The National Rail System in Spain is known as RENFE (Red Nacional de los Ferrocarriles Espa¤oles) and there is much more in Spain than just one national system when it comes to rail travel. There are many regional and small rail systems in this country. Surprisingly, it is reported that bus travel is faster in Spain than rail travel however there are high-speed trains known as the AVE (Alta Velocidad Espa¤ol) and they run between major metropolitan areas.
RENFE services the major cities but not the small towns. For the less-populated towns, there are smaller rail networks like the Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FFCC) and other narrow gauge railways. There are also small railroads such as the Euskotren that services the Basque Country. With RENFE, there are basically four operating divisions:
* Cercan¡as which are suburban services for small towns and cities
* Regionales which is the regional interurban services
* Long distance known as Grandes Lineas
* The bullet train known as the AVE (Tren de Alta Velocidad Espa¤ola) or the high-speed trains that operate over shorter distances known as the Avant.
The trains in Spain are not of the same standard as the rest of Europe when it comes to arriving and departing on time but if you are willing to trade that for some of the lowest fares in Europe then you will probably be very satisfied. However, it is also reported that Spain has made breakthroughs in modernizing its rail system in order to reduce transit times.
Spain also has its version of a high-speed train known as the AVE that, for example, runs between Madrid and Seville in 2 hours and 25 minutes. These trains run at speeds topping 300 Kph (185 Mph) and the attractive feature about these trains is that they will give a full refund if they are more than five minutes late arriving to its destination.
The current major routes for the AVE are:
* Madrid - Toledo
* Madrid - M laga
* Cordoba - Seville
* Madrid - Seville
* Madrid - Cordoba
* Madrid - Zaragoza
And there are proposals to expand the AVE to these routes:
* Madrid - Lisbon
* Madrid - Segovia - Valladolid
* Valladolid - Vitoria - Bilbao - San Sebastian
* Valladolid - Santiago de Compostela
* Tarragona - Barcelona (to connect Barcelona to Madrid)
Buying train passes in Spain can be very confusing. This is probably because there are so many different railroads here. If you don’t speak Spanish, you will find that in the smaller town train stations there will be no one who speaks English so you had best figure out your destination and write on a piece of paper for that ticket agent. The ticketing agents are not always up-to-date on the latest fares and discount so you are going to have to check a little closer to make sure you are getting the best value for your money.
The fare system is very complicated to follow and it varies by the type of train and the time of the travel. You can go to the RENFE (www.renfe.es) website and take a look at all the different variations of passes to ride the trains in Spain. If you speak a little Spanish then you will be able to navigate and shop for passes but if you don’t, there is no English translation to the site.
Let’s take a look at the pass for the Avant Train between Madrid and Toledo (www.renfe.es/avant/index_avant_madrid_toledo.html). When you go to the website you will find that you can buy a pass good for 20 to 50 trips-each with its own price per number of trips. The features of the Avant are:
* Cafeteria in coach 1
* Baby seats in coach 2
* Public telephone in coach 1
* Seats for disabled in coach 1
* Half of the seats are adjustable
* No smoking on the entire train
There is a varied list of discounts for this pass as well. You get a 20% discount if you go and return on the same day. You get a 10% discount if you return 15 days after departure. Children age 4 to 13 get a 40% discount and youth (age 13 to 26) get a 25% discount. International travelers are set at a fixed price. Groups of 10 to 25 persons get a 15% discount. And there are even more discounts. As you can see, the pricing structure is very complex.
If you educate yourself beforehand on the Spain Rail System then you will probably have a pleasant experience plus save some money too. If you don’t speak any Spanish, write down your destination on a piece of paper at least. This way a ticket agent can get an idea of where you want to go.