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Interurban / 79 metros / Madrid

Community of Madrid · EuropeOSM land-use zones

Madrid

A radial Metro that grew faster than almost any other in Europe after 1995, into a city that still commutes by car at the edge.

Steam · Mac · Windows. Not a browser.

Play Madrid Full edition
Existing rail 12 lines · 250 stops · Metro de Madrid
Madrid: the 12 rail lines and 222 stations the pack starts with, over the metro's water and major roadsAlameda de Osuna-Casa de CampoArgüelles-Pinar de ChamartínCircularHospital del Henares-PitisHospital Infanta Sofía-Puerta del SurLas Rosas-Cuatro CaminosMetroSurNuevos Ministerios - Aeropuerto T4Opera-Príncipe PíoPaco de Lucía-Arganda del ReyPinar de Chamartín-ValdecarrosPlaza Elíptica-La Fortuna10 km
  • Alameda de Osuna-Casa de Campo
  • Argüelles-Pinar de Chamartín
  • Circular
  • Hospital del Henares-Pitis
  • Hospital Infanta Sofía-Puerta del Sur
  • Las Rosas-Cuatro Caminos
  • MetroSur
  • Nuevos Ministerios - Aeropuerto T4
  • Opera-Príncipe Pío
  • Paco de Lucía-Arganda del Rey
  • Pinar de Chamartín-Valdecarros
  • Plaza Elíptica-La Fortuna

Metro — lines, stops and colours from the operating agency's published GTFS. Water and roads: OpenStreetMap (ODbL), Overpass extract of the playable core. 2,030,103 residents in 156 zones, pack 2020.

#Facts, figures, history

Madrid, as the pack records it.

Population by decade, a sourced metro series scaled to the 2020 pack.
YearPopulation
1950521,445
1960733,671
19701,080,120
19801,304,782
19901,354,075
20001,538,307
20101,775,440
20202,030,102

The pack's sourced population series runs from 521,445 residents in 1950 to 2,030,102 in 2020.

The zones cover 861 km², about 2,357 residents per km², with 933,851 jobs at the workplace.

The pack seeds 12 playable rail/BRT/ferry lines.

Difficulty is Demanding.

✓What winning here takes

Six ways to win Madrid, each set by Madrid.

There is no score to beat. Each condition is computed from the metro as you inherit it, with the engine's own arithmetic; these are the bars the game will set on day one in Madrid, in 2025. The blue tick is where the city stands today; the red band is where it has to get to. The run continues after you win.

  1. Transit Capitalheld for a year

    1.5%today · published share; the game uses day one
    1.5%needed · hold the inherited share, for a year

    The region's existing system carries about 1.5% of all trips. The operating rail is in the model; in the game the bar is what that system carries on day one, held for a year.

  2. Roads Unclogged

    0%today · relief before you build
    10%needed · cut in peak congestion

    Against what the region would have without your network, not against the day you started — the region grows, and holding congestion flat through growth is the harder achievement.

  3. Carbon Cut

    0ttoday · net tonnes avoided today
    40,602tneeded · net tonnes of CO₂ a year

    Scaled to this metro's 2,030,103 residents at 0.02 tonnes each — roughly what moving a few percent of the region's driving onto rail saves, after the trains are charged for their own power.

  4. Held the Lineheld for a year

    0%today · on time, before a train runs
    80%needed · on time · 65% satisfied · a year in surplus

    All three at once. The cheapest route to a surplus is cutting the service that produces the other two, so this is the condition that cannot be bought.

  5. Within Reach

    0%today · within a walk of your stops
    10%needed · of the metro within a kilometre of a stop

    The operating rail is already in the model, so coverage does not start at nothing. The bar is a tenth of the metro within a walk, or 60% more than you inherit, whichever is higher.

  6. Ten Minutes Back

    0%today · cut so far
    10%needed · off the average regional commute

    Measured on every resident, including the people who never board a train — a network that takes cars off the road shortens the drive for everyone left on it. The day-one average is the model’s first solve.

Carbon Cut's bar is 0.02 net tonnes a year for each resident, floored at 20,000. Transit Capital, coverage and the commute are taken from the network you inherit: where the pack seeds operating rail, from that system's first solve; where it does not, Transit Capital uses the model's default present-day share (floored at 1% and capped at 6%) and coverage starts from nothing. The gauges' Transit Capital tick is that default either way.

What you are given

What you are given

Every one of Madrid's 156 zones arrives with derived numbers attached: resident population from OSM land-use shares of a sourced 2020 metro series, jobs allocated from the land-use mix, and a gravity-model home-to-work matrix. These are not US Census tracts and not LODES commute pairs — the pack says so on its provenance string.

Work trips are a gravity model from those land-use shares, labelled DERIVED, not a census commuting matrix. The streets, water and operating lines are still observed: OpenStreetMap and the agency's published GTFS.

Madrid's operating rail — 12 lines, 250 stops — is seeded into the playable network from the agency's published GTFS: the lines run, they cost money to operate, and riders board them. Local bus stays decoration.

What makes it hard

What makes Madrid hard

Demanding. A real city with real structure, and enough density in the middle to reward a trunk line. You are inheriting a system, which means you inherit its shape and its operating cost as well as its riders.

And the decade changes the problem, not the vehicle list. Madrid in 1960 is a different city from Madrid in 2025: the pack's sourced population series (UN World Urbanization Prospects and national census) is scaled onto the 2020 zone map, so the rivers and the rail yards stay where they are.

Madrid is in the full edition. The free game rotates through thirteen metros so you can check the model on a city you know before taking anyone's word about the other sixty-six. The full edition, $25 once, opens all seventy-nine. Buy Mac or Windows direct and an extra 30% — Valve's cut on Steam — goes to pro-urban organisations.

Play Madrid Full edition

Sources

How the model turns these into riders, with every mechanic named →