Atocha station is a railway complex located near the Plaza del Emperador Carlos V, in Madrid, Community of Madrid, Spain.
It acts as a railway hub, making it the busiest station in the country, as well as one of the main stations in Europe.
In 2015, it registered a traffic of 108 million passengers; 87 million of which corresponded to the Cercanías Madrid, 17 million to the long-distance and AVE services, and 2.6 million to the regional Media Distancia services. The railway complex is a set of stations and buildings located in the area.
Atocha station is a railway complex, formed by the Madrid Atocha Cercanías and Madrid Puerta de Atocha stations of Spain’s national railways and a station of the Madrid Metro called Atocha-RENFE. RENFE is the state-owned company which operates freight and passenger trains since 1941.
The station began as a simple stop (opened in 1851), which was expanded to become the Mediodía station (opened in 1892), initially owned by the Madrid to Zaragoza and Alicante Railway Company (abbreviated as MZA). The constant growth of long, medium and short distance passengers led to its progressive transformation into the complex railway junction of three stations that is known today.
Throughout the 20th century, the demand of travellers led to the incorporation of adjacent railway buildings and facilities, which extended its structure several kilometres to the south. In the middle of the century it was nationalised, passing into the hands of RENFE. On 1 January 2005, RENFE was split into several companies, and Adif became the owner in charge of managing the stations.
In order to adapt to the new speeds and traffic flows, a profound transformation was carried out, and since 1992 the station has been split into two separate railway stations:
The Puerta de Atocha station, in a cul-de-sac, which accommodates high-speed trains and most long-distance trains.
The Atocha-Cercanías station, which is a through station thanks to the tunnels that run parallel to Castellana (popularly known as the Risa tunnels), and accommodates the Cercanías, Media Distancia and long-distance through trains. The connection with the metro and the bus network also makes the station an interchange.
The old Atocha terminal station was rehabilitated in the vestibule-garden with tropical greenhouse functionality, which gives access to the rest of the two stations that make up the railway complex.
On September 16, 2021, the public information process was opened by Adif Alta Velocidad for the Puerta de Atocha expansion project, which includes two new tracks to the east of track 1.
It is the largest station serving commuter trains (Cercanías), regional trains from the south and southeast, intercity trains from Navarre, Cádiz and Huelva (Andalusia) and La Rioja, and the AVE high speed trains from Girona, Tarragona and Barcelona (Catalonia), Huesca and Zaragoza (Aragon), Seville, Córdoba, Málaga and Granada (Andalusia), Valencia, Castellón and Alicante (Levante Region). These train services are run by Spain’s national rail company, Renfe. As of 2019, this station has daily services to Marseille, France.
Location
The station is in the Atocha neighborhood of the district of Arganzuela. The original façade faces Plaza del Emperador Carlos V, a site at which a variety of streets converge, including the Calle de Atocha, Paseo del Prado, Avenida de la Ciudad de Barcelona, and Ronda de Atocha.
History
At this site, Madrid’s first railway station was inaugurated on 9 February 1851 under the name Estación de Mediodía (Atocha-Mediodía is now the name of an area of the Arganzuela district, and means south in old Spanish).
After the building was largely destroyed by fire, it was rebuilt by the MZA railway company and reopened in 1892. The architect for the replacement, in a wrought iron renewal style was Alberto de Palacio y Elissague, who collaborated with Gustave Eiffel. Engineer Henry Saint James also took part in the project. The name Atocha has become attached to the station because of the nearby basilica dedicated to Our Lady of Atocha. The train platforms were partly covered by a roof in the form of inverted hull with a height of approximately 27 meters and length of 157 meters. The steel and glass roof spreads between two brick flanking buildings.
The Spanish central government approved a €500 million expansion of Puerta de Atocha station on 13 June 2023 which would entail the construction of a new four-track underground station with two through platforms for high-speed services, allowing high-speed trains to serve both Atocha and Chamartín station, the renovation of the existing station building and the construction of a new southern vestibule along the Calle de Méndez Álvaro.
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