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RENFE Booking Horizon

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LNW-GW Joint

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I'm trying to book tickets on the RENFE site for 9-11 September, and am having problems getting them to offer any services.
My travel is in the north west (Vigo, Santiago, Salamanca), on a mix of local MD trains and long distance Alvia.
For about the last month, the booking horizon in this area of Spain has been stuck at 7 September.
All the trains are visible and bookable until that date, afterwards it shows some trains but then says they are "not available at the moment".
The horizon has not advanced at all in that period, and my travel dates are now only 30 days away.
Has anyone else had any problems getting bookings after this date?
The problem seems to affect all trains on the lines out of Madrid Chamartin - eg to San Sebastian and Santander as well as Santiago.
There seems to be no problem booking trains out of Atocha.
Is it perhaps because another section of the high speed line is about to open?
I did see somewhere that a new section had been energised recently, but nothing about the date of new services.
Any info welcome.
 
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158801

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Hi,

No idea about your journey but I have had problems with RENFE in the past.

All trains on one line open for booking - apart from mine. It eventually got released - about 3 weeks beforehand.
 

LNW-GW Joint

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Hi,
No idea about your journey but I have had problems with RENFE in the past.
All trains on one line open for booking - apart from mine. It eventually got released - about 3 weeks beforehand.

Fingers crossed then!
The booking horizon hasn't changed yet.
You can't book later dates on loco2 either.
 

158801

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An option would be to look at www.bahn.co.uk

Are the trains you want shown on this website for the date you want ?

If not have a look at the trains for a date prior to when you're going and the check the " dates of operation " on DB's website. Does that show your trains as running on your dates ? ( IE are they seasonal July - August for example).

A friend of mine used to work for Great Rail Journeys. The person working there who dealt with RENFE also said they were a nightmare to deal with.

3 weeks prior to travel they would have 40 people booked on a tour with no idea if the train was bookable !
 

thomson787

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Ashford
I work for Voyages-SNCF and we have had major issues with renfe being slow at uploading there schedule's, they are taking ages to even upload the main routes let alone the smaller routes at the moment it's a case of leaving it as late as poss at times.
 

LNW-GW Joint

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An option would be to look at www.bahn.co.uk
Are the trains you want shown on this website for the date you want ?
If not have a look at the trains for a date prior to when you're going and the check the " dates of operation " on DB's website. Does that show your trains as running on your dates ? ( IE are they seasonal July - August for example).

Thanks for the advice. It's a very odd picture.
None of the trains I want are on bahn.com after September 3, and those for earlier dates say "runs not daily Aug 13-Sept 3".
However, I can see the times on renfe.com on the dates I want (Sept 9-10), for Porto-Vigo and Santiago-Medina del Campo, but also "train not available at the moment, please try later".
I can actually book an MD service Medina-Salamanca on Sept 10, but there's no point doing that unless I can get the connecting Alvia train from Santiago.
Finally, neither times nor booking are shown for Vigo-Santiago or Salamanca-Madrid! The message in Spanish says: "Para el trayecto de IDA no existe conexion directa o este tren no circula en la fecha solicitada".
I find it hard to believe there are no midweek services on these relatively busy lines.
 

eddp

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Berlin
There is a new high speed line opening around those dates which your train will run on, unfortunately I don't know when RENFE might release the tickets but that would explain why the trains aren't showing up yet...
 

Oscar

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Bookings open for different routes at different times. As far as I understand operational planning is sometimes not done very far in advance and so timetables are not confirmed until relatively late. I had a conversation with the person who runs loco2.com about this a few months ago, he has access to the dates up to which each line is open for booking.

A separate problem is that certain classes are sometimes shown as greyed out on the Renfe website but a price is shown. On the loco2.com site nothing is shown. In practice this means that the train does not run with this class of accommodation.
 
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LNW-GW Joint

Veteran Member
Joined
22 Feb 2011
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19,555
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Mold, Clwyd
There is a new high speed line opening around those dates which your train will run on, unfortunately I don't know when RENFE might release the tickets but that would explain why the trains aren't showing up yet...

Bookings open for different routes at different times. As far as I understand operational planning is sometimes not done very far in advance and so timetables are not confirmed until relatively late. I had a conversation with the person who runs loco2.com about this a few months ago, he has access to the dates up to which each line is open for booking.

A separate problem is that certain classes are sometimes shown as greyed out on the Renfe website but a price is shown. On the loco2.com site nothing is shown. In practice this means that the train does not run with this class of accommodation.

Thanks guys. I was aware of the new line but there is nothing on the RENFE site about its opening date.
Power was only switched on recently, seems a bit early for passenger trains to be running!


I have now been able to book Medina-Salamanca, Salamanca-Avila and Avila-Madrid, but there's no change on Porto-Vigo, Vigo-Santiago and Santiago-Medina.
I discovered La Vuelta was passing through Avila on the day I was travelling through (Sept 11), so I booked trains so I could have a 3-hour stop there.
Hopefully I will get to see something of the race.

Update Aug 19:
The long-distance trains to/from Galicia appeared today, just 21 days in advance.
Only 2-3 days of booking have been opened.
They are the old times, so the opening of the new line has nothing to do with the delay.
Anyway I just need a local MD train Vigo-Santiago which is no problem to pay on the day if necessary.
 
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dutchflyer

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For Porto-Vigo-dont worry-always more empty seats as occupied. Also I think there are not any special offers in advance either.
 

LNW-GW Joint

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For Porto-Vigo-dont worry-always more empty seats as occupied. Also I think there are not any special offers in advance either.

Thanks - all booked now.
I thought it was a rather slow journey until I realised there was a time change at the border!
 
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