Travelling from Madrid to Ponferrada

[Diane Kinney]

Our group of five is arriving in Madrid around 12:00 noon September 5 planning to start our camino in Ponferrada on Sept 7. It was our intention to take the train to Ponferrada and spend two nights there. The only train however leaves at 10:30 am. The next option is to take the train to Leon and bus to Ponferrada but the bus leaves about an hour before the train leaves. Car rental companies close before we arrive too. As we have made arrangements for accommodations in Ponferrada for the 5th we would like to get there.
Does anyone know of a service that we could use to get from Leon to Ponferrada?

 

[whariwharangi]

The only train currently listed for 7 Sept is Trenhotel and leaves at 2230 ... not 1030. If you were to go next week there are 4 trains to Ponferrada. There are also several trains from Leon to Ponferrada ... the schedule will not give all the options so you could go Madrid to Leon ... wait a while ... then go Leon to Ponferrada.

Note schedule is not reliable (existing trains will run but more may be added) more than 30 days in advance and I note only the Trenhotel is listed both for Madrid to Ponferrada and Leon to Ponferrada 7 Sept. Try again after 7 August as the schedule changes at the start of fall. You can use July service as a guide; the schedule on main routes doesn't change much.

Otherwise, ALSA buses leave for Ponferrada from T4 Barajas 1345, and Estacion Sur 1430.

ALSA
https://www.alsa.es/en/home

 

[NualaOC]

Hi Diane, I took the night train (trenhotel) from Madrid to Ponferrada last month. It arrives there at around 5am, which might not suit you if you don't intend to start walking right away.

There are also Alsa buses from Madrid Airport (Terminal 4) to Ponferrada. This might be a better option for you. I used the bus last year to get from Ponferrada to Madrid. It was fine.

Buen Camino

 

[Castilian]

The high speed train line from Madrid to León (currently in service just till Valladolid) is expected to be opened to passenger train traffic in September. AFAIK, the exact date isn't known yet. The opening of that new high speed line will mean a (big) change in schedules (not only of trains to León but also of trains going further away to, for example, Ponferrada or Oviedo) and they aren't likely to be known more than a few days in advance. It's sure you'll have more than one option to make the route by train changing trains in León and you might have too more than one direct train from Madrid to Ponferrada (maybe one in the afternoon suiting you) but you'll have to keep checking the schedule... till it's finally fully published.

There are plenty of buses from León to Ponferrada so you shouldn't have problems either to make the route by a mix of train from Madrid to León and bus from León to Ponferrada... unless you take a train from Madrid arriving too late to León (what I think it's unlikely given your arrival time to Madrid).

For buses from León to Ponferrada as well as direct buses from Madrid (either airport or downtown) to Ponferrada, take a look at the web of Alsa:

www.alsa.es/en