Renfe Reviews 

The trains were functional, and prices were average, but the info booth wasn't very helpful, there were delays. SO. MANY. DELAYS. The trains were noisy and dirty, no WiFi, one ticket machine wasn't working and the rest were old and slow.

The train never runs on schedule; it might not show up or might be late at any moment—a 30- to 50-minute delay is already a common occurrence.

Title: Unusable Website: Crashes, Payment Failures, and No Confirmation

Rating: 1 Star

Review: Booking a simple train ticket on Renfe’s website is an exercise in frustration. I attempted to book a return ticket for travel and spent over 90 minutes battling a broken interface.

First, the site repeatedly crashed with JavaScript errors (Cannot read properties of null) when searching for routes, forcing me to switch browsers and clear caches multiple times. When I finally reached the payment stage after applying a loyalty discount, the system logged me out immediately without completing the transaction or sending a confirmation email.

Upon retrying, I encountered error code G001-RS20, which blocked payment communication with my bank despite the card being valid and authorized for international use. There was no charge on my card, but also no ticket issued. The lack of clear error messaging meant I had no way to know if the booking failed or succeeded until I checked my bank statement.

For a national railway operator, the digital infrastructure is woefully inadequate. I was forced to abandon the online process entirely. If you value your time and sanity, avoid booking directly on their website

Bought a ticket in March for an upcoming journey on August 11th. Received an email from RENFE yesterday saying that the timetable had changed. It provided a link. The link led to a page to buy a new ticket! A separate search of the timetable revealed no changes to my journey although an indecipherable code appears by it. I tried the search engine. On entering my details it does not recognise my Localizador code from my receipted ticket purchase. On attempting to file both an enquiry and a complaint through the portal, the process fell down and would not allow me to submit. Their chatline link leads to a webpage that does not exist. Similarly the link to WhatsApp. The phone number, on which you can wait for an undefined, potentially infinite period, is in Spain, so prohibitively expensive to hold. THEY PROVIDE NO ROUTE TO HELP. I suspect they have oversold one of the trains. This has happened to me on AVE before when 2 or even 3 people turned up with tickets for the same seat, with the same number. The trains are usually fine when you are on board but the RENFE site and booking system is a TOTAL DISASTER.

When you get on the trains themselves they’re great. The website however is a complete nightmare! You have to enter loads of data before you can do anything and it frequently seems to fall over, leaving you forced to re enter all the data again. The machines in the railway stations are just as bad. If Barcelona is anything to go by, the stations are extremely badly organised too. It’s practically impossible to find the platform you need for your train. The boards keep jumping to different views. What’s more different parts of the station seem to be run by completely different teams - and nobody seems to have a complete picture of how it all hangs together. A fragmented, disorganised, shambolic mess.

I'm using Omio for purchasing Renfe tickets, but so far in Spain it feels comfortable enough and when train got cancelled due to fire or any other reason, they either send out taxis or buses.
Tickets a bit expensive and got even more expensive, especially for folks who live in rural area.

On 7 July 2026 I had a pretty bad experience with travelling to Avila, particularly going back to Madrid. The train I had the ticket for never turned up. There was no announcement at the station. People were informed of an 1.5 delay 20 min after the scheduled departure, supposed to be at 5.18 pm. We got on the next train an hr later. And that one was also late.
The Renfe city trains I took from Atocha train station to Principio Pio in the morning and back in the evening were late as well.

30minutes delay on a train with no stops. These leves of incompetence are hard to reach

Really, extremely, bad booking experience and user experience and rewards experience and any and all experiences.

Went to the office in the Cordoba station and staff were not very friendly. After understanding that I couldn’t change my cordoba-Seville ticket I wanted to buy two new ones. The agent told me that it’s very difficult and very expensive. €100+ per person. I showed that I looked up price on the official website and it showed €22.30/ea. He then muttered that he thought I was going to Malaga. Eventually he gave me the tickets but was left feeling that I luckily avoided a scam.
And whilst I don’t expect to every agent to speak English, the two I had interactions with, were extremely unhelpful even though I tried with my limited Spanish. Surely an office at a major tourist destination should be more accommodating even if it is by using a translation gadget.

Renfe website is a DISASTER from capital D! You are trying to be eco and travel by trains in Spain but to buy a ticket on Spanish railway website is a freaking challenge, which not everyone will accept.
I don't understand how come you can not put an effort for national railway website service.
It's a joke!

Agent at the check in desk in Barcelona Sants walked into me, sent water flying and told me (standing still) to watch where I was going. Little bald man with a hi vis vest. RUDE. The 5:59 PM to Girona train, platform 3!

80 euros charge to change a name on a ticket

Trains are clean but basic. They never offer an open return ticket, you to state the time you want to roughly return and a seat is allocated,not like the UK where standard seats are first come first serve. If they see you struggling with the language, they take advantage, you may ask for an 'asiento ventana and the clerk allocated me an aisle seat both ways. Saturday wasn't an issue getting a return from Vigo Urazaiz to Santiago de Compostela, but when I asked the same clerk for a return to Pontevedra, he wanted to see my passport. I was annoyed but went back and got my passport as the train wasn't due to leave in an hour and 40 minutes anyway, saw a different clerk at the office and she was more helpful with the language barrier and didn't ask for my passport. Despite her giving me an aisle seat instead of a window seat. I don't know where Renfe get their staff from.

Worst train service and customer experience I’ve had.

I had a train from Seville to Málaga scheduled at 20:12.
The train was delayed, but there were no notifications, no announcements, and no staff available to provide information. We went to the Renfe office at Sevilla station and received terrible customer service. The employees didn’t seem to know whether the train was delayed or canceled, had no access to live information, and couldn’t even contact colleagues for updates, he yelled and told us to “Just wait”.

More than 10 minutes after the scheduled departure time, with passengers starting to panic because it was the last train of the night, we finally received a notification saying the train was delayed until 20:32. In reality, it arrived even later.

To make things worse, the morning train from Málaga to Seville was already around 40 minutes late. From what I’ve seen, delays seem to be a recurring issue with Renfe.

Since they barely have competition, it feels like there’s little incentive to improve the service or communication.

Horrible customer services experience at Madrid after connecting missed due to their train being late in.
Renfe ….K*k*en tu leche

How is the train today from Malaga to Seville. I purchased a return ticket. Both trips were extremely delayed based on the expected arrival time written on the ticket.

Malaga-Seville: 09:05-12:34 arrived at past 14:00. Very disappointed tourist here as my time to Seville was reduced.

Seville to Malaga: 18:34-21:34 I’m still on the train at 22:23. Extremely disappointed!!!!!!!

I will never ride on this train ever again! Poor communication of delays. I will also tell people I know not to ride on this train.

By all means the most horrendous train service i have ever experienced.
They can't take bills.
They can't take cards.
They don't want to offer you service neither want you money.

It is amazing that RENFE is now getting the most basic things wrong. I get that the recent train accident has thrown the established train schedules into turmoil, causing generally longer travel times and frequent delays. What I don't get is how anybody can think that having a train with the numbering of carriages being 4-3-2-1-5-6-7-8 (and apparently changing every other week) will enable passengers find their allocated carriage quickly, bord the train and allow it to proceed on its journey as fast as possible. Let alone signpost on which part of the platform which carriage will come to a stop, so that people don't have to frantically chase after their carriage on the arrival of the train (signposting carriage location on the platform is established practice in many countries). The point that I am trying to make is that much of the delays and people's consequent frustration is self-inflicted by RENFE due to a lack of proper planning and consistent procedures.

As a tourist I made the mistake to book from one city to another, want to go from A to B but accidentally booked B to A. Renee doesn’t change tickets so I need to pay again.

Bad service.
Also contains the booking process mistakes af the phone number part.