Barcelona to Madrid 9.5hrs?

I just read a note on the Fodor's board that explains what you see on the bahn.de site. Beginning later this month, Renfe (Spanish rail) will introduce new high-speed trains on the Barcelona-Madrid route. Those timetables haven't been loaded on the Renfe site yet so bahn.de doesn't have access to them yet either. A quote:

Just read in El Mundo that Renfe has established its pricing structure for the new AVE, Madrid-Barcelona.

They'll have the 60% discount WEB fares (purchased a minimum of 15 days out) for 40,8€ (with stops) and 48€ (non-stop).

There will also be "Turista" fares with 40% discount (purchased at least 7 days in advance) for 61€ (with stops) and 72€ (non stop).

The standard fare will be 102€ (with stops) and 120€ (non stop).

The initial 34 daily trains will have a seating capacity of 13,498.

If you go to the RENFE (Spanish Rail) website you can get the current information.

http://horarios.renfe.es/hir/ingles.html

The trip, with the ongoing construction, had been cut to just under 4 hours. The complete high speed line is now to go into service on February 20th, with the time cut to 2:45. RENFE should have the timetables up in the next day or so.

Thanks everyone for all of your very well researched answers. I appreciate that everyone on this board seems to get real pleasure out of helping out a novice traveler such as myself.

Thanks,
Kevin

FYI, renfe.es now has the new schedules posted for the fast trains between Madrid and Barcelona...travel time is 2:43. Cost....from 101 Euro each way....ouch!!!

I must say that they have been annoucing the Madrid-Barcelona AVE for years, but there have been MANY problems in BCN, during the railway construction. Including streets and train stations collapsing.
I would strongly recommend taking a low cost airline such as www.vueling.com or Iberia (you might find a good deal on their website www.iberia.es It is a 45 minute flight.

We took Iberia and it was cheaper and faster than the train. They had the commuter flights which took off almost every hour and a half.

Unless you want to check out the local scenery on a train, try the airlines like the previous traveler posted.

I use www.kayak.com to search for the best fare. Ultimatefares.com is cheap but not necssarily non stop.

At the Renfe web site, if you choose 'English' and look up the fares for AVE Madrid-Barcelona, you do NOT see the special Web fares. However, if you go in via the Spanish portal, you'll see the web fares.

We are heading to Girona from Madrid and are debating whether to take the AVE or RyanAir's direct flight to GRO. Being able to get the web fare will probably tip the balance to the train, esp. since our Madrid hotel is close to Atocha.

Barry....kinda an old post....but you can purchase the webfares in English. After choosing English, click on "buy tickets" at the very top of the page. A new page will open where you can enter your origin and destination, and you will see the "Web" and "Estrella" sale fares pop up. But they go quickly. Fares can be bookd 62 days out. If you backtime it properly, you can get a jump on most Spanish people, since they start loading the next fares in at midnight Spain time which, right now, is 5 hours ahead of EDT....meaning they start appearing after 7 pm EDT. It may take them an hour or two to get all the fares into the system.

Kevin,

9.5 hours is a long time. Consider flying. Here are two cheap airlines with flights from Barcelona to Madrid. They are Veuling and Spanair. I have used both. They are excellent. Their websites are translated to English. I flew from Malaga to Barcelona and on to Venice for 90Euros. Suerte

Lou....an old post....outdated by more recent events.