Trains: Toledo-to-Madrid-to-Cordoba on same day

Renfe can be problematic with accepting foreign credit cards. If you run into trouble, use the Trainline app. There will be a small service charge, but the transaction will go through.

The simplest journey is from Toledo to Cordoba, with a transfer in Madrid Atocha. Total travel time is 3hrs4min, and connection time is 41 minutes. That is plenty of time. Your departing train platform usually isn’t even announced until about 20 minutes before departure, so you may have to wait a bit to know which platform to go to.

In your search, if you enter Toledo (any) to Cordoba (any), you will see all of the options. Be careful of listing that say “estacion de autobuses”. That means the bus station. I would select journeys that are just trains. Look at the little symbols in the bottom left of the listing and make sure they are both trains.

So we did this in 2013. Normally I wouldn't answer because it has been so long and things have changed, but whenever will people have done this exact route? My husband and I still talk about this as the craziest travel day we have ever done. Before anyone criticizes our lack of slow travel and savoring the sites, I should preface with we lost 2 days in Madrid on the front end because we got stuck in Philadelphia due to flight issues, and we had to scramble. Plus we were in our early 30s.

We took the high speed train in the morning from Toledo to Madrid Atocha.

Went to the Reina Sofia and viewed Guernica, among other works, after checking bags.

Came back to Atocha, picked up bags, took high speed train to Cordoba.

Walked around, toured Mesquita. Viewed pocket gardens.

Took bus to Grenada. Ate lots of tapas at the bars.

In the top 5 days of my life.

So that doesn't really answer your question. However I can say you will just need to go back to Madrid from Toledo to catch the train to Cordoba. It isn't that big of a deal, the first leg is short. You really only need 10-15 minutes at Madrid Atocha to change trains.

And yes, book through Renfe.

We did exactly what you are doing in 2017. You have to change trains at Atocha to get from Toledo to Cordoba. There isn't any other way. At least no other way that is better.

It is easy to do. We took a morning train from Toledo to Madrid. We had a 30-minute layover at Atocha, which was enough time to find our train to Cordoba. When approaching Cordoba, start getting your bags before the train actually stops. We were waiting at the door with our luggage in hand, so we had no difficulty getting off the train. The train stopped in Cordoba for 2 minutes, according to my notes.

I hope this helps!

Thanks for the helpful replies.

We are looking at booking tickets through Trainline as some people have had issues with Renfe accepting their credit cards. Any thoughts on this? Thanks.
https://www.thetrainline.com/en-us/trains/spain