Cercanías Bilbao

Cercanías Bilbao is a commuter rail network in Bilbao, serving the city and its metropolitan area. It is operated by Cercanías, as part of Renfe, the national railway company. It consists of four lines, named C-1, C-2, C-3 and C-4. The first three of them start at the Bilbao-Abando station, which is the central station of the city, whereas the fourth, of metric gauge, starts at the Bilbao-Concordia station.

WWW renfe.com/viajeros/cercan...

System

Cercanías Bilbao follows the same patterns as other Cercanías networks in the country, as Cercanías Madrid or Cercanías Barcelona. The network consists of four lines, three of which start at Bilbao-Abando and the last starts at the nearby Bilbao La Concordia station. They all link the center of Bilbao with other municipalities within and beyond the metropolitan area. There are four lines, named C-1, C-2, C-3, and C-4; the first two follow the Estuary of Bilbao, the C-3 reaches municipalities outside the metropolitan area, and the C-4 reaches the westernmost area of Biscay. The network has connections with Metro Bilbao, Euskotren, Renfe, the tram and Bilbao's bus station, Termibus.

Lines

Line	Terminals	Stations in service	Total stations	Operator
	Abando-Santurtzi	14	14	Cercanías
	Abando-Muskiz	18	18	Cercanías
	Abando-Orduña	22	22	Cercanías
	Bilbao-Balmaseda	20	20	Cercanías

Service frequencies

As of 2025, there are the typical service frequencies for each line:

Line C-1 - Trains each 30 minutes at early time in the morning and at late nights; trains each 20 minutes at peak times.
Line C-2 - Trains each 30 minutes at early time in the morning and at late nights; trains each 20 minutes at peak times.
Line C-3 - Trains each 30 minutes at early time in the morning and at late nights; trains each 15 minutes at peak times. Half the trains only reach Llodio.
Line C-4 - Trains each 60 minutes at early time in the morning and at late nights; trains each 30 minutes at peak times.

Stations

Cercanías Bilbao serves the following stations:

Line C-1	Line C-2	Line C-3	Line C-4
Bilbao-Abando Station Zabalburu Ametzola Autonomía San Mamés Olabeaga Zorrotza Lutxana-Barakaldo Desertu-Barakaldo Sestao La Iberia Portugalete Peñota Santurtzi	Bilbao-Abando Station Zabalburu Ametzola Autonomía San Mamés Olabeaga Zorrotza Lutxana-Barakaldo Desertu-Barakaldo Galindo Trápaga Valle de Trápaga-Trapagaran Urioste Sagrada Familia Ortuella Gallarta Putxela Muskiz	Bilbao-Abando Station Miribilla La Peña Ollargan Bidebieta-Basauri Abaroa-San Miguel Basauri Arrigorriaga Ugao-Miraballes Bakiola Arrakundiaga Arbide Arakaldo Areta Laudio/Llodio Santa Cruz de Llodio Luiando Salbio Amurrio Iparralde Amurrio Iñarratxu Orduña	Bilbao La Concordia Station Ametzola Basurto Hospital Zorrotza Zorrozgoiti Santa Ageda Kastrexana Irauregi-Alonsotegi Zaramillo La Quadra Sodupe Artxube Lanbarri Güeñes Aranguren-station Zalla Colegio Ibarra La Herrera Balmaseda La Calzada

Rolling stock

The rolling stock for the first three lines consists of UT 446 electrical multiple units built by CAF, each one formed by three cars. The last line uses different units, UT 436, given by the former operator FEVE, since it is of metric gauge.

Developments

These are the recent projects that have been developed or will be started in the network.

Southern rail branch (C-1 and C-2)

In year 2000 the network was renewed by the public company Bilbao Ria 2000, several new underground stations were opened in the city of Bilbao, a project that was called Southern rail branch.
This change implied the closing of Parke/Guggenheim and Bilbao-La Naja stations, on the line that run beside the river before that date. This cleared ground for the creation of new riverside avenues and the tramway. The tracks used for the new branch were used before for freight transport, these tracks were covered and a new avenue and the park of Ametzola were created on top of them. The stations on the new branch are:

San Mamés
Autonomía
Ametzola
Zabalburu

The former Bilbao-La Naja terminal station gave way to Bilbao-Abando, where C1 and C2 services arrive and depart now. Formerly this station was used only by C3 and long-distance services, to cope with the increase of traffic two new covered platforms were added to the station, increasing the number of platforms from six to eight. The remains of Bilbao-La Naja station can still be seen beside the Arenal Bridge.
The Ametzola area was a rail yard, that was dismantled to create new parks and residential areas.

Santurtzi station (C-1)

The new Santurtzi station was built close to the old one by Bilbao Ria 2000 and inaugurated on July 10, 2003. The space that the old station occupied is used now as a parking lot, but will be renewed to extend the nearby park.

Miribilla station (C-3)

This station was opened on December 16, 2008 and links the newly developed neighbourhoods with central Bilbao. This is Spain's deepest underground station, the access to the platforms is provided by high capacity elevators.

La Calzada station (C-4)

This station opened in 2009 and it extended the C4 line one more station, while still staying in the town of Balmaseda. This gave railway access to the newly urbanized area as well as to sports centre users.

Amurrio Iparralde station (C-3)

Works have started in the new Iparralde station, in the town of Amurrio.

Barakaldo station (C-1/C-2)

This station will be renewed, 200 m of tracks will be covered, improving the newly developed neighbourhoods of Barakaldo.

Portugalete station (C-1)

This station will be covered, a mall will be created on top of it and lifts will provide access from central Portugalete.

Vizcaya Bridge station (C-1)

There is a proposal to build this underground station, intermediate between Portugalete and Peñota stations, that would provide a direct link to Vizcaya Bridge.