The Barcelona metro will be reinforced with new trains in 2029.

BarcelonaMore frequent service, more innovative trains, and a new section of Line 9 is underway. The Barcelona metro will have 39 more trains starting in 2029, reconfiguring the current service. This was announced by the President of the Generalitat (Catalan government), Salvador Illa, and the Mayor of Barcelona, ​​Jaume Collboni, during the institutional centenary ceremony for the metro, held this Monday night in the auditorium of the Barcelona School of Industry. For the President, this measure will represent a "giant step" toward improving the Barcelona metro, which he described as a backbone of the capital and the cities in the metropolitan area. "Investing in public transport is one of the best ways to build a country," Illa argued.

Furthermore, Collboni praised the neighborhood struggles that have taken place in the city over the last century to ensure the metro reached their neighborhoods and asserted that "the metro is the key to restoring social cohesion." The mayor argued that good mobility guarantees citizens' right to stay in the city and not have to leave. In this regard, the president of Barcelona Metropolitan Transport (TMB), Laia Bonet, explained that they are working towards announcing new metro sections in the coming years that will connect more neighborhoods and cities in the metropolitan area.

For now, TMB will bid on and purchase, between this year and next, 39 trains worth €331 million. This money will be assumed by the consortium administrations through the Metropolitan Transport Authority (Generalitat with 51%, City Council with 25%2) and the 4%.

Of these 39 new trains, 22 will be destined for serve the future central section of L9 —which is still being drilled and built—and the other 17 will reinforce conventional lines, especially L5 and L1, the two most in-demand lines (the blue and red lines), which together account for 50% of trips and the majority of passengers. L2 will also add three trains, and four more will be added to both L3 and L4.

The fact is that demand for the Barcelona Metro has not stopped growing since the shock of the health crisis unleashed by COVID-19 was overcome. Last year, there was already a 6.5% increase in validations compared to 2023 and nearly 14% compared to 2019. And this year, 2025, there is already a 2% increase compared to the previous year, reaching 1.6 million validations practically every working day. Despite these data, during these years only a dozen trains have been added to conventional lines to expand their fleet. The rest have been allocated to replace other units.

When the new trains arrive—in four years if there are no obstacles—Line 1 will have a train every 2.5 minutes (they currently arrive every 3 minutes) and Line 5 will reduce times from the current 2.5 minutes to 2 minutes and 15 seconds. All lines that will incorporate new trains will also have better passenger absorption and, according to TMB, will gain in comfort, as the new trains improve aspects such as information and accessibility. Thus, in 2029, L5 will have the most trains, with 45; then will be L1, which will have 44, while L3 will have 30 trains, L4 27, and L2 25.

Machine interchange

The 22 new trains that will be used for the central section of L9 will actually be departed from those already in service on L2. This is because the trains running on the purple line are from the same series as those currently running on the automatic lines. The new L9.