Essential Information About The Madrid Bus System
This page explains where and how the Madrid bus system network operates and when and where to catch a bus in Madrid. You will learn about prices, and the different tickets available, where the main bus stations are and which destinations outside of Madrid the buses travel to.
Where Are The Bus Terminals?
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| The Estacion del Sur bus station |
There are 3 main Madrid bus terminals. See details of each below, and links to their official websites where available. I've also detailed the destinations you can travel to from each station.
Estación Sur de Madrid (South Station)
Street: Méndez Álvaro, 83.
Telephone: +34 91 468 4200
Official website
Metro: Méndez Álvaro (Grey Line, L6, Circular) Exit directly into bus station.
Main Bus Transit Companies:
Alsa. Tel.: +34 91 327 0540. Buses travelling to all parts of Spain.
Socibus. Tel.: +34 90 222 9292. Services operating to Sevilla, Cádiz, Córodoba, Huelva and Jerez de la Frontera.
Estación de Avenida de América (North Station)
Street: Avda. de América, 9.
Telephone: +34 90 230 2010
Metro: Avda. de América (Orange Line, L7); (Grey Line, L6, Circular); (Purple Line, L9); (Brown Line, L4). Less than 5 minutes walk.
Main transit company:
Continental-Auto
Tel: +34 90 233 0400.
They go to Bilbao, San Sebastián, Vitoria, Burgos, Santander, Pamplona, Logroño, Soria, Guadalajara, Toledo and Granada.
Estación de Conde de Casal
Street: Fernández Shaw, 1.
Telephone: +34 91 551 5601
Metro: Conde de Casal (Grey Line, L6) Less than 5 minutes walk.
Main transit company:
The company, 'Avanza' operates out of this station. You can take buses from Madrid to Barcelona, Valencia, Castellón, Toledo, Extremadura, Salamanca, Valladolid, Ávila, Segovia and Pontevedra.
Tel: +34 90 202 0052
Travelling Within The City on a Bus
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| An EMT City Bus |
The buses within Madrid are red, and called EMT (Empresa Municipal de Transporte). They can get you to any part of the city, and operate mainly in their own bus lanes, which helps them to avoid traffic most of the time! The buses operate between more or less from 06:00 and 23:30, depending on the line. From 23:30 - 05:00 am there are night buses running, exact times depend on the line. Waiting times depend on each line as not every line has the same amount of buses available. The red bus stops are easily spotted and each has a timetable attached to it.
If you want to consult up to date timetables, or find out which number bus you need for your journey, then click here to go to the official EMT site
The bus won't stop unless you flag it down! If you are inside the bus, you must ring the bell for the next stop.
Facilities on A Madrid Bus
There are nearly 2000 buses in total, and they are clean, safe and efficient. Each one has air-conditioning, and you will find that they all have disabled access. Although, they can get pretty crowded.
Catching A Bus At Night Time
You can catch buses at night. These buses are affectionately termed 'búhos', which means 'owls'. You may have to wait up to 30 minutes at night time, but the good news is that the fare is the same as for the day time. The night buses run along 20 different routes, and every single one of them travels through Plaza de la Cibeles. This is very handy, as it is only 15 minutes walk from the centre (Sol and Gran Via), where most of the night life is!
The Madrid Bus Network From The Airport
The airport is well served by the EMT buses. Line 200 travels daily from Barajas Airport to Avenida de América (T1, T2 and T3). Line 204 will take you from T4 to Avenida de América. The price is €1.50.
You can also travel to Canillejas, (where you can take the metro (Green Line, L5) into the centre), on Line 101 from T1, T2 and T3.
Bus Prices
A single ticket is €1.50. The best value if you are going to be travelling around Madrid, is to buy a Metrobús ticket, which allows you 10 journeys on the metro or bus. This costs €9.30. When you get on the bus, you have to stamp your ticket in the machine.
You can't buy the Metrobus ticket on the bus! Get it either in the metro station, newspaper stands or tobacco shops (estanco).
I'm looking for more information about travelling to or from Madrid by coach
If you don't think that a Madrid bus covers the route that you need to know about. We've provided links below to several coach companies that operate out of the Madrid bus terminals.
National coach companies:
Save Money Using The Bus Network
The Madrid Bus network runs at night, and so if you use this page to find out in advance, the route you want to travel at night, you can save money that you would have spent on a taxi. There are 3 bus terminals in Madrid that have departures to other cities in Spain, and they are all well connected by the metro, making travel in and out of the city easy. You can use your bus ticket on the metro system too.
