A lot of people post questions about Madrid metro routes. If you have a Palm (compatible) PDA (hand held computer), you can get a piece of freeware which will do shortest route + time calculations for the Madrid metro (plus about 140+ other cities, inc. Barcelona & Bilbao!). The program is called MetrO and is free at
http://palmgear.com/software/showsoftware.cfm?sid=73135020000710100956&prodID=4869

You install the basic program and select which networks you want to install. I've tried it and it seems to work. Here are 2 results for Madrid (inc. Cercanias). First I tried: From: Airport, To: Sol

- Shortest Route
17 station(s) - 2 connection(s)
Time about 39 min
At Airport
Walk to Aeropuerto
• Take Linea 8
Direction Mar de Cristal
Connect at Mar de Cristal
• Take Linea 4
Direction Arguelles
Connect at Goya
• Take Linea 2
Direction Cuatro Caminos
Get off at Sol


It also includes Cercanias. This is the result for "Airport to Alcala de Henares"


---- Shortest route --------
23 station(s) - 3 connection(s)
Time about 68 min
At Airport
Walk to Aeropuerto
• Take Linea 8
Direction Mar de Cristal
Connect at Mar de Cristal
• Take Linea 4
Direction Arguelles
Connect at Avda. de America
• Take Linea 9
Direction Arganda del Rey
Connect at Vicalvaro
• Take Cercanias C7a
Direction Alcala de Henares
Get off at Alcala de Henares

------ Fewest connections ------
25 station(s) - 2 connection(s)
Time about 88 min
At Airport
Walk to Aeropuerto
• Take Linea 8
Direction Mar de Cristal
Connect at Mar de Cristal
• Take Linea 4
Direction Arguelles
Connect at Colon
Walk to Recoletos
• Take Cercanias C1
Direction Alcala de Henares
Get off at Alcala de Henares

[This message has been edited by El Boqueron (edited 09-27-2000).]

The route Airport-Sol reminds me a little the one I gave to Bolobesum in another thread... I didn´t know that my brain worked like a Palm PDA . Well, I'm afraid I'm not sure if it's good or bad...

Anyway, the Palm PDA seems to walk a little faster (39 min vs 45-50 min)


Saludos.

Francisco - yes, I think it's the same. That's why I tried that one out, to see how the program performed against the opinion of a MadridMan expert - there is no higher authority!