Metrovalencia Line 1
From Castelló to Bétera through the centre of València: the oldest line on the network, and the longest.
About Line 1
Line 1 is the north–south backbone of Metrovalencia. It links Bétera, to the north-west, with Castelló in the Ribera Alta, running underneath the centre of València on the way. Of its 40 stations, eight are underground and the rest are at street level, spread over the 72.145 km published by FGV.
It shares its route with Line 2 between Empalme and Torrent, and with Line 7 between Jesús and Torrent. At Àngel Guimerà you can change to lines 3, 5 and 9, and at Empalme to the trams of Line 4. Fourteen of its stations have a park-and-ride car park, ranging from 590 spaces at València Sud to just three at Sant Ramon.
Stations on Line 1
40 stations, 14 of them with an interchange to another line (marked with a ring and the colours of the other lines).
Line 1 timetable
| Day | First – last |
|---|---|
| Monday to Thursday | 04:40 – 23:37 |
| Friday | 04:40 – 03:12 |
| Saturday | 04:43 – 03:12 |
| Sunday and public holidays | 06:34 – 23:45 |
Earliest and latest time at any station on the line, from the timetable published by FGV. On Fridays and Saturdays service runs on after midnight: that is why the last time is earlier than the first.
Services per hour in each direction
| Day | 07:00 | 08:00 | 12:00 | 18:00 | 22:00 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday to Thursday | 4.5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3.5 |
| Friday | 4.5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3.5 |
| Saturday | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Sunday and public holidays | 1.5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2.5 |
Counted at Àngel Guimerà over the full timetable. A value of 4 means one train every fifteen minutes in each direction.
History
The line grew out of two routes of the trenet, the old metre-gauge railway: one from Jesús to Villanueva de Castellón, the other from Pont de Fusta to Bétera. FEVE ran them until 8 October 1988, when they passed to the Generalitat (the regional government) through FGV. That same day the tunnel under the city, begun in 1986, opened between Ademús station (called Empalme between 1988 and 1998) and Sant Isidre. On 5 May 1995 the whole route was relaunched as part of the new metro network.
The tunnel made the old section from Empalme to Pont de Fusta redundant. It closed on 1 February 1991 and was turned into the tramway that is now Line 4. On 3 July 2006 a rail accident between Plaça Espanya and Jesús killed 43 people and injured 47. On 12 December 2010 several stations were renamed — Jesús became Joaquín Sorolla and Hospital became Safranar — and the first of these got its old name back on 30 June 2016. On 13 September 2021 a 288-metre underground section between Empalme and Burjassot came into service. The 2024 floods suspended the entire line from 30 October to 2 December, and it reopened section by section until June 2025.
The service
Not every train runs the full length of the line. The published timetable lists 1,074 runs, and many of them turn back before reaching the termini: 514 at TorrentES and 482 at Seminari – CEU, the two main turnback points, followed by Picassent with 130, València Sud with 90 and Empalme with 58. As a result the city section gets far more trains than the outer ends towards Bétera and Castelló. In the morning rush hour, counted at Àngel Guimerà, there are about five trains an hour in each direction; on Saturdays and Sundays the peak drops to about three. On Friday and Saturday nights the service runs on into the early hours, and on Sundays it starts considerably later.
The trains
Adding up the scheduled running times between neighbouring stations, the trip from Castelló to Bétera takes about 101 minutes — the longest journey you can make on this network without changing lines. The character of the line changes completely from one end to the other: eight underground stations clustered in the central tunnel and, outside it, a surface route through market gardens and small towns, a direct legacy of the two trenet lines it was born from.
Frequently asked questions
Because they used to be the same line. The Bétera and Llíria branches were run together for years and only became two separate lines again in March 2015. What remains of that shared history is the common section between Empalme and Torrent, where both lines use the same track and stop at the same stations.
It closed on 1 February 1991, once the new tunnel under the city made that approach to Pont de Fusta unnecessary, and the trackbed was converted into a tramway: today it is part of Line 4. You can change to the tram at Empalme to reach Pont de Fusta.
On 12 December 2010 it was renamed Joaquín Sorolla, to coincide with the opening of the temporary high-speed rail station. The change was criticised by the association of victims of the 2006 accident and by residents’ groups; the signs were then changed to Joaquín Sorolla – Jesús, and on 30 June 2016 the station went back to being called Jesús.