Renfe Reviews 4,612

I left something on a train and could receive no help. Not one person in the terminal could help me or speak English, then after 10 min had me get in line which had grown. I finally made it to customer service after 25 min and fear of missing my next train. At customer service again no one spoke English or could help. I was forced to leave without my things and barely made my next train after 45 min trying to get help.

Just terrible… rent a car… you might actually get to destination. Train was half hour delayed with no apology, announcement or communication of any kind.
The trains are old and dirty.
Staff is not helpful
Plugs don’t work

Worst assistance today in Barcelona I have ever experienced. Needed a wheelchair but had to walk. Assistant was uncaring and in helpful.

I was visiting my elderly parents who live on the coast an hour from Barcelona, their train line is R2. I’ve been to using this service for many years and after living 14 years in central Barcelona moved back to London few years ago, I will NEVER complain about British public transport again!!

Yesterday I got an early flight from Gatwick, train on time, comfy seat and super clean, got to airport in 29 mins just as timetable says! Plane on time, duration of flight 1hr 50 mins. Got through customs fast, outside airport T1 at 2.30 - from that terminal no train so got bus to T2 where train goes to Sants and easy to change to R2 which travels through Sitges, my parents are in Segur should take an hour from Sants! When I got to Airport I asked the miserable ticket person (I speak fluent Spanish) when the next train was as I would do in any UK station, he gruffly replied “look at the screen”!! I sarcastically said “thanks so much for your help”!
The train was late. Getting off at Sants I went to the platform to wait for next train to Segur, they should be every 30 mins. The platform was like a furnace, clearly dangerous temperatures for anyone waiting 5 mins never mind potential hours!
The train to Segur wasn’t showing so I thought I’d get on the one to Vilanova where it’s usually a 15 min wait to get the next one and it’s possible to stand on an airy platform. What a big mistake! I could hardly squeeze on the overcrowded train and a journey of 40 mins took at least 1.5 hours, at no point did the driver apologise or inform, this is how the Spanish operate, absolutely no customer service whatever, they’re rude, unprofessional and bad at their jobs, in Spain people have no pride in their work due to poor working conditions as low salaries (I get it!)
I stood the whole way having not sat down since I left the plane.
At Vilanova there was utter chaos, hundreds getting off the train and not knowing where they’d get the next or when it would come, absolutely nobody to ask, no info on the screens!

I struck up a conversation with an elderly Catalan woman who told me the service is awful and has been for years, nobody knows when a train will come, how long it will take, if it’ll stop at the stops listed, one thing that is guaranteed is there’ll be no seat and it’ll be dirty and uncomfortable!!
It look me less than 2 hours to fly from London to Barcelona but nearly 4 hours to get from the airport to my parents house, utterly outrageous!
When I fly back in a few days I’m very concerned that I will miss my flight - taxis here are as much as the flight so outside my budget! I’ll have to leave my parents at least an extra two hours earlier just to reduce the risk of missing my flight! I really don’t have time to waste especially as I’ve come to spend precious time with my Spanish father and English mother. Sometimes I dream about moving back here but sadly I’d need to rely on the public transport so right now it’s out of the question.
Renfe needs to be privatised as it’s a monopoly and poorly managed, it’ll just get worse and worse, this is an urgent and serious issue, do something about it!!!!

I’ve been coming to Spain almost every year since 2018 and when I tell you that literally nothing has changed since then, their service, their attitude and their lack of English is just astounding. I think I might take flights from now on, even though the train is just much more convenient.
I always take the train from Madrid to Alicante and vise versa because I fly internationally and my flight is from Madrid. I’m bound to have a couple of bags with me that just never fit in their tiny box and of course they just stand there staring at you with 0 help. I saw old people struggling putting their bags up and I had to help them because of course, there’s no one around to even help you. Their attitude is beyond disgusting and they make it seem as if they’re paying you to be there. I paid 60 euros for my train ticket (one way only) which isn’t cheap and all I got with that is nasty attitude and horrible service.. not to mention how disgusting their bathrooms are. Not even one word of English comes out of their mouth and they get people coming from all over the world. Overall, I highly doubt anything will change looking at all the bad reviews they’ve been given anyway, so just stay away and avoid the hassle as a foreigner.

We had a combination ticket for a hop-on hop off bus. In Santa Susanna and Barcelona nobody knew how they could help us. So instead of a good day in Barcelona we asked for a return ticket to Santa Susanna. Not in any way tourist friendly. And we're not coming back most likely.

From Barcelona to San Sebastián we had no toilet paper, dirty bathrooms some without soap and at end of trip had to leave train in rain and walk 200 meters to bus and ride bus to crowded main bus station. Then back into rain to wait with no taxis available. And about an hour late.
On return we did not have train trip, we had bus trip, traveling 2 1/2 hours of 4 hr trip by bus. No food, water or bathrooms. No first class accommodations although we paid for that. Worst was that we received no notice via email or text about these variations. We only learned as we experienced them. And bus seats are uncomfortable for some people. We asked our Spanish speaking concierge about bus travel on return, she checked your web site and there was no information about the variation. I would never recommend train service to anyone I know on Renfa and won’t use again. Will give credit for safety but nothing else
Also no bathrooms or food available at transition point at Tafalla. And no wireless service in 2024.
Sincerely
Zornig

By far the worst rail trip EVER. I travel regularly on trains in the UK and after using Renfe to go from Madrid to Granada 1st class I am bewildered as to how they describe this as a ‘service’.

1. Train stank of toilets and cleaning agents
2. The WiFi wouldn’t connect and didn’t work for all four of my family, despite trying 4 different operating systems all with different results.
3. The food ordering QR code on the seats failed every time saying we were DDoSing the website (!), it worked for my son but then it crapped out at the ordering process.
4. Random people in 1st class got food and when asked the guy ushered us down to the food car, only to reappear five minutes later with a trolley offering food for sale (jeeeeeeeezo maaan!)
5. The train was old, the chairs in first class all worn out and really tatty, I’d say this train was at least past due a refurb by 20 years.
6. At a cost for the family of four over €370 what a waste of effing money.
7. Std class was WORSE and I’m now dreading the trip back.

The only saving grace is the view, but with nostrils full of s* smell it totally took the shine off what I was otherwise expecting to be an awesome journey.

I’m with the other submitters to this forum, walking would be more enjoyable - even in Sahara heat.

Get a grip Spain - your train services are amongst the worst in the world. We travelled on the Vesuviana in Italy where the train felt like it would come apart at the seams - but was a more pleasant journey than Renfe/Ave in Spain in first class.

I thought the train system in Italy was s**t but this is on a whole new level.
Avoid them at all cost. Take a bus, a taxi, a plane, a bike, walk if necessary

Review: 0 Stars if we could

We are extremely dissatisfied with our experience at the Málaga María Zambrano Train Station on the 2nd of August 2024. At 2:58 PM, while preparing to board the train (Renfe) to Madrid on Line 2, the line supervisor refused to allow our dog to travel with us, despite the extreme heat. His behavior was not only unprofessional but inhumane.

As a responsible pet owner, We ensure our dog is well-behaved and meets all travel requirements. The supervisor's refusal, given the high temperatures, demonstrated a lack of compassion and basic customer service. His actions were not only distressing for us but also potentially dangerous for our pet.

We were left with no choice but to endure this mistreatment as we attempt to exit the country and fly from Madrid. This supervisor's attitude ruined our travel experience and reflects poorly on the station's management.

They have zero consideration for their clients. I bought 350€ worth of train tickets. Some last minute changes happened, normal life stuff. They weren't able to change the date to the very next day. Not that the train is full, they just forced me to buy another ticket and I had to pay my ticket again. I could have payed a penalty, 25, 50%, but they made me buy another one full price and the initial one went to waste. Ended up costing me double. Don't give them your money. Spoke with them on the phone, all the woman could say "my system doesn't allow me". Aren't we humans talking on the phone that can understand each other?

The worst transport I have ever taken from Barcelona to Valencia! I am really disappointed with the system. Insane conditions for travelling for around 5 hours. Overcrowded, lots of people standing next to each other. Also people sitting on the floor and inside the bathroom, incredible!!!

Would be good if your employees be more helpfull and friendly. The person on Girona info realy rude guy. Tried to explain i am not Spanish and I dont understand him Bad experience

Positive: Easy access
Negative: Menues are not consistently in English. This is irritating and giving rise to confusion. On some Android devices like Huawei you can't edit your personal account. Poor performance. Sorry guys. There is work to be done. 🙄

Worst public transport service ever, if you can even call it a service. The government really has to change this public transport system because it is worse than India, no joke. Never punctual, always late or trains just don’t go without warning. It randomly skips stops, these days it happened FIVE TIMES that the train didn’t stop where I had to get off. Screens in the train or at the station don’t work or give false information. Never using the train again in catalunya. What a bloody waste of time, and they even expect us to pay for their “service”. Ridiculous, they can really learn something from India.

We've been trying to buy tickets from Sevilla to Granada for Aug 25 and then Granada to Madrid on Aug 28. Sign into my account go through all steps and provide all the information. Select the seats. Then when we go to pay the system will not accept payment. Tried multiple credit cards, same result.

Virtual assistant either doesn't work or spits out jibberish. (We're fluent in Spanish and English) Phone number is bad and no way to send an email.

2 hours to buy a train ticket, totally unacceptable - the website is the most confusing piece of software I've ever encountered and the call center keeps cutting off repeatedly all my calls.

I thought CP in Portugal was bad, but then I tried to buy a ticket with Renfe. It's incredible how poor everything is, from customer service to the platform itself. I had to contact them by phone three times, visit Sants station in person, and still had to figure things out myself.

I wanted to buy a ticket for my dog, which is permitted on certain trips but not on others (logic much?).
To find out if a train allows dogs, I had to go through all the steps of an online purchase, including adding my contact details, only to discover at the end that the option wasn't available. Imagine how much time I wasted going through each trip to find one for my dog.

Then, to pay, their payment portal is all messed up. Whenever I added a card, it required me to pay a totally different price than what was shown at checkout.

So, I finally ended up buying an expensive trip to Madrid, only to then have to rent a car to go to Seville, even though there are trains that go there! The whole advantage of taking a train should be to avoid driving on my own and to be able to bring my pet without it suffering on a plane.
It's unbelievable how bad this is—shameful, to say the least. Get a grip, Renfe!!!

I made a mistake, on a time. It was a basic ticket so it said I couldn’t change or cancel: I called Renfe, they told le what to do. I had a 2 hour window to cancel my ticket ❤️
The money went instantly back into my account
Amazing. Thank you 🙏🏻

Worst website ever!
Incredible that in 2024 Spain has this kind of service for travelers by train.
The website has problems with translations, server connections, tickets booking, small screen resolutions, accessibility,...
I hope other companies from France, Italy or Germany will push out Renfe from Spain, because it's a shame of service.