Barcelona metro celebrates centenary with journey back in time

Barcelona metro celebrated its centenary on Monday by taking a trip back in time.

For one day, Passeig de Gràcia station recreated the old Aragó station, the stop's original name until 1982.

The station was transformed with signage, decoration and advertisements from 1924, the year that the first section of metro opened in Barcelona, running between Plaça Catalunya and Lesseps.

Actors dressed in period costumes were seen on the platforms, imitating staff and travelers from a century ago.

The metro will close 2024 with more than 465 million passengers, a record year, according to TMB CEO, Xavier Flores.

100 years

December 30, 2024 marks one hundred years since the Barcelona metro first ran.

The Catalan capital was the twelfth city in the world to build a metro, Flores said.

It opened with 2.7 kilometres of track and four stations in the city, a stark contrast with today's 125 kilometres and 165 stops.

The TMB director highlighted the importance of the metro for travelers in Barcelona: ​​it accounts for half of all trips on public transport.

The 2024 total of 465 million passengers is 25 million more than last year.

October 2024 had the highest monthly number of passengers in history (44 million), while Sant Jordi, April 23, had the highest number of passengers transported (more than 1.8 million passengers) this year.

Podcast

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.