Madrid Barajas to Puerta De Atocha Railway Station?

[Tom the Tenor]

It looks like I will be travelling to Spain at end of January and was thinking of routing BD120 & BD481 from Dublin via LHR to Madrid. Arrival in Madrid is 1205 and does anyone know if there would be enough time to connect with a 1440 or a 1515 train to Badajoz from Puerta De Atocha Railway Station? From Barajas I was thinking of public transport bus/metro rather than taxis. Thank you, TTT.

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What we want is a bit of Pop Music, none of this Beethoven!!

[BRUpax]

Bloody hell Tom, are you kidding or what? Wait till you get there (cos you might not be on time anyway). Go to the airport information desk and ask them. They will have all the latest and accurate info you need to know.

[Tom the Tenor]

Fair enough point BRUpax. I am so eager to try and get all the journey done in one day I am not altogether thinking right. Last time I was in Barajas was 1992 where the public transport from the airport was by bus to Plaza de Colon. Later last night I was speaking with Spain and it turns out the Metro now extends as far as the airport so I guess that is an improvement, anyway. Thank you, TTT.

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What we want is a bit of Pop Music, none of this Beethoven!!

[McD]

Tom,

I visited the Madrid Metro website (http://www.metromadrid.es/) and YES, the metro system does extend out to Barajas airport. You can easily get from the Aeropuerto to Atocha on the Metro. (There are actually two stops, "Atocha" and "Atocha RENFE". They are consecutive stops, one minute apart. It appears that the "Puerta de Atocha" railway station is the same as the "Atocha RENFE" station, since long-distance trains operate out of there. You will want to confirm this before following the instructions below.)

If Atocha RENFE is your destination, you will make two changes enroute, and the estimated travel time is approx. 43 minutes, once the train departs the Aeropuerto metro station. If you are traveling on a weekday, the trains that serve the airport run every 4 to 6 minutes during the afternoon.

1 - Depart the Aeropuerto on Line 8 (the pink line) towards Mar de Cristal stop.
2 - Get off at the Mar de Cristal stop, and transfer to line 4 (the brown line) towards Arguelles.
3 - Get off at the "Bilbao" stop (about 15 stops later), and transfer to line 1 (the light blue line) towards Congosto.
4 - Go 7 stops to the Atocha RENFE station.

It appears that a one-way metro ticket (valid for 3 hours) costs 135 ptas. You can purchase your ticket at a vending machine or ticket office.

Good luck with your travel planning!

(And, IMHO, you are to be commended, Tom, for demonstrating initiative (gasp!) in making the effort to actually plan ahead (bigger gasp!) before arriving at the airport. Perhaps the queues at the airport information desk wouldn't be so long if other people could be bothered to do the same :) )


[This message has been edited by McD (edited 28 December 2000).]

[Avman]

Jeez McD! Next time I'm travelling somewhere I'll know who to contact beforehand. :)

Didn't you have anything better to do this Christmas? ( :) Only joking - it was real nice of you to go to the trouble for TtT). Me, I'm too lazy. I just jump into a taxi or hire a car.

[BRUpax]

http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/redface.gif Did I get my hand slapped by McD?

[McD]

Yes, BRUPax, but only in a nice way, of course. :)

Ok Avman, I admit it . . . I can be a real geek sometimes! But I truly enjoy travel research as a hobby.

Psssst . . . hey buddy . . . need a hotel room in Paris?

[Tom the Tenor]

Thanks, lads for all your imput! Have not logged on since my reply to BRUpax the other night as the 5 cms of snow over here in Cork has brought the place creaking to a halt and I have been getting home late from work yesterday and today. There is also an Air Europa flight from Madrid to Badajoz on ATPs(!) late in the evening and that would very likely connect if I flew Cork-LHR-MAD to Badajoz but I think that sector really drives the prices up by quite a bit but I will check it out again later over the weekend after working again tonight and resting tomorrow. Thank you, TTT.

[Tom the Tenor]

McD, Thank you so much for such a detailed post. I am taking on board all your information because when I do travel I have decided to teminate my flights in Madrid and get a train from there to Badajoz rather than try connecting with the Air Europa ATP flight from MAD to BJZ. Have done some travelling in the north of Spain around Aragon and Cataluna in the past and a good train ride from Madrid through Extramadura to Badajoz should be enjoyable. Anyone know where I can get Badajoz weather on the net? It is not on NOAA Website or the CNN site the last time I checked. Thank you, TTT.

[McD]

Tom, try this site:

http://www.weather.com/

In the left column, you can click on World Weather. After you select Spain on the
right side of the next page, a list of cities in Spain (including Badajoz) will show up...you may have to scroll down a bit. Hope this helps.

[This message has been edited by McD (edited 02 January 2001).]

[Tom the Tenor]

Thanks, McD for the link! I am set up nicely now to keep in regular contact with the Badajoz weather. The good news is that today I bought my tickets for the journey and I have decided to fly from Dublin with British Midland on the flights mentioned above BD120/481 on 30th January coming back on 8th Feburary. In the end choosing to begin the flights in Dublin rather than Cork was dictated by price! DUB-LHR-MAD return with BMA is IR£180 whereas going from Cork would have been in dollars, $274, close, I guess to IR£250. Bus fare to Dublin is just IR£13 and I can stay with my cousin there for free! The schedule says DUB-LHR is flown with A321 and LHR-MAD is B737-500. All I need now are some people that can walk my Labrador, Sam everyday whilst I am away as I think I would prefer not to have to put Sam in kennels. Have three volunteers all ready so we are getting there! Thank you, TTT.