Spain has an excellent high speed train network though these trains do not officially take bicycles.

Bicycles may be transported on local and regional trains and long distance buses. The general opinion on English language cyclists’ forums is that accompanied bike transport on Spanish trains is very difficult, if not impossible. This is an opinion which seems to be shared by the Spanish themselves. A Spanish cyclist wrote recently in “Crazy Guy on a Bike”: “Train would be more logical but we are quite scared of problems with the Spanish train operator Renfe, it’s nearly impossible to take your bicycle on a train that is crossing the border. Besides, standard train prices for this distance are about 200€/px.”
We ourselves have crossed Spain a number of times by train, but have only taken a folding bicycle there so we’ve put together official information, spent some time reading reports by travelling cyclists and have tapped the fund of experience available to CTC members.

 

Getting to Spain from the UK

Take the Brittany Line ferry to Bilbao or Santander.

Take a ferry and train or Eurostar to Paris and then take:

• An overnight SNCF sleeper trains to Hendaye (France) /Irun (Spain) or Latour farther east on the French-Spanish border, then a long distance bus or a local train to your final destination.
• European Bike Express runs a weekly coach in summer with a bike trailer into continental Europe from eastern England and offers four routes: The Atlantic route serves Western France while the Mediterranean routes Med A, Med B and Med C serve Central, Eastern and Southern France and Northern Spain (Rosas, north of Barcelona). The Atlantic route can drop you in Bayonne where you can take a local train to Hendaye / Irun (35-40 min) and follow the advice given above.

Trains

To quote the Man at Seat 61 website on travelling with a bicycle on Spanish Railways: “Once in Spain, the
problem begins.”
The problems are actually with one Spanish railway company: RENFE which unfortunately is the biggest operator, running practically all long distance trains. The structure of railway operation in Spain is not quite as complicated as in Britain, but there do seem to be many operators. The map just shows the main lines. There is a nationally owned company and five regionally owned companies operating four different gauge systems plus a number of light rail and metro systems in major cities. Officially bicycles may not be taken on almost all long distance trains, but they may be taken on some regional and local trains, but at the discretion of the conductors and also the gate staff. This can make life difficult, especially if one does not speak Spanish.

Looking at the services offered by the various companies:

RENFE (Much of the country)
Renfe Operadora is a nationally owned company that operates goods and passenger trains on Iberian (1668 mm), standard gauge (1435 mm) and metre gauge tracks. It has various classes of trains, only some of which take bicycles at all and for the others one appears to be dependent of the good will of station staff and train crews:

Long distance international express/High speed trains/Inter City (Larga-Distancia) trains
There are any number of very comfortable, very swish, modern high speed trains linking major centres in Spain: AVE, Altaria, Alvia, Alaris, EuroMed, Arco, or Talgo. However bikes are not officially carried on any long distance daytime trains (‘AVE & Larga-Distancia’ ), even in bike bags. All bags have to go through a scanner, making it difficult to get a bike on board. However one correspondent put his bike in a bag and travelled several times on long distance high speed trains. Whether one can emulate this feat depends, we suspect, on one’s knowledge of Spanish and self confidence.
You can use the domestic internal sleeper routes from Madrid – A Coruña – Pontevedra – Ferrol, or Barcelona – Granada, Barcelona – Gijón, Barcelona – A Coruña – Vigo remembering to pack your bike in a bag and book a whole compartment.

 

Regional trains (Media-Distancia)
These offer slower connections up to about 200km across the country. The RENFE website states that most medium distance trains can be used to transport bicycles. Only one bike per passenger is allowed for passengers with a valid ticket for themselves and the bicycle. Groups travelling with more than three bicycles must get authorisation from RENFE in advance. Loading and unloading is the passenger’s responsibility. Bicycle tickets are necessary on many of the RENFE Media-Distancia trains and the number of spaces for bikes is limited. The tickets are free but you need one for each leg of your journey if you have to change trains. The Seat61 website quotes a cyclist whose successful attempt to obtain a bicycle ticket for a Media-Distancia train in Madrid took 45 minutes involving five discussions with officials.

A local train near Cadiz

Local Trains (Cercanias)
These are local commuter trains and the like, covering 60 km or so. Bicycles are allowed on most of them outside peak times. The exceptions include the one between Torremolinos, Malaga Airport and Malaga main station. Conductor-Guards can refuse bicycle access if the trains are full, and they are carried at the owner’s responsibility. It has been suggested that an elastic bungee or two is useful to secure the bikes. Bikes need not be bagged.
Most of the information we can find in addition to the Crazy Guy quote at the start of this chapter suggests, with Seat61 website reinforcing the impression that bike transport by RENFE Media-Distancia and Caracanias trains remains somewhat of a challenge. The CTC Forum has a thread on putting bicycles on trains and buses in Spain. The feeling we get from most participants is that travelling within a region on a regional train in Spain ranges is difficult. The CTC members–only travel advice databank offers information from 2006 suggesting that various lines do not take bicycles or only at very inconvenient times. (BTW If you are a cyclist in Britain and not a CTC member it is worth considering joining the organisation, because the touring information you can download from the touring web site is well worth the subscription.)
Another correspondent wrote: “Basically Spain is as bad as it gets for bikes on trains, and still getting worse!” We suspect if you speak Spanish things will be easier. Having said all this, the narrow gauge railways
in Spain are normally much more cyclist friendly:

FEVE – Metre gauge network in northern Spain
Since December 2012 RENFE has operated much of the narrow railway system in the north of Spain formerly run by FEVE as an independent organisation. You are permitted to roll your bike onto these trains free of charge. The trains are extremely slow, but the routes are very picturesque. The line from Oviedo to Ferrol is a serious, though little known contender for the title of the most spectacular railway in the world. Bilbao metro system, which covers a considerable area, takes bicycles free of charge.

FEVE train at Ferrol station
Photo: Judith & Neil Forsyth

Regionally-owned railways

EuskoTren
EuskoTren – (in Spanish or Basque) operates a
network of narrow gauge trains in the Basque provinces of Biscay and Gipuzko that connect with the metre gauge RENFE trains. From what we have read Euskotren are extremely accommodating with bicycles and do not charge.

Ferrocarril de Sóller
Ferrocarril de Sóller (FS) runs a narrow gauge line (914 mm – 36”) between Palma and Sóller on Majorca. It is a museum railway, and privately run. The line does not carry accompanied bicycles according to a report in “Die Welt” in August 2010, but the buses in the area will take bicycles and they are cheaper. We did check with the railway company and they confirmed that the trains do not take bicycles.

The line to Sineu in Mallorca reopened in 2004

Sinue Station

Serveis Ferroviaris de Mallorca
Serveis Ferroviaris de Mallorca (SFM) operates a metre gauge network on Majorca (diagram). According to an English language website on the Balearics “Bicycles may be taken on the two SFM train routes. However, there are restrictions about when they may be carried, and a maximum of four bicycles in any one carriage.”
Bicycles are not carried in the early afternoon between 12:30 and 15:30 and evenings between 19:30 and 21:00.

Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat Valenciana
Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat Valenciana (FGV) operates several metre gauge lines, in and around Valencia, including a line, between Alicante, Benidorm and Denia as well the trams and metro in Valencia and Alicante. Bicycle transport is free as long as there is room.

Ferrocarriles de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC) (Catalonia’s public rail network).
The company operates trains in Catalonia and permits bicycle carriage at any time. The other operators in and around Barcelona have restrictions on bicycle transport in the rush hour. Click here for more details.

Buying passenger and bicycle tickets for trains in Spain
To be realistic, only the night trains mentioned above need to be booked in advance and this can be done on
www.renfe.es. The Seat61 website has an excellent explanation of the best way to book railway tickets in Spain in advance. Tickets for the regional and local trains can be bought as needed from stations.

Passes and railcards for holidaymakers
Rail Europe offers a number of InterRail passes for Spain

By coach (Long-distance bus)

There are several bus companies that allow accompanied bicycle transport on payment of a small charge for the bicycle (between 5 and 10 Euros): ALSA the major Spanish bus company, Avanza Bus which offers services more to the south (map of system ) and Portillo (Malaga Costa del Sol). The days are past when accompanied bicycle transport by bus in Spain depended on the goodwill of the driver. Nowadays transporting bicycles on buses in Spain is regulated. You book your bike at the same time as you book your own ticket. The transport of bicycles, surfboards or skis has an added supplement of 5 Euros on short-haul services and 10 Euros on long-haul services. You are allowed to take 30 kg of luggage and small bags with you on to the bus. The easiest way to book a ticket for passenger and bicycle for non Spanish speakers is online at  www.alsa.es  (available in English) or Movelia which is an industry-wide agency offering bus tickets from various companies www.movelia.es (available in English). On the ALSA website passenger and bicycle tickets can be bought by checking the box for this purpose in step 3 of the buying process. On the Movelia website you need to select a supplement on the first page of the purchase routine. On both websites the bicycle transport tickets must be bought one at a time, i.e. it is impossible to mark this box when two or more seats have been selected.
Because of the limited space available, a maximum of four bicycles or surfboards are allowed, (one per ticket). If there is no room for bikes on the schedule chosen, the selection box for bicycles will not be available. Bicycles should be placed in such a way that no damage is caused to other luggage or packages and it is mandatory that they are packaged in some kind of box or bag ready for transport. (We often wonder about any possible damage to our expensive bikes as well. I suppose we should be grateful to any company prepared to take our bikes, but…) The best thing to use is a bicycle cover. Otherwise use several big plastic bags or bubble wrap, but cover the bicycle properly so the driver is not concerned with his immaculate bus getting dirty. The CTC offers a clear heavy-duty polythene bag for about £10 that should do for a number of
trips or you can spend up to several hundred pounds for bags designed to protect your bike in case of a earthquake. How you carry the latter however when they are not protecting your bike is a problem.
The passenger should be at the boarding point with the bicycle, at least 15 minutes before departure.

Ships

The www.seemallorca.com/travel/ferries website has an excellent description with web links of the ferries
running between the Spanish mainland and the Balearic Islands, and within the island group.

Diversions

We were very impressed with the scenery on the line between Malaga and Madrid, both the olive tree plantations as far as the eye could see and with the very wild mountain country nearer the coast. The scenery on the metre gauge line between Oviedo and Ferrol is breathtaking and you have time to take it all in during
your seven-hour journey. On another occasion we were also quite impressed by “free” tapas and sherry in the early evening and an airline-style evening meal later when travelling first class on a high speed train. We were also amused on the Malaga – Malaga Airport line to be serenaded by a group of buskers.

Gracias and thanks

Thanks are due to Simon Proffitt of Iberocycle bicycle tours, and Chris Juden and Mark Waters of the CTC in Guildford and the contributors to various threads on forums for their comments, help and advice. Any misspellings, misinterpretation or the like however are our fault.