In my upcoming trip to Spain, I’m taking several trains around the country (Madrid to Toledo & back; Madrid to Seville; Seville to Barcelona). Especially considering the terrorist attacks of a few years ago, how much security is there? Do passengers have to go through metal detectors? Will I have to remove my shoes (this will determine whether I wear shoes or sandals)? Any restrictions on “carry-on” objects and substances? Is luggage ever searched?
I trained across Spain last summer and I was fine. Trains are fast and have a/c. There’s security but it’s pretty laid back, esp. considering the attacks of 11 March 2004 but also Basque terrorism that has been going on for decades now. In my experience, it’s quite like boarding a plane, old style: you put your carryon luggage through an x-ray machine and walk through a metal detector. That’s it. My luggage was never searched, I never took my shoes off and there were no restrictions on what I could take on board. Most of all, people are decent and don’t treat every single passenger as if they’re going to send them to Guantánamo. In all: don’t worry and have a nice trip.
I found train travel a breeze in Spain (May 2006), don’t recall any security at all, which means it either wasn’t there, or it was a non-issue. FYI I carried a large backpack, which fit above the seats. For the longer trips buy food from the local market before embarking (it makes all the other passengers jealous, and it’s one more chance in indulge!)
I took the Catalunya Express train from Figueres to Barcelona and back in July. It was about 17 Euros round trip, which is ridiculously cheap, and was perfectly comfortable. There was no security check at all. I understand the Spanish rail service in general is heavily govt. subsidized, and it is a great deal. I also took a high speed train from Madrid to Sevilla and back, not long after the bombing. It was also a very enjoyable trip. Don’t hesitate to hop a train. One note – it may not be the case everywhere, but the station at Figueres didn’t take credit cards, so you may want to have the cash in hand when you buy your ticket.
A year ago family and I did the reverse trip to Radegast - Barcelona to Figueres and back. Very reasonable price, fast , comfortable seats. Only thing was we didn’t realise the a/c was broken in our carriage. We were sitting there sweltering not realising all the other carriages were 15C cooler :smack:
What she said - Sitges to Barcelona & back, October 2007.
I went travelling about 5 years ago in Spain- so can’t comment on security.
We went from Algeciras to Ronda, Ronda to Seville, Seville to Madrid, Madrid to Barcelona and Barcelona to Avignon in France.
All perfectly pleasant journeys.
Fast, comfortable, relatively cheap, A/C, snacks, radio accessible with headphones.
Lots of lovely scenery too.
My brother-in-law shepherded a group of high school students around Spain last month. The one thing he commented on was being unable to take on board the swords and knives several people had bought in Toledo. There wasn’t even an option of checking it. So apparently there are some limits on taking the train with bladed weapons.
You needn’t worry at all about the train. They are insanely convenient and inexpensive – I used them all the time when I was in Spain in 2005 and in fact much preferred them to the buses, as useful as those are too. They’re lightyears ahead of anything in North America (it makes me so jealous…)