Atocha cercanias

Large station, easy directions. But passengers here are with poor quality and love to have their legs wide spread throughout the train to disturb other passengers to pass through. Education is needed for these people.

A beautifully designed modern addition to the older Atocha train station, Atocha Cercanias is big, somewhat chaotic, but essential for those who live or work in the suburbs of Madrid. Connections with fast AVE trains and major destinations to the south and east of Madrid is easy as Cercanias is connected to the main Atocha station with tunnels and overpasses.

Trying to buy tickets to get on the train to the airport is a total mess. The information is non-existent and in the middle of the day there’s only one person working at the ticket office so a long cue develops. We had to try five machines in three different spots before we got one to work. Some machines print, some don’t because they only take exchange ticket cards. The only reason that I gave two stars is because we eventually found a machine that printed tickets. Good luck!

I travelled through Atocha many years ago February 2004 sometime before the tragic bomb explosions that got the train station centre stage in the world news spotlight for some time. I was carrying a lot of heavy luggage unfortunately and this marred my visit to the splendid place. I remember spending at least half the day at the well equipped modern station with its super comfortable chairs. I was very impressed with the ease in which I could navigate the station even without Google Maps or a translation device. I imagine that in retrospect that my journey was very slow. I should have covered the distance in much better time. Especially without the heavy luggage.

Renfe's Cercanias is a shame of Spain. There is NO navigation. On the train there is NO number, no direction, NOTHING. Who is the chief of this company? Does he respect only himself? Every train has bunch of displays, but ALL of them are not working. The schedule doesn't usually match with the application or even the displays in the station. It's a mess, a complete mess, like we are in 1980s, with no IT systems. Nobody cares. This happens for years with not a single improvement.

Terrible experience. Workers are not willing to help and even disregard your concerns. I had an issue with one of my tickets and their attitude was demeaning and disrespectful. This is the quality of one of Spain's main stations. Utterly unacceptable

Barring the nice architecture nothing is right about that station. Late trains - changing bays - uncooperative staff - catastrophic Renfe website. Just rent a car if you can afford for your sanity.

All the connections is in here.