Pamplona to Ponferrada

[peregrina2000]

My plans this year involve hopping on a bus or train in Pamplona to go to Ponferrada. I am about ready to pull out my hair trying to find travel info, and am hoping that either falcon or whariwharangi or some other competent soul will help me out.

Rome2rio says there are 5 trains a day, I can find only two on Renfe.com, one at 8:37 with transfer, the other at 13:17, direct.

Rome2rio also gives me weird bus information -- it says there is an hourly bus from Pamplona to Leon, and then I transfer to a bus that goes twice a WEEK to Ponferrada. That can´t be right. I can find no buses on either alsa.es or movelia.es for this route, even if I try to break it up in León the way rome2rio says. So I must be doing something wrong, but can´t figure out what.

Thanks for any help, buen camino, Laurie

 

[whariwharangi]

RometoRio is a useful tool to find service providers but it is not the service provider and does not provide accurate schedule or cost information.

Renfe has two trains from Pamplona to Ponferrada as you describe. Not bad if you consider there are but 4 from Madrid to Ponferrada.

I get no results for ALSA from Pamplona to Ponferrada.

If I were to try going from Pamplona to Ponferrada by bus ... the straightest line follows the camino. Pamplona to Logroño with service provided by Estellesa, Logroño to Burgos with Autobuses Jiminez, and ALSA from Burgos to Ponferrada where there are 3 buses daily for the section from Burgos to Leon. Its likely a long day with the transfers needed.

If you want to do the whole trip with ALSA its possible to go from Pamplona to San Sebastian to Bilbao to Oviedo to Leon to Ponferrada . You can play with the variables to get some efficiencies out of the long haul buses between these points.

Si yo fuera tu ... plan to take the 1317 Renfe Alvia from Pamplona to Ponferrada.

Renfe
http://www.renfe.com/

LaEstellesa
http://www.laestellesa.com/

Autobuses Jiminez
http://www.autobusesjimenez.com/

ALSA
http://www.alsa.es/en/

 

[peregrina2000]

Thank you, whariwharangi, I had my fingers crossed you would look at this! Laurie

 

[Castilian]

By train, in addition to the direct one and the option changing trains in Vitoria, there's an option changing trains in Castejón (de Ebro) or, if you prefer it, in Tudela (de Navarra). Take the last train in the day from Pamplona to either Castejón (de Ebro) or Tudela (de Navarra) and the overnight train from Castejón (de Ebro) or Tudela (de Navarra) to Ponferrada.

By bus, in theory, although you would need to confirm it (because it isn't showed -yet- on the Alsa web), Alsa should provide a direct bus from Pamplona to Ponferrada on Fridays from July 15th till August 31.
Year-round, you could make the route by bus changing buses in Vitoria but buses from Vitoria to Ponferrada run only twice a week (Fridays and Sundays if memory serves me right). The route from Pamplona (aka Iruña) to Vitoria (aka Gasteiz) is made by

http://www.autobuseslaunion.com

and the route from Vitoria to Ponferrada by Alsa.