Email
June 9
As you have reported trains from Alicante and Valencia have been moved from Madrid Atocha to Chamartín during the reconstruction of Atocha. So what can Chamartín offer?
When I first visited Chamartín many years ago I got the impression that the feeling was ‘trains belong to the past – in a few years there will be no need for a decent station with decent surroundings etc. A parking deck will be good enough’. And for many years this major station had no Metro connection!
In May 2023, I travelled by train, Madrid–Alicante, and I could now access Chamartín by Metro – sort of. You have to leave the Metro station, get out in the street, navigate a long way through an unpleasant covered car park and finally enter the station.
OK, there was decent signage and at 15.45 there was even some daylight but in the dark it cannot be very pleasant.
To move trains from fairly decent Atocha to Chamartín was really a bad move. I would advise any travellers to allow at least 20 or even 30 minutes to change from Metro to train at Chamartín.
Chamartín may not be the worst station I have used but customer friendly it was not.
Bertil Hylén
Torrevieja (Spain) and Solna (Sweden)
