Next Saturday trains will return to run between Madrid’s Barrio del Puerto and Hospital del Henares metro stations, after just over three years of closure for infrastructure repairs and nine closures in 18 years of the Madrid metro line 7B. The Regional Executive assures that “five independent reports demonstrate the optimal conditions of the route”, after the stabilization of 20,600 square meters of land and the restoration of 5,575 meters of tunnels.
The reopening next Saturday, November 22, of the 7B metro line does not mark the end of the journey for the owners of the 73 houses that collapsed due to subsoil subsidence in the municipalities of Coslada and San Fernando de Henares nor for the owners of another 260 properties kept under surveillance.
The news of the return of trains to tunnels flooded by landslides in 2022 surprised the president of the Rafael Alberti-Presa de San Fernando de Henares Affected Association, Javier Madueño. “We are amazed because we have not received any technical report on the effectiveness of the works carried out which certifies whether or not they are safe”, he complains.
When the works to bring the suburbs to Coslada and San Fernando altered the subsoil and the earth sank under the feet of the two municipalities involved, not only the foundations of the residential blocks collapsed, but also those of the public buildings. This was explained by the mayor of San Fernando de Henares, Javier Corpa, who claims the need to recover the damaged buildings, such as the Official Language School (EOI), the El Tambor kindergarten, the adult school, the El Laboratorio youth center, the Women’s House, the Department of Education and an exhibition hall.
“There are many public spaces that the Community of Madrid has had to demolish and the Regional Executive has not yet committed to rebuilding those buildings elsewhere in the city,” he explains. EL PAÍS requested information from the Ministry of Education regarding this situation but received no response. The socialist councilor adds that the government led by Isabel Díaz Ayuso has not officially communicated the reopening date of line 7B.
On the other hand, Madueño speaks of frustration and helplessness among the victims of the destruction and explains that not all cases are the same. In fact, a group of affected people already received their first compensation a year ago. “There is no way we are going to nearly double the time it took the first victims to collect their share.” Madueño’s condominium is divided into two parts, Portals 1 and 2 have been away from their home for three years but are now back. While in portals 3 and 4, where the home of the president of the association is located, they have lost the properties and have not yet received “absolutely nothing”.
The general director of Collective Transport Infrastructure, Miguel Núñez, highlighted last Wednesday, in an inaugural visit to the media, the injection of more than 11,000 tons of mortar to consolidate the ground, as well as the completion of 26,000 perforations along the almost six kilometers of tunnel on which the works were carried out.
These are figures that do not impress the inhabitants of Coslada and San Fernando de Henares who lost their homes due to the collapse of the ground in 2022. “Today those responsible for this catastrophe joyfully celebrate the reopening while those affected continue to suffer the terrible consequences of negligent management,” reads a statement released by one of the Platforms for those affected by line 7B of the Madrid metro.
Núñez also revealed in his speech that, as of October 31, 2025, the amount of compensation awarded to the injured amounted to almost 12 million euros. This amount corresponds to only a portion of the owners, according to Alejandro Escribano. «There are three housing lots of large demolished buildings: the first is already in judicial proceedings awaiting resolution, the second is in the investigation phase and for the third, among which I include myself, we have not yet received compensation», he sighs. In this sense, the association states that it will continue “to fight for real solutions until the complaint generated is completely remedied”.
On the other hand, Escribano says the platform for those affected commissioned a psychosocial report from Centro Sira, a therapeutic and legal support network, which concluded that the works on the 7B metro line “had a profound impact” on the mental health and emotional well-being of the affected neighbors. “The study established that since this problem began, more than half of the respondents have not been able to develop their lives normally,” he adds. The spokesperson for those affected insists that their biggest concern is to recover “autonomy” in order to be able to move on and finally get off the 7B subway line.
