Trainline - ticket problems in Spain

[RJ]

Apologies if this should be in the International Transport section - please move if necessary. I'm trying to get to the bottom of what's happened here, but would appreciate if anyone could cast eyes on this to see if I have missed something.

I write on behalf of a friend who booked travel for 5 people, mostly retired, from Santes Barcelona St. Vicenç De Calders. Long story short, the ticket was booked on The Trainline for a specific train, which was seemingly nowhere to be found upon arrival at the station. The ticket details, which I can confirm having seen the booking and barcode are as follows:

Journey - Barcelona Sants to St. Vicenç De Calders
Date - Tuesday 16/06/2026
Departure time - 19:30 (route R13)
Arrival time - 20:15

The Trainline clearly advertised this service in their app and on their website for subsequent weekdays this week. My friend has stated this train was nowhere to be found at Barcelona Sants. They have contacted Trainline as the situation caused some anxiety and consternation for the group who couldn't find the service they had booked on. The Trainline's stance was that the group made an error and caught the wrong train, so they're not going to do anything or look into it any further.

I've spent 5 minutes of my time investigating this and these are my findings.

• The RENFE website advertises a 1903 and 1933 departure from Barcelona Sants to St. Vicenç De Calders, but no 1930 R13, despite The Trainline advertising this service.
• Route R13 is partly suspended subject to some timetable alterations in place between May 4th and 6th July. Source: Notice of service change issued by the operator, RENFE / Rodalies de Catalunya
• Route R13 does have a weekdays 1930 departure from Barcelona Sants - but during these works, this is a rail replacement bus which runs nonstop to Valls, which is some distance beyond St. Vicenç De Calders

With this in consideration, I suspect The Trainline sold tickets against the WTT, without taking the timetable alteration into place so sold tickets for trains that are not timetabled to run. They've been made aware of this but are dismissing it as passenger error and closed the case down, and when I checked this morning were continuing to sell tickets for this R13 service that isn't currently running.

Personally for overseas travel I always book direct with the train operator. The issue is, doing it this way can involve an element of technical work, like having to toggle the language displayed so I can understand why lay travellers who already have an account with Trainline would do it through them. But it's not very good if they are selling tickets for the wrong timetable.

However I might have the wrong end of the stick - any ideas? Attached to the post are images of the ticket and journey plan in the Trainline app showing the 1930 departure had been booked a ticketed, as well as a photograph of the departure board at Barcelona Sants with the booked train not shown.

 

[TrainTraveler]

Having had international travel messed up by The Trainline myself I won't be rushing to use them again.

 

[Flying Snail]

Rodalies De Catalunya and various other Cercanias networks in Spain are notorious for having patchy or missing data in the usual international timetabling systems. I'd only ever rely on their own websites for accurate times and ticketing.

 

[RJ]

Thanks, that makes sense.

Still a poor show from Trainline to totally dismiss the issue when raised by an affected customer. It shouldn’t take someone like me to investigate the problem for them to engage and do something about it, that is their job.

If they know the feed is unreliable then they should have a process in place to deal with that, rather than sell tickets and shut down customers who unwittingly get caught up in it.

 

[Kilopylae]

Did your friends take the 19:33 (or 19:36 as the board shows), and did they have any trouble?

 

[Paul AC]

There's another trap for the unwary at Barcelona Sants. The above attached photo of the Sants "departure screen" is only for trains from platforms 11 and 12. If there was a 19:30 departure and it went from (say) platform 7, it wouldn't be on that screen. You'd have to find a screen with the full set of Rodalies departures on it, which may only appear at the concourse level not at platform level. Regular travellers wait up at the concourse level until a platform number is confirmed for their train close to departure time, as changes often occur; also, platform level is very hot and sweaty whereas the concourse level is usually much fresher.

 

[RJ]

There's another trap for the unwary at Barcelona Sants. The above attached photo of the Sants "departure screen" is only for trains from platforms 11 and 12. If there was a 19:30 departure and it went from (say) platform 7, it wouldn't be on that screen. You'd have to find a screen with the full set of Rodalies departures on it, which may only appear at the concourse level not at platform level. Regular travellers wait up at the concourse level until a platform number is confirmed for their train close to departure time, as changes often occur; also, platform level is very hot and sweaty whereas the concourse level is usually much fresher.

I did notice that. They're a well organised group who arrive in plenty of time. After all the confusion trying to find the 19:30 which didn't appear on any boards, they were guided to the 19:33.

Did your friends take the 19:33 (or 19:36 as the board shows), and did they have any trouble?

They did take the 19:33 and there was no further staff interaction. It's definitely not done a great deal for confidence on an unfamiliar journey.

Trainline wasn't showing any data for this route earlier today, but it's back online now with the non-existent train advertised - screenshot attached showing this, compared with the list shown on the RENFE site. Through the app, a caveat has appear saying that due to a problem at RENFE's end, some trains are missing and to check back later. So they know there's a problem with the data, but are still taking sales.

Apparently when Trainline was contacted, the agent was initially adamant that the 19:30 was cancelled, then said that any issues should be directed to the train company for delay repay. They then checked and saw there was no cancelled train, then ended the call.

 

[Kilopylae]

They did take the 19:33 and there was no further staff interaction. It's definitely not done a

I think the second half of this sentence has gone missing?

 

[RJ]

I think the second half of this sentence has gone missing?

Edited.

 

[mrmartin]

Obviously not great but given they were allowed on the 19:33 with no issues, doesn't seem like a huge problem?

In general European timetable info is far far less reliable than the UK. A suburban train is likely going to be even worse.