Madrid to Granada

[parkender102]

I’m trying to book some Rail tickets for Spain for a future trip but despite trying on both Renfe and Loco2 Sites there only seem to be either Bus Connections only between Madrid and Granada or a combination of Train to Cordoba and then Bus to Granada. Looking at Seat 61 there seems to be rail connection between Cordoba and Granada. Seat 61 talks about getting to Granada from London by changing at Barcelona.

Not sure if I’m doing something wrong or is there Engineering works at the time I’m travelling:

Madrid to Granada Thursday 31 October

Granada to Madrid Sat 2 November

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

There appear to be 3 through AVE trains from Madrid to Granada, at 0720, 1535 and 1935.
The first two of these are Malaga trains which stop at Cordoba and drop a unit for Granada at Antequera.
But the last day I can see for through trains is October 14, though the Malaga trains do run after that date.

There is also a Barcelona-Granada service at 0650, running the long way round via the high speed lines and avoiding Madrid.
Again, no times are given after October 14.

Renfe are notorious for not loading certain routes until very late in the booking period.
The new AVE line from Antequera to Granada has only recently opened, so it would be surprising if this was closed again for engineering work.
Sorry not to have the answer, but it may clear up any day when Renfe get round to loading the service.
There are certainly trains as far as Antequera.
I find DB (bahn.com) the best site to plan ahead, but like renfe.com it won't offer anything after October 14 at the moment.

 

[30907]

I did the journey from Cordoba only last week. I think LNW-GW Joint is right, but it's not impossible for their to be engineering works: the route is in a pretty basic state - the station box at Antequera is not fitted out, and there was a fair section of new line where speed was limited to 160km/h or so. To complete the picture, about half the new build has been opened as single track, and there is a lengthy section approaching Lojo where trains simply use the old route at 65km/h.

 

[parkender102]

Thanks for the Info - I'll wait and see if anything gets loaded up. I was able to book return tickets Madrid to Cordoba on both sites but both fell down at the last hurdle when the screen appeared for the Bank / Credit Card check - I think our work Server was blocking those pages. Strange as I've managed to book through most Rail Sites in the past from work including Indian, Polish, Slovakian and Czech sites.

 

[30907]

The way Renfe prices work (from limited acquaintance) I'd wait till you can book throughout.

 

[parkender102]

Thanks for the advice - eventually got tickets from Loco2. Some observations:

Madrid 09:00 - Cordoba 10:52, Cordoba 11:39 - Granada 13:15. 300km/h Madrid to Cordoba then had an hour wait (change of trains) in Cordoba - this was the cheaper option but you are limited to time for a coffee and a bit of food as too far away from anything in Cordoba worth seeing. Note the connecting train splits at Cordoba so ensure you get on the train going to Granada! Train Cordoba to Granada limited speed as noted above but I was impressed with these AVE Trains. The free Wifi in Turista Class was perfectly adequate and better than Virgin, Buffet Car sold reasonably priced sandwiches, coffees and beer / wine.

Granada 07:10 - Cordoba 08:36, Cordoba 08:38 - Madrid 10:29. Strange as although booked as a through journey on the same train with no changes, I received 2 print at home tickets with separate Coach and Seat Numbers. So although we remained on the same train Granada to Madrid we had to change seats from Coach 6 to Coach 10 at Cordoba for some reason. It turned out the AC was broken in Coach 10 so we moved to some spare seats in Coach 8 where the air conditioning was working. We arrived a good 10 minutes early in Madrid ensuring we could catch the end of the first half and all of the second half of the Rugby World Cup Final (the less said about that the better...........)