Atocha Railway Station, Madrid

I came into Madrid from Cordoba from the AVE Train that goes through, and that just worked slick. Atocha Station is really a great station, even if your not going anywhere, you should just take a walk through it to see. There are a bunch of awesome trees, and cool walkways.

It was the first railway station in Spain. The station was originally named Estacion de Mediodia but it is now known as Estacion de Atocha or Atocha Station. One of the most beautiful attractions of this railway station is tropical garden of 4000 m2. The Atocha is a modern facility. It has a large atrium with palm trees flanked by offices. On one end of the atrium (upper floor) is the entrance to the train bays. The new terminal making the station the largest in Madrid. The AVE, Spain high speed train connects the Atocha to Sevilla and Cordoba.

Plaza del Emperador Carlos V
Atocha Renfe (M1, RENFE)

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Madrid’s two main railway stations are Camartin in northern Madrid and Atocha in the south of the city. So if you are going to transfer trains in Madrid check and see what station they arrive and leave from and if it isn't the same station, allow time for transfer.

In 1964, my hotel room looked out on the Carlos V fountain and the train station was right next to it. The original facade faces the Plaza del Emperador Carlos V, a site at which a variety of streets converge, including the Calle de Atocha, Paseo del Prado, Paseo de la Infanta Isabel, Avenida de la Ciudad de Barcelona, Calle de Méndez Álvaro, Paseo de las Delicias, Paseo de Santa María de la Cabeza, and Ronda de Atocha. I took a lot of pictures of the fountain, and the train station is on at least this one of them. This was also the site of Madrid's first railway station dating from February 1851. That building was destroyed by fire, so it was rebuilt and reopened in 1892.

According to Wikipedia
The architect for the replacement, in a wrought iron renewal style was Alberto de Palacio Elissagne, who collaborated with Gustave Eiffel. Engineer Henry Saint James also took part in the project. The name Atocha has become attached to the station because of the nearby basilica dedicated to Our Lady of Atocha. The train platforms were partly covered by a roof in the form of inverted hull with a height of approximately 27 meters and length of 157 meters. The steel and glass roof spreads between two brick flanking buildings.

After our 1964 visit, the station was completely remodeled in 1985.

There are several ways of getting to Toledo from Madrid (bus, suburban train - check elsewhere for details), but the fastest is by Renfe Avant out of Atocha. 30 minutes.
Trains leave at 9:20, 10:20 and 12:20, but be careful; you might need to book.

When I tried, the 10:20 was full, so I made a reservation for the following day.
Bare this in mind, when deciding on your mode of transport, cos booking takes time.
(Get your hotel to do it?)

But Toledo is a terrific place to go!

Cost €15 return.

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Málaga-Madrid in only 2 hours and 30 minutes, thank you AVE. Is the high speed train and service begun on december of last year. If you buy the tickets online in advance you can get a very good discount almost 50 %. Is a very good choice thinking of a day trip to Madrid.

Málaga-Madrid en solo 2 horas y media y gracias al AVE. Es el tren de alta velocidad y comenzó el servicio allá por diciembre del 2007. Si compras los billetes a traves de la web de renfe puedes conseguir buenos descuentos de casi el 50%.

Atocha is one of the most important train stations within Madrid. It's located very close to the Reina Sofia museum and El Prado. From this train station you can take 3 different types of trains: short distance (to places in the outskirts of Madrid, but still wothin the community of Madrid), medium distance (to cities outside of the community of Madrid, such as Toledo, Avila, Segovia...), and long distance (to Sevilla for example). To take short distance trains you don't need any type of reservation, to take a long distance train reservation is required, and for the medium distance, although it is possible to get a ticket straight away, it's safer to get a reservation so you won't get a surprise when you get there! It's also important to know that Atocha also has a Metro stop, which makes it easier to get there.

Madrid has two stations for long distance journeys. Atocha and Chamartin. Trains from the north (Nord spain and France) arrive at Chamartin; trains from the south and west (Portugal) arrive at Attocha. spanish national trains are called RENFE. At Attoche the AVE high speed trains from Seveille and Cardoba arrive. Some trains stop at both stations. TALGO trains ride at the routes of AVE and European routes.

Good luck when trying to buy train tickets in Atocha Station. Unfortuneatly I didn't speak Spanish while I was there so I realize that I myself can be blamed. I tried to do three day trips out of Madrid to Segovia, Cordoba and Toledo. Each of these trip uses a different railway system so we had to buy our tickets at three different locations in the station and I don't think a single person in the station spoke english. It was really difficult trying to sort this all out. And make sure you save your ticket because you need the ticket to exit out of the station. don't be like me and trow it out after they have checked it on the train. I agrued with the gaurd for 15 minutes before he would let me out of the station. Well, more like he yelled at me in spanish and I looked dumb because I didn't understand.