Renfe Tickets

With RENFE, you just never know why or when. You'll have to keep looking on a regular basis.

Ann,
I'd think they will become available any day now, so I'd continue checking daily.

I see the same notice for the 10AM AVE too.

You may just want to snatch the Promo turista tickets for the 11AM AVE, for €40,75pp!

Enjoy your trip!

Thanks for the suggestions. My friend arrives from the USA at 8:15am with carryons only. I am on the fence whether she could make the 11am at Atocha as its her first time in MAD. Any opinions?

I've done the train but am thinking the bus which takes 30 minutes might be easier and seems to go right from MAD to Atocha. I took it a long time ago and it seemed fine?

Hi Ann,
I'm a bit confused by your recent comments:

Thanks for the suggestions. My friend arrives from the USA at 8:15am with carryons only. I am on the fence whether she could make the 11am at Atocha as its her first time in MAD. Any opinions?

You had not mentioned this important fact on your original post, otherwise my answers would have been different.

Normally it's not recommended to buy train tickets for the day of arrival, due to possible unforeseen delays (flight delays, delays while waiting in possibly long lines at Immigration/Passport control, etc..)

If you're set on buying your tickets in advance (to save money), then you need to give yourselves a large cushion of time between her proposed flight arrival & train departure.

I'd think 4 hours is a reasonable time, but be prepared to wait for the train (if her flight arrives on time), or to buy new train tickets at full price (if flight is extremely delayed) & you miss the train.

Regarding your other recent comment:

I've done the train but am thinking the bus which takes 30 minutes might be easier and seems to go right from MAD to Atocha. I took it a long time ago and it seemed fine?

I presume you're referring to transportation from the airport to Puerta de Atocha's train station, right?

We took the Cercanias train (C-1 line) from MAD ( terminal 4) to Puerta de Atocha & it took about 25 minutes.
Keep in mind that the train is not affected by street traffic, like the bus would be, so I'd recommend the Cercanias over the bus.

Besides, when one buys an AVE train ticket from the airport (or as long as one has an AVE ticket for the arrival date) one gets to travel for free on the Cercanias train, to the corresponding train station.
You can read about this information here: http://www.aeropuertomadrid-barajas.com/transportation/madrid-airport-bytrain.htm

You can check Cercanias train schedules here: http://www.renfe.com/EN/viajeros/cercanias/madrid/
Choose as follows from the drop down menu when using above website:

• Departure point: Aeropuerto-T4
• Destination: Atocha

Hope you find this information helpful ;-)

Thanks for the info. Finished buying tickets today and decided to do the 1pm train. Will give us time to go across the street to the cafe with the famous calamri sandwiches. And maybe a tinto verano at Montaditos. Fun stop before taking the train.