Spanish public transport

[Myfeethurt]

Anyone finding it nigh on impossible to figure out the busses in Spain?

Currently looking for a bus from Burgos to Villanueva de Argano or Villalbilla de Burgos and the Websites are offering 0 help. I get that there may be no bus to such a small town, but it's an issue I've found all over the country, whether I'm in a big city or tiny town. There's barely any route maps, no timetables, information on where to actually get the bus, nothing on Google maps' route finder etc.

Rome2Rio states that Amaya busses runs 4 times a day, but going to their website shows a page that hasn't been updated in over 5 years and shows one route, at 8pm, with no information on where to actually get the bus from. Its an awful experience

 

[Kathar1na]

Anyone finding it nigh on impossible to figure out the busses in Spain?

No, I personally didn't find it neigh to impossible to figure out the busses in Spain. In fact, I was pleased about the offer for public transport and the cheap fees. For internet searches, it helps to use a few useful words like transporte, mapa, autobus, ruta, parada, estacion, ayuntamiento + name of town. Also simply talking with the staff at your accommodation or in a bar and asking them where the bus stop is.

In Burgos, busses leave from the large Estación de Autobús where you can also buy your ticket. It's easy to find. If you are unsure about timetables and need to know in advance before arriving in a place, email the bus company and ask. Buen Camino! I

 

[Jeff Crawley]

Anyone finding it nigh on impossible to figure out the busses in Spain?

Currently looking for a bus from Burgos to Villanueva de Argano or Villalbilla de Burgos and the Websites are offering 0 help. I get that there may be no bus to such a small town, but it's an issue I've found all over the country, whether I'm in a big city or tiny town. There's barely any route maps, no timetables, information on where to actually get the bus, nothing on Google maps' route finder etc.

Rome2Rio states that Amaya busses runs 4 times a day, but going to their website shows a page that hasn't been updated in over 5 years and shows one route, at 8pm, with no information on where to actually get the bus from. Its an awful experience

"I get that there may be no bus to such a small town, but it's an issue I've found all over the country, whether I'm in a big city or tiny town. There's barely any route maps, no timetables, information on where to actually get the bus, nothing on Google maps' route finder etc."

Sounds just like the UK!

My experience with local buses in Spain is that they are for local people and therefore they are expected to know when the buses run! As for routes, I was travelling from Muxia back to Santiago and the bus left the official route to pick up an elderly lady in a small village!

Had you thought of trying the Oficina de Turismo or the Ayuntamiento in Burgos?

 

[Tincatinker]

@Myfeethurt Guerrero Bus has a departure at 09:20 Monday to Friday http://www.guerrerobus.net/horarios/horarios1.html

Amaya has a departure at 17:30 weekdays and 13:30 Saturday https://autobusesamaya.wordpress.com/las-rutas/castrojeriz/ and at 13:15 and 13:30 weekdays https://autobusesamaya.wordpress.com/las-rutas/sasamon/ https://autobusesamaya.wordpress.com/las-rutas/villadiego/

All departures from Estacion de Autobus, Calle de Miranda, 4, 09002 Burgos. Tickets available at the station.

 

[Kathar1na]

The website of the town of Villabilla de Burgos - not far from Burgos and hardly rural Spain:

Horario de autobuses | Villalbilla de Burgos

Villalbilla de Burgos: Las líneas Amaya, Guerrero y el servicio Metropolitano de Burgos. Horarios a partir del 1 de Abril de 2017 De Villalbilla a Burgos Hora Día semanal Empresa

villalbilladeburgos.burgos.es

There is mention of an urban bus line which may be of interest, depending on where the bus stop is and the address of which is mentioned.

 

[Bradypus]

Sounds just like the UK!

To be fair I think the UK is pretty well served with online bus information. Thinking particularly of the Traveline website and app in its various national flavours. All of more interest to me now since I received my all-Wales bus pass a few months back!

 

[Anamiri]

Anyone finding it nigh on impossible to figure out the busses in Spain?

Currently looking for a bus from Burgos to Villanueva de Argano or Villalbilla de Burgos and the Websites are offering 0 help. I get that there may be no bus to such a small town, but it's an issue I've found all over the country, whether I'm in a big city or tiny town. There's barely any route maps, no timetables, information on where to actually get the bus, nothing on Google maps' route finder etc.

Rome2Rio states that Amaya busses runs 4 times a day, but going to their website shows a page that hasn't been updated in over 5 years and shows one route, at 8pm, with no information on where to actually get the bus from. Its an awful experience

If you're already in central Burgos, the bus station is back over the river. I picked up a map from my accommodation and it is clearly marked. The process was pretty simple.
I wanted to take a side trip to Bilbao, so I walked to the bus station and made enquiries and bought tickets then.
The buses in Spain run like clockwork I found, so it doesnt pay to cut it too fine as they run to time.
(For short trips a cab is another option because you're not bound by a schedule).

 

[NorthernLight]

If Villabilla de Burgos is a suburb of Burgos, it will be served by the city’s urban bus system. I think there is a bus stop on the south side of the river, just west of the road that goes to the bus station. I think I may have caught that bus one camino when I wanted to skip the walk out of town (which isn’t a bad one).

Your host at your accommodation will likely be able to help. The Tourist Office would for sure.

 

[Tincatinker]

As a general note on solving public transport questions in Spain: it helps if you place yourself in the position of the local people rather than that of a voyager with one destination in mind. Public transport serves the local public so the network will provide the journeys that local people require. Use a reasonable map or mapping app; look for potential final destinations along major road routes that might pass near your desired destination. Search on that basis. Most buses will drop you anywhere on request so if the bus to Castrojerez passes the turn-off to Erehwon the driver will drop you there and you'll be left with a short walk

In the instance of the OP in this thread the buses that serve the two desired destinations have final destinations of Castrojerez, Fromista; Sasamon and Villadiego. Two of those might be of value to any pilgrim that needs to skip ahead on the Camino Frances.

 

[peregrina2000]

Anyone finding it nigh on impossible to figure out the busses in Spain?

As others have said, it’s hard to imagine a country with better public transportation than Spain. But getting access to information about the connections you may need, especially if you go from one comunidad autónoma to another, can be challenging.

If @ElCascayal sees this, she can tell you about her effort to find how to get from León to Tui on public transportation. It wound up involving four buses, different lines, unsearchable as a continuous trip, or at least that was her experience. She had to figure out what the logical hubs were, realize that the short distance bus lines are typically intra-regional, and book separate tickets. So a map and some knowledge of regional boundaries would be helpful.

She wound up going Leon to Ponferrada, Ponferrada to Lugo, Lugo to Vigo, and Vigo to Tui. And made it in one day!

 

[henrythedog]

As others have said, it’s hard to imagine a country with better public transportation than Spain. But getting access to information about the connections you may need, especially if you go from one comunidad autónoma to another, can be challenging.

If @ElCascayal sees this, she can tell you about her effort to find how to get from León to Tui on public transportation. It wound up involving four buses, different lines, unsearchable as a continuous trip, or at least that was her experience. She had to figure out what the logical hubs were, realize that the short distance bus lines are typically intra-regional, and book separate tickets. So a map and some knowledge of regional boundaries would be helpful.

She wound up going Leon to Ponferrada, Ponferrada to Lugo, Lugo to Vigo, and Vigo to Tui. And made it in one day!

Switzerland comes easily to mind!

However your point is very helpful. Inter-regional and intra-regional systems are totally distinct and do not necessarily join-up.

The local services which exist are often based around the local population’s needs (no surprise there really); so there may be busses to market towns on market days and services may coincide with school opening and closing times rather than service the needs of peregrinos.

Trains - excellent as they are - prioritise Madrid’s role as deliberately-located central capital city and transport hub; so the ‘spoke’ routes are better enabled than the inter-regional ones and it’s often necessary to travel two sides of a triangle than go directly between two large and reasonably close large cities.

It’s fairly obvious that the CdF doesn’t really follow a route which has any great significance to the Spanish population on a day-to-day basis as any public transport is by coincidence not design.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

I'm astonished at how informative the Pamplona city bus website is. I've seen only a few websites as well constructed as it.

Transporte Urbano Comarcal - TCC Pamplona

infotuc.es

On the other hand, Jiménez Movildad bought out PLM and hasn't responded to two emails sent to their info account about whether one of PLM's routes is still active.

 

[Kathar1na]

Another useful thing to know are the names of the regions you are in because regional public transportation is apparently organised (and subsidised) at the regional level. You will also find information about their transport on demand options. For example entering transporte autobuses CYL or similar into Google Search will provide links to bus companies and timetables from and to Burgos. There is actually quite a lot of relevant info on the internet although of course often only in Spanish.

There are only four regions along the Camino Frances to remember: Navarra, La Rioja, Castilla y Leon (CYL), and Galicia.

 

[peregrina2000]

Switzerland comes easily to mind!

I don’t doubt what you say, but for those of us in the US, it is impossible to believe that it can get any better. I would think I had died and gone to heaven.

But I won’t derail this thread with an irrelevant tangent.

Trains - excellent as they are - prioritise Madrid’s role as deliberately-located central capital city and transport hub; so the ‘spoke’ routes are better enabled than the inter-regional ones and it’s often necessary to travel two sides of a triangle than go directly between two large and reasonably close large cities.

I agree with you about trains, and it gets political. Hard to know how much is central dominance and how much is adherence to the typical hub and spoke method of transportation.

I have seen that a high speed connection through Madrid will soon allow north south and eastwest high speed routes to take passengers without changing in Atocha or Chamartín. But that is actually a reinforcement of the hub and spoke.

The metro in Madrid made huge leaps forward when it added some circular routes, for the very reasons you suggested. In some ways, for me, it’s “be careful what you wish for,” because construction of those rail lines would wind messing up camino routes for years and years and years. As those who have walked the Vdlp/Sanabrés can confirm!

 

[oursonpolaire]

In small centres, I just ask at the bar nearest to the parada. In larger places, there is usually an information person at the bus station who (I have found) was ready to pleasantly provide me with the information I needed, often carefully writing it out for me.

 

[peregrina2000]

Currently looking for a bus from Burgos to Villanueva de Argano or Villalbilla de Burgos

Sometimes the websites of the towns themselves give information.

For instance, Villalbilla de Burgos shows the following.




And for Villanueva de Argano, look at this website.
https://www.horario-autobuses.com/interurbanos/castilla-y-leon/burgos.html

Looks like it’s the Guerrero bus line.

 

[El Cascayal]

As others have said, it’s hard to imagine a country with better public transportation than Spain. But getting access to information about the connections you may need, especially if you go from one comunidad autónoma to another, can be challenging.

If @ElCascayal sees this, she can tell you about her effort to find how to get from León to Tui on public transportation. It wound up involving four buses, different lines, unsearchable as a continuous trip, or at least that was her experience. She had to figure out what the logical hubs were, realize that the short distance bus lines are typically intra-regional, and book separate tickets. So a map and some knowledge of regional boundaries would be helpful.

She wound up going Leon to Ponferrada, Ponferrada to Lugo, Lugo to Vigo, and Vigo to Tui. And made it in one day!

This thread is so interesting. Laurie summed up my odyssey well of searching for transport from Leon to Vigo and Tui. It takes some sleuthing to figure it all out, and I personally enjoy doing the research.

Some caveats:
-Rome2Rio though big picture helpful never gives you the full story, though it is often a good place to start.
- ALSA goes all over Spain, each region has regional bus lines ie in Galicia there is MONBUS, there are additional local bus lines that locals know about and depend on.
- when at the bottom of your inquiry you check the box for “all possible combinations” I have had zero success and this is where piecing together your journey town to town in order to get to your destination takes trial and trial again and often combining different bus carriers to achieve your desired destination and arrival times. It isn’t as hard as it sounds, all you need is good WiFi and patience. Make sure buses from different carriers arrive at the same estación de autobuses, most do, and a 10 minute window between buses is usually enough if you bring your mochila onboard and exit the bus quickly.
-BlaBla car is another good alternative, though most trips aren’t posted until the prior day.

In all, I have found Spanish ground transportation to be clean, precise, punctual, affordable and much better than most places in the US.
Aymarah

 

[Former member 102963]

To be fair I think the UK is pretty well served with online bus information. Thinking particularly of the Traveline website and app in its various national flavours. All of more interest to me now since I received my all-Wales bus pass a few months back!

Agreed! Think there may be some age related bargains in Scotland too (compared to England) on the trains which I need to start checking out as I get closer to 60.

 

[MassNative]

Anyone finding it nigh on impossible to figure out the busses in Spain?

Currently looking for a bus from Burgos to Villanueva de Argano or Villalbilla de Burgos and the Websites are offering 0 help. I get that there may be no bus to such a small town, but it's an issue I've found all over the country, whether I'm in a big city or tiny town. There's barely any route maps, no timetables, information on where to actually get the bus, nothing on Google maps' route finder etc.

Rome2Rio states that Amaya busses runs 4 times a day, but going to their website shows a page that hasn't been updated in over 5 years and shows one route, at 8pm, with no information on where to actually get the bus from. Its an awful experience

I have taken two ALSA buses into and out of Leon. Booked my tickets on their website. Time schedules published on the website, and the buses left and arrived on schedule both times. I did have to know my Bus' ultimate destination in the big León bus terminal, to get the correct route.

Very good experience for me. Sorry that you have struggled...

 

[Myfeethurt]

Nice to see my rant has brought a lot of helpful information out for anybody having trouble in the future.

I got the bus, but it required talking to humans, which I'm adverse to, living in the year 2022.

 

[wayfarer]

Maybe a little less ranting and a bit more research.

 

[oursonpolaire]

Agreed! Think there may be some age related bargains in Scotland too (compared to England) on the trains which I need to start checking out as I get closer to 60.

Not only does RENFE provide the legendary tarjeta dorada for over-60 riders, which provides extraordinary discounts, but most bus services will give you similar discounts, although a few will only do so for electronic ticket purchases. Feel free to enquire, especially at turismos or main bus stations. In Saint Sebastian, the turismo set me up for the local bus service with a card.

 

[AidaYYC]

Anyone finding it nigh on impossible to figure out the busses in Spain?

Currently looking for a bus from Burgos to Villanueva de Argano or Villalbilla de Burgos and the Websites are offering 0 help. I get that there may be no bus to such a small town, but it's an issue I've found all over the country, whether I'm in a big city or tiny town. There's barely any route maps, no timetables, information on where to actually get the bus, nothing on Google maps' route finder etc.

Rome2Rio states that Amaya busses runs 4 times a day, but going to their website shows a page that hasn't been updated in over 5 years and shows one route, at 8pm, with no information on where to actually get the bus from. Its an awful experience

Best source of information are the albergues, specially the municipal albergues. Good luck and Buen Camino