Like two rhyming verses more than 8,000 kilometers apart. In these terms we could refer to the subway that has been operating in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, for just two years: a subway that any Madrileño or Madrileña would find it hard to distinguish from the one in Madrid because of its spectacular resemblance.
The reason why both are so similar has to do with the fact that it has been the same company, Acciona, which has been in charge of both the construction of the Quito subway and of promoting and managing the expansion of the Madrid subway network for decades.
Thanks to this video shared a few days ago by the account @Bvemike in X, and through which we discovered this curious fact, you can appreciate in more detail how it is inside and to what extent it has similarities with the Madrid subway.
What is the Quito metro like?
The situation of the subway in Madrid and Quito could remind us – if we are looking for similarities – of when you try to forget an ex-partner: wherever you look, practically everything reminds you of that person. And here the same thing happens: from the stairs to the signage and even the garbage cans or the ischiatic supports, all the elements evoke the transport service we know so well.
The differences, therefore, are to be found in something so deeply rooted in each place as are, logically, the names of the stations. In the case of the Quito metro, at the moment it has 15 stops and a single line (line 1). And from the first station to the last – from Labrador to Quitumbe, in case anyone was curious – it takes 33 minutes and 31 seconds.
Another difference is that each of the stations is represented on the signage with a logo in the color of the line (in this case, red) that identifies them. We will have to wait to see if, over time, what today is a differential mark ends up becoming another similarity with our subway.