The commuter rail systems of

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

's major metropolitan areas are called ''Cercanías'' () in most of Spain, ''Rodalia'' () in the

Valencian Community The Valencian Community is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid wit ...

, ''Aldiriak'' () in the Basque Country and ''Rodalies'' () in

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

. There are twelve ''Cercanías'' systems in and around the cities and regions of Asturias,

Bilbao Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the Provinces of Spain, province of Biscay and in the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the List o ...

, Cádiz,

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

Málaga Málaga (; ) is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 591,637 in 2024, it is the second-most populo ...

, Murcia/Alicante, Cantabria, San Sebastián, Seville, Valencia and

Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...

. They are linked to Metro systems in Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia. The Cercanías division of Renfe was created in 1989 on the advice of engineer and transit planner Javier Bustinduy ( es; 1949–2016), as part of a major effort to massively increase ridership, frequencies and hence attractiveness of commuter rail systems in Spain. ''Cercanías'' systems are gradually in the process of being transferred to the regional autonomous governments; the first such system to be transferred was the management of the former Cercanías Barcelona/Rodalia Barcelona to the Government of Catalonia and renaming to " Rodalies de Catalunya" in 2010. The second, and last so far, was the transfer of both Basque systems,

and San Sebastián (and the right to declare a third in Álava) to the Basque Government in 2025. The Madrid ''Cercanías'' network was the target of the 2004 Madrid train bombings. The attacks, which killed 191 people in Santa Eugenia, El Pozo and Atocha stations, were the bloodiest terrorist actions in Spain to date.

List of ''Cercanías'' / ''Rodalies'' / ''Rodalia'' / ''Aldiriak'' systems

Rolling stock

The Cercanías services use the following rolling stock. In 2021, Renfe announced the purchase of 59 Stadler KISS trainsets to complement the fleet.

References

External links

RENFE Cercanías website

See also Cercanías on Ferropedia
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