The flour hangs in the air like snow. Thick, white, everywhere. On the floor, on the shelves, on the hair of Stanisław Nowak, who for forty-five years has been getting up at three in the morning to bake bread for his district. He is seventy-two years old, but his hands – wrinkled, covered with scars from burns – move with the precision of a surgeon.
The Unseen Ordeal: A Journey of Hope and Despair
For Susana, a 43-year-old resident of Ciudad Lineal, the journey to Ramón y Cajal Hospital is not merely a commute; it is an odyssey. Diagnosed with cervical cancer, she still vividly recalls the torment of her 72 radiotherapy sessions. “The ambulance service was very unreliable, and I had to take the metro before I could even get on the bus that would drop me at the hospital. I was immunocompromised, in the middle of a sea of people,” she recounts, preferring anonymity to face her illness with discretion. This situation, a daily reality for many in Ciudad Lineal, remains unchanged despite electoral pledges from Madrid’s Mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida.
A Broken Promise: The Elusive Direct Bus Line
Mayor Almeida’s 2023 municipal election program, specifically point 115, explicitly promised a new bus line connecting Ciudad Lineal with Ramón y Cajal Hospital. This line was to originate in Alsacia, cover Hermanos García Noblejas, and then join the M-11 via Arturo Soria directly to the hospital. This promise was a direct response to a historical demand from the local community, championed by local councilor Nadia Álvarez Padilla, whose Municipal Board has repeatedly approved requests for the line’s implementation. Yet, the Regional Transport Consortium of Madrid claims to have no record of any such request from municipal authorities.
“On December 15th, representatives of our entity met with the Ciudad Lineal Residents’ Association, where the request to establish a direct bus line between the district and Ramón y Cajal Hospital was first conveyed,” they stated. This response has sparked outrage among local residents’ associations, including San Pascual, Quintana, San Juan Bautista, El Sol de la Concepción, Barrio de Bilbao, and Pueblo Nuevo, who feel deceived and accuse officials of neglect, delays, and outright falsehoods.
Three Decades of Neglect: A Community’s Plea
For three decades, residents have been advocating for this direct route. “Despite being the most aged district among the East Madrid areas served by this hospital, we are the only ones without direct transport. Are our lives worth less?” question the five aforementioned neighborhood collectives, whose areas would benefit from the highly demanded express bus. Municipal data from 2025 indicates that 33,000 residents in these zones are over 65 years old. If the direct route were implemented, 148,000 residents would benefit.
The Madrid City Council merely states that the Regional Transport Consortium is evaluating the proposal. Álvarez Padilla asserts that she has been working with the municipal delegate for Mobility, Borja Carabante, for a year and a half. “I have met with him in his office, and we are looking at the best route to reach the largest possible population. So far, there have been other priorities, such as reinforcing the fleet and personnel to launch the route. The delegate will convey the proposal to the consortium based on the fieldwork carried out,” she explained, without specifying a timeline. “I cannot say if it will be in two months or six months, but it will be a reality before May 2027, when the legislature ends,” she assured.
The Healthcare Desert: A City Divided
The map of public healthcare in the capital reveals a significant void across much of the eastern flank of the M-30. Arturo Soria, the main thoroughfare in this area, hosts six active private hospitals and a seventh under construction, owned by the president of healthcare giant Quirónsalud. This new facility is being built on the same vacant plot where, for years, it was hoped a large public hospital for East Madrid would be located – a facility much-demanded by residents but still non-existent.
Patients and healthcare professionals alike complain about the saturation of Ramón y Cajal Hospital, plagued by long waiting lists. It is the public hospital in Madrid with the largest assigned population, serving 606,454 people according to the latest available data from January 1, 2023. This means almost one in five Madrid residents in the capital was assigned to this center.
The Human Cost: Beyond the Numbers
Susana still remembers the hot days, “when some bus passengers would feel dizzy and an ambulance had to be called midway to attend to them.” She would take a pill before embarking on her ordeal to Ramón y Cajal Hospital, hoping to avoid fainting. She insists that if the outbound journey is bad, the return is far worse: “The bus takes a thousand turns through San Blas. It can take 90 minutes to get back home. I would lose three hours a day between the metro and the bus for a fifteen-minute radiotherapy session.”
María Jesús Peña, a resident of San Pascual, understands perfectly. She suffers from scoliosis and bilateral sciatica, in addition to four lumbar disc herniations. Consequently, when she needs to go to the hospital, she resorts to a taxi. Last year, she did so once a week for nine months due to a bacterial infection in her leg. “The first time I paid 40 euros for the round trip; then I started trying different applications to see which one was cheaper,” explains the 59-year-old.
Sometimes, her husband could drive her, but he wouldn’t accompany her to the consultation because it was impossible to find parking. “He would just drive around until I came out,” she says. If she wants to use public transport, she has to take three different buses, which is unfeasible due to her multiple pathologies. Susana Aguilera, 59, knows this route well, as she accompanies her 84-year-old mother to the hospital. She admits that the journey becomes an obstacle course: “When I have to go with her, who doesn’t see well, and with my brother, who has a disability, I end up exhausted. It’s a beating for them too.”
Delays on the current route with transfers are frequent. This month, Gemma Peris called her children’s doctor to inform her that they would be late for their appointment. “If we miss the appointment, it takes months to get another one, because healthcare is what it is,” protests the 51-year-old. She is indignant that her children have to miss a school day when they have a medical check-up. If her husband drives them, they must leave the car at Pitis station and take the train to the hospital due to parking difficulties.
Accidents are also not uncommon. Pablo González, 65, has fallen more than once on his way to the healthcare center: “I have to take two buses and travel 20 minutes in my wheelchair on the sidewalk.” He has amputated legs: “If the bus ramp is steep and no one holds me from behind, I fall headfirst.”
The neighborhood’s anguish is also shared by Ana Guijarro, a resident of Pueblo Nuevo. Her octogenarian father was never afraid of stairs or Madrid’s underground, but a year and a half ago, while cleaning, she found an appointment with the urologist in the trash: “He confessed that he doesn’t want to go to the hospital; the metro is no longer for him. He gets disoriented and the journey tires him. And the bus is impossible; it takes too long and he’s uncomfortable, an hour standing. So he decides not to say anything so as not to force us to take him and miss workdays. He prefers to sacrifice his health rather than have a bad time. With a pension of 951 euros, it’s difficult for him to spend 30 on a taxi.”
Source: https://elpais.com/espana/madrid/2026-02-24/mas-de-una-hora-de-trayecto-y-varios-transbordos-para-recibir-radioterapia-la-odisea-desde-ciudad-lineal-al-ramon-y-cajal.html
