There's no hiding that Madrid and Bilbao are connected by a surprisingly sparse service of direct trains, with no viable connections by indirect trains available either.
Though this situation may improve in 2023 when the extension of the high speed line opens between Valladolid and Burgos, as this will shorten the journey time.
These trains are usually scheduled to depart from Madrid-Chamartin at:
08:00 not Saturdays
16:05 daily
Final Destination: Bilbao
These trains also call at: Burgos
This journey will become faster (and hopefully more frequent too) when the high speed line is extended from Valladolid to Burgos, it's due to open in late in 2022.
Sunday-Friday: 2 x trains per day
Saturday: 1 x train per day
Book early and save: Yes
Online bookings open: up to 6 months ahead of the travel date - depending on the time of year.
The online booking window can be shorter between late July and early October.
This is a journey on which it can pay off to book in advance - you can usually save more than €30 if you can book more than around month ahead of your travel date.
Also book in advance if you want to travel on a specific train, on this route tickets for the most popular departures, can sell out completely a couple of days ahead.
These trains are usually scheduled to depart from Madrid-Chamartin at:
08:00 daily
16:05 not Saturdays
Seat Reservations:
Seats will automatically be assigned when booking tickets for this journey.
Rail Pass Users:
Rail pass users will need to be pay a reservation fee prior to boarding, but these reservations cannot be booked on the ticket agent's websites.
If you want the peace of mind of reserving before arriving at a Spanish station - highly recommended on this route, you will need to use the Eurail and InterRail booking services to reserve your seats - and pay the booking fee for doing so.
Ticket Provider | Approximate Cost | |
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Trainline | * | |
Renfe | * |
On departure from Madrid, the trains heading to Bilbao are joined to other trains heading to Hendaia or San Sebastian.
You reserved seats will be in the part of the train heading to Bilbao.
The train will travel at more than 250 km/h for the first stage of the journey as far as Valladolid.
This is a journey, which in scenic terms, saves the best to last as the scenic highlights come either side of Miranda de Ebo; shortly before the train arrives there it will pass through a series of canyons and after departure from the right of the train, there are fabulous views as the train threads through the hills between Miranda de Ebro and Bilbao.
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This is one of more than 1000 journey guides available on ShowMeTheJourney, which will make it easier to take the train journeys you want or need to make. As always, all images were captured on trips taken by ShowMeTheJourney.