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Atocha Cercanías moves past the most disruptive works and prepares for its major track change
Atocha Cercanías is moving beyond the phase of works that has most affected journeys this summer. Adif has completed the main work to connect the Sol and Embajadores tunnels and is now moving towards a new track arrangement intended to increase capacity and reduce problems when incidents occur.
The change can be summed up in a formula: 4+4+2. Tracks 1 to 4 will be linked to the Recoletos tunnel, 5 to 8 to the Sol tunnel and 9 and 10 to the Embajadores tunnel. Until now, the distribution was 4+3+3, so the Sol corridor will gain one track and have more room to move trains on lines C-3 and C-4.
To achieve this, it was necessary to build a false tunnel next to Atocha that physically connects the Sol and Embajadores access routes. In recent months, structures, track, electrification and signalling systems have also been modified, work that is difficult to reconcile with a station that never stops receiving trains.
The new track 8 is one of the pieces still waiting to be activated. Adif plans to bring it into service before the end of 2026, once testing and the integration of control systems are complete. When it operates, the Sol tunnel will be able to increase its capacity by around 33% and the station will have more alternatives for organising traffic.
The improvement is on a considerable scale. Around 900 trains and 225,000 passengers pass through Atocha every day, and the station exceeded 82.4 million passengers during 2025. An incident on a single track can quickly spread through much of Cercanías, hence the reform also seeks to gain flexibility and not merely introduce more trains.
Investment in all these actions is around 56 million euros and forms part of the Plan de Cercanías de Madrid. In parallel, Adif is building four new siding tracks at the end of the station to facilitate the management of longer trains and provide more operational capacity.
The timetable will still bring some immediate inconvenience. This weekend, 29 and 30 August, and again on 5 and 6 September, Sol station will remain closed because of the works. Lines C-3 and C-4 will have temporary termini at Atocha and Nuevos Ministerios, so it is advisable to check the route before travelling.
Once those works have been completed, the transformation will be much less visible to passengers until track 8 enters service. Then the change will be under their feet: more possibilities for distributing trains, less dependence on a single track and an Atocha better prepared to absorb delays on a network that moves hundreds of thousands of people every day.