Catalunya metro station was busiest stop in 2024

Barcelona's metro network saw 467,555,547 passenger journeys in 2024, an all-time high number of travelers. The network spans up to 125.4 kilometers with 165 stations, but some were more popular than others.

Last year, with a record-breaking number of passengers, the most used metro station was Catalunya, located at Plaça Catalunya and serving the L1 red and L3 green lines. Overall, 17,501,208 passengers validated their tickets at the station, with 9,536,770 travelers ticketing on the L3 line and 7,964,438 on the L1 line.

In second place is the Diagonal station, which connects the L3 and L5 lines, serving over 16.2 million passengers.

Meanwhile, Casa de l'Aigua, which serves the L11 metro line in the Trinitat Nova neighborhood, was the least-used station. Only 46,884 people validated their tickets there in 2024.

Espanya was the most used station by passengers of the L1 red line, with 10,329,830 journeys, while Diagonal was the busiest station on the L5 blue line, and Catalunya for L3 green. 

For the L2 purple line, the Sagrada Família stop saw the most passengers in 2024, with 4,736,010 validating their tickets to access the network at that station, while Barceloneta ranked first for the L4 yellow line, with 5,873,206 people.

With its two metro stations, the airport saw 2,608,949 travelers. A total of 1,915,616 passengers validated tickets at the T1 station and 693,333 at the T2 station. Both are only accessible on the L9 South orange line.

Barcelona's metro allows for connecting services. One person can enter the network by validating at the entry station, travel across the network, and change lines without using their ticket again.

Filling the Sink

On December 30, 1924, the first section of Barcelona's city metro was inaugurated, running between Plaça Catalunya and Lesseps. Thousands of Barcelona residents continue to commute daily along this section of what is now line 3, perhaps unaware that they are traveling through tunnels with one hundred years of history.

For more on the centenary of the Barcelona metro, listen to the podcast below, including a rundown of the origins of some of the network's more unusual stations names.