Madrid's rail transit consists of the Metro, 12 lines, mostly underground; three main line terminal stations; and a RER-like commuter rail system running through a downtown tunnel connecting north and south suburbs.

The Metro has trains of two sizes, wide and narrow. The wide trains are approx. the same size as New York IND subway 60 foot cars. The narrow cars are REALLY narrow-- smaller than New York IRT cars. The older lines are the narrow ones but unfortunately some of those are the most used lines. Line 6, a newer ring line, is a deep bore tunnel way, way below all of the others. For example at the transfer station at Cuatro Caminos between line 6 and line 1 requires *four* escalators the length of those at 53rd/Lex in New York or those at the PATH World Trade Center station. There is some surface running on lines 5, 9, and 10. Metro tickets are extremely inexpensive-- 80 pesetas each if bought in multiples of 10 (that's approximately 50 cents each!) The Madrid metro is left hand running like in London, and again, no rail fan windows. The lines are all operated via overhead catenary wire, not third rail.

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