How does potential compensation etc work on Spanish trains?

[ivorytoast28]

Hello, I've booked a seemingly unchangeable Barcelona-Sants to Madrid ticket and the earliest I can get to Barcelona Sants from La Tour Carole is 15 minutes before my AVE train leaves. Usually I'd never book with such a short interchange in the UK or elsewhere but I know in the UK any issues would be sorted, is this the same in Spain? It's a regional 3hr train to a Fast IC train but I believe it's all under RENFE though the Regional train only shows on the local Catalonian site? So my question is this an acceptable connection or not. I have already booked the highspeed train [14:00] and the local can only be bought on the day but there is no earlier connection[10:25am arriving at 13:45]. Thanks

 

[30907]

Hello, I've booked a seemingly unchangeable Barcelona-Sants to Madrid ticket and the earliest I can get to Barcelona Sants from La Tour Carole is 15 minutes before my AVE train leaves. Usually I'd never book with such a short interchange in the UK or elsewhere but I know in the UK any issues would be sorted, is this the same in Spain? It's a regional 3hr train to a Fast IC train but I believe it's all under RENFE though the Regional train only shows on the local Catalonian site? So my question is this an acceptable connection or not. I have already booked the highspeed train [14:00] and the local can only be bought on the day but there is no earlier connection[10:25am arriving at 13:45]. Thanks

A 15min interchange time at Sants is too tight, as there is a security check at the entrance to the AVE platforms (I assume that is what you are using), and I doubt RENFE will recognise it as a valid connection for that reason - Rodalies services are certainly not covered by delay repay.

I would contact RENFE and ask if it is possible to upgrade to a changeable ticket, and change to a later train.

I hope I am not being too pessimistic - you could contact info@seat61.com and ask an opinion, as Mark Smith recommends the La Tour route.

The good news is that the Combinado Cercanias scheme covers part of your journey from LaTour; the conductor will know where from but I can't remember!