We are trying to do some planning in advance for a trip in July of 2017 where we land at Adolfo Suarez Airport and need to quickly and cost-effectively get to Atocha train station. Previous entries regarding this subject are from 2013 and mention taking the C1 train line from terminal 4 or catching and express bus from Terminal 1. Any recent experience with this is appreciated.
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
7159 posts
You can take the subway and get off at the Atocha station.
Posted by
Washington DC
28083 posts
Or the airport bus, ditto. Your guide book should summarize the options.
Posted by
California 🦋
5294 posts
We took the C-1 Line Cercanías (commuter train) from the airport (Terminal 4) to Madrid's Atocha station in October 2015.
Travel time is 25 minutes and the Cercanías train is presently running every 15-20 minutes (usually every 30 minutes) now that Metro line 8 is undergoing construction.
If you've purchased an AVE train ticket and plan to travel from Atocha (on day of arrival), then your Combinado Cercanías ticket entitles you to a free Cercanías train ticket to/from the airport. You can get this ticket at the airport's Renfe office (or at an automated kiosk at the airport)
Enjoy your trip!
Posted by
Tel Aviv
15788 posts
Do allow plenty of time, since you never know if you'll land on time, how long the lines will be at immigration, how long you'll have to wait for luggage (if you have any), and you'll need 15 minutes or so at the train station to get to your train and go through security before boarding.
This article may help explain the options. I looked at the cercanias map, looks like the C10 also goes to Atocha, so there are now 3 trains an hour instead of only the two C1's. The ride is about 1/2 hour.
Posted by
TX, USA
4825 posts
We are in Spain now and just did this last weekend. We landed at T2 (arrived from the States on Lufthansa that had a connection in Frankfurt). This meant immigration in Madrid was non-existent but that we used the airport shuttle bus from T2 to T4. Then we caught the C1 to Atocha. We could have used another method from T2 but had an Ave reservation so were able to use the free ticket we got from the ticket machine using the code on our Ave ticket. Signs were good and help was available. A bit trickier was the transfer at Atocha but we just asked for directions.