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MD/RExpress in Barcelona

Posted by (Tucson) on

I'm feeling like a total dunce here. I've been working on the logistics of visiting the Dalí Museum in Figueres. I have all the pieces of the puzzle in place except for getting from the Hotel Granvia to Barcelona Sants and the reverse.

I like to use Google Maps to find the best (for me) ways to get around using public transportation and my feet. Google Maps is telling me that the MD/RExpress options are the fastest. The little symbol looks like it's rail of some sort.

I tried to find out what that means. Above ground? Below ground? Train? Metro? Tram? I dug around on the websites for the different types and failed. One place I looked had something about M in tiny print, but it didn't make any sense to me.

The obvious question is what is MD/RExpress?

Posted by
8279 posts

Those are Medium Distance trains from the Barcelona Sants train station
Media Distancia in Spanish
You would take the Cercanias train at Placa Catlalunya to the main train station Barcelona Sants

Posted by
28744 posts

And RExpress is a regional express--presumably a slowish regional train that doesn't stop at all stations.

Posted by
1324 posts

Is this departing from Passeig de Gràcia station? If so, don't feel like a dunce - I've never entirely understood it either, but quite possibly I'm a dunce too. Hopefully one of the Barcelona residents can explain it, but from what I understand it's a transport hub rather than a single station. So you can get to Sants by Metro (Line 3?), but it's also used by Renfe MD trains some (all?) of which stop at Sants as well (all underground) and by Rodalies (which is the Catalonia name for the cercanias services and also stop at Sants).

So any option would work. I've no idea which is fastest, but I doubt there's much difference. What I couldn't work out was whether it made a difference which entrance you used - in at least one case there was a long underground passage between parts. You could just ask when you're there, of course.

Posted by
4183 posts

Thanks for the info everyone. You've helped me to sort things out. I won't be in Barcelona until 15 June, but I think part of my confusion is due to the wealth of options. And yes, Passeig de Gràcia and which entrance to use is involved.

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