting the driver to take her. The resulting argument was far too fast for my slow Spanish, but demonstrated that tempers were beginning to flare.

Not the least because the drivers of the Madrid Metro are reputed to be among the best paid in the city. One comment on Facebook yesterday was quite scathing that drivers on €40,000 a year were making life very difficult and creating lost wages for those paid hourly for workers who earned far less. Those of us who have to move about the city to do our jobs were experiencing journey times four times longer than normal, which led to cancelled meetings and lost earnings.

Of course the politicians are getting in on the act. The vice president of Spain, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, has criticised Esperanza Aguire, the Presisdent of the Comunidad of Madrid, saying, “One has to know how to manage these conflicts”, when all Espe has done is to follow the government’s decree of introducing the five percent pay cut. Giving that these two women are on opposite sides of the political spectrum there is bound to be mud-slinging. The secretary general of the socialist party of Madrid, Tomás Gomez, hold Espe totally responsible, claiming she has been provoking this strike “for weeks”.

The mayor of the city, Alberto Ruiz Gallardón, has reminded the drivers of their “legal and moral obligation” to maintain minimum services. But then no one pays him much attention anyway. It seems this illegal strike will have no early solution.

There had an attempt yesterday. The police were called in to restore service on line 8, the line that runs from the airport to Nuevos Ministerios. The television showed lines of policemen patrolling the station and even one train leaving the platform. But no passengers were carried and they couldn’t find enough drivers. So the attempt was abandoned.

And I am not sure that would be a good thing. Our TV screens have been showing scenes of the rioting in Greece caused by confrontations between the police and the people. We do not want that here.

According to the latest reports this strike will be indefinite. Next weekend Madrid celebrates Gay Pride week. There will be tens of thousands of people on the streets and wanting to move about the city. At a meeting of the drivers this morning (Wednesday) they were asked to return to work over the weekend and resume their strike on Monday. For some of the drivers this was seen as a further opportunity to push their case and if the Gay Pride weekend was ruined, so be it!

However, it seems cooler heads have prevailed and from tomorrow the servicios mínimos will resume. I wonder if the fact that four members of a picket line were attacked by angry commuters this morning had anything to do with that.

Angry comments from both sides have been all over the internet. There are those who habitually complain about the metro, who claim the drivers have an easy job as much of the work is actually automatic. “All the drivers do is open and close the doors”, said one. Another, who points out that drivers can often be seen reading the newspaper as they supposedly control the train (something I have seen!), and that the employees at the ticket counters do the same and never want to serve their customers.

Meanwhile a driver points out that being stuck underground for eight hours a day is no picnic. That they have the stress of wondering if someone is about to throw themselves off the platform and the nuisance of idiots who pull the emergency stop because they are drunk. Often drivers are alone on the train. Some evenings there might be a guard with a dog on board, but a hundred and fifty metres of train is difficult to police. A ticket vendor complained that travellers have ten day to buy their monthly “abono”, a month’s season ticket, but 95% queue up to buy it on the last day and then complain about slow service.

According to some very quickly generated statistics, on Tuesday the EMT, the bus service, carried 2,092,000 passengers. A 45% increase over normal days. And taxi drivers claim to have had a 30% increase in business.

Meanwhile, Espe has stated she “admires” the people of Madrid for their forbearance.

Since 1976 the Madrid metro has had around twenty strikes, only two of them, in February ‘84 and January ’91 have the servicios mínimos been withdrawn from service.

Well, we are back to a 50% service tomorrow, Thursday, and hopefully it won’t be long before the “best metro in the world” is back to normal.

Reading all the comments has been good for my Spanish. Now I know that “Huelgo salvaje” mean wildcat strike. I learnt a few other words too that I could not repeat here. Although I did read one that used good old Anglo Saxon. I can only say that should the author of that comment repeats it here, she will be censored!!!!! But then, of all the days she chose to move house. What rotten timing.

I have my own thoughts. What do you think??

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

By Richard Morley.
I have written before about Madrid’s wonderful metro, but I can’t let this weekend go past without mentioning it again as Saturday was its ninetieth birthday.

Their Royal Highnesses Alfonso XIII and Juan Carlos with Queen Sofia use the metro.

On the 17th of October 1919 King Alfonso XIII inaugurated the first line. It ran from Sol To Cuatro Caminos through eight stations and cut the travel time from an hour to eight and a half minutes. That first train.

Since then the metro has continued, and continues, to expand in all directions.

This is being celebrated with a small exhibition on display at the Nuevo Ministerios metro station.

It a little smaller than I expected!

The exhibition at Nuevos Ministerios.

Considering that they have advertised the show at every station and they have been trumpeting their 90th anniversary all year, I had hoped for something on a grander scale. Perhaps they are saving the big one for their centenary in 2019.

Half a dozen boards display photographs of the different types of rolling stock that has been used through the decades, ancient photographs of early construction work, pictures of the metro in use and advertisements through the ages. There are a couple of ancient ticket dispensing machines and a cut away model of Gran Via station. Well the model is named the station of Red de San Luis, but then its name was changed to José Antonio before eventually taking the name Gran Via. But then Gran Via itself wasn’t called Gran Via until relatively recently, so that’s understandable. There are some interesting pictures of early tunnelling. Since the 1960s Madrid has used the “Madrid Method” for tunnel excavation. This is a system that utilises steel and concrete to shore up the surface while men dug out the underlying soil by hand or machine. Madrid stands on a mixture of sand, gypsum and clay, which is known locally as “Peñuela” and is relatively easy to extract.

In more recent years huge Tunnel Boring Machines have done the work that used to be done by man and donkey. When work began in 1917 the system was identical to that used by the mining industry. On some of the lines today, particularly lines 1 and 2, the bare rock walls can be seen as you pass through. Where the natural rock was not strong enough the walls were lined with brick. "Mining" the Metro at the Glorietta of Bilbao.

That first line was just 3.48 kilometres long. Today the system comprised of 284 kilometres of track and the number of stations has increased to 294. However, if I have my sums correct, the cost of today’s ticket is 1113 times more than the cost of a ticket in 1919! However, even if you buy your tickets singly, it only cost one euro to travel on three quarters of the network, with only a further euro supplement to get you to Madrid’s furthest extremes.

Then and Now.

As well as having its own eponymous construction technique, the Madrid metro has been one of the most innovative public transport systems anywhere in the world. It holds many patents for building and control systems. It uses some of the most modern rolling stock in the world, which it is constantly up-dating. For those reading this and are now muttering, “Not on my line, they haven’t”, I can only say that they will.

Madrid metro does have some old sections which were built with a much smaller tunnel size than that used on the newer lines. This, of course, restricts it, without major reconstruction, to what it can do. That major reconstruction, as well as some pretty intensive modernisation, is planned.

With an announced investment of 2,976 million Euros intended for new lines and refurbishment of old stations, I would imagine that when the Metro celebrates its centenary, we will have seen some radical changes.

And they might be able to afford a better exhibition.

The photo just above is the entrance to a much used Metro station. It has since been remodled. Much kudos, and perhaps a beer, to anyone who can tell me where it is.

What do you think of Madrid metro? Comments please.

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