Renfe train schedules

[Paula TO]

Hello all. Firstly thank you to all of you who give of your time to help pilgrims here on the forum. This is my first post, but I've been reading for a while.

My husband and I will be doing a shorter pilgrimage from Sarria to Santiago de Compostela next May. Our fervent hope is that three years later, we will have the time and ability to do the full Camino Frances pilgrimage, but one never knows what life has in store.

We are flying into and out of Barcelona, and will take the train to Sarria (we like train travel). When we return from Santiago to Barcelona, we plan to break the journey up, and stay one night in Leon and one night in Pamplona, just for a quick look around those cities.

I checked the Renfe train schedules and put in fictitious consecutive dates in July. So it shows the train from Santiago de Compostela leaves at 8:34 am and arrives in Leon at 13:02. The next day, the train leaves Leon at 8:34 and arrives in Pamplona at 13:02. And the following day, the train leaves Pamplona at, you guessed it, 8:34 and arrives in Barcelona at 13:02. So have I done something wrong? Or are trains only scheduled to leave and arrive at specific times, so they just kill time along the route? It seemed bizarre to me. They were each different fares as well, so it wasn't that I had mistakenly made the same search each time.

Any insight into this mystery? Thanks in advance!

 

[HighlandsHiker]

Paula, the Renfe site is "sometimes" very difficult. I just tried your itinerary on my Renfe mobile app after having trouble with the online site as well - a different kind of trouble than you had, but trouble. I'm seeing your ALVIA 00625 leaving Santiago at 08:32 and arriving at Leon at 13:02, then going on via Burgos to Pamplona arriving at 17:22 and then on via Zaragoza (not Madrid) to Barcelona arriving at 21:25. Sometimes the main Renfe site wants to be spoon-fed - e.g. by breaking up your enquiries into segments (like you did). This trip you're looking at looks like it can be picked up and continued on the following day easily, and there is also an earlier train Leon to Pamplona and also an earlier one from Pamplona to Barcelona on your following days if you like. Maybe try using their mobile app?

 

[Paula TO]

Thanks Highlands! Yeah, the info I first collected earlier today was on my desktop. I've just conducted the same searches on my iPad and received a completely different set of times. Clearly, the correct ones.

 

[jo webber]

Glad to hear you made it through the Renfe maze. Today I finally was able to book Barcelona to Pamplona for Sept. The last two times I tried, over the last couple of weeks, it was a major fail.

When I first went to the site to check prices, got right through just fine. Then couldn't book. Frustrating.

 

[Saint Mike II]

One other little renfe quirk, they have summer & winter time tables & the winter one extends well into June. Cheers

 

[gracethepilgrim]

Yes the mobile RENFE Timetable app seems easier to navigate timetables to search for potential connections. There is another RENFE app for booking tickets. It's best to download both apps.