The Ciudad Real and Puertollano AVE stations: which trains stop and how to get there from Daimiel, Almagro, Valdepeñas or Alcázar

Which trains stop at Ciudad Real and how long do they take?

Ciudad Real station is in the south of the city, on the Madrid–Seville high-speed line, the first to open in Spain. Stopping services are the long-distance AVE trains between Madrid and Andalusia (Seville, Córdoba, Málaga on some services), the medium-distance Avant trains running Madrid–Ciudad Real–Puertollano, and the trains of the operators that have entered the southern corridor. Puerta de Atocha takes around fifty-five minutes, Córdoba a little under an hour and Seville about an hour and a half. It is the train that makes Ciudad Real a day-return city for Madrid.

Not every passing train stops: many of the Madrid–Seville and Madrid–Málaga AVE services run through the station without stopping, so before planning a connection check which services have a commercial stop that day. The Avant trains are the most frequent and the ones used daily by people who work in Madrid; their season tickets are run by Renfe and the timetable changes by season.

And Puertollano station, who is it for?

Puertollano is the last high-speed stop in the province before Andalusia. The Avant trains from Madrid via Ciudad Real stop here, as do some long-distance trains towards Córdoba and Seville. It serves the city, its industrial complex and the whole south of the province: the Alcudia valley, the Sierra Madrona and the mining-basin villages, where there is no transport to the station other than a car.

Between the two stations there are 39 km along the A-41, about 31 min. Choosing one or the other depends on where you live and which train stops: sometimes the right train only stops at one of the two, and the transfer to the "wrong" station with the right train works out better than waiting for the next one.

How do you reach the station from the towns without AVE?

This is the province's problem. Daimiel, Almagro, Bolaños, Malagón, Manzanares and Valdepeñas have buses to Ciudad Real, but with weekday timetables: the first departure reaches the capital mid-morning, after the seven and eight o'clock Avant trains have gone, and the last one returns before the night trains arrive. Alcázar de San Juan and Tomelloso have conventional rail, but the Alcázar–Ciudad Real train connection means long waits. Anyone at the station at half past six in the morning sees the consequence: almost every traveller arriving from the towns comes by car.

The distances are manageable by car and long by public transport: Daimiel 30 km and about 24 min; Almagro 27 km and 23 min; Manzanares 55 km and 41 min; Valdepeñas 62 km and 51 min; Alcázar de San Juan 98 km and 78 min. For the south, Puertollano is closer to hand: from Almagro it is 62 km.

Park at the station or go with a driver?

Both stations have paid parking run by Adif or its concessionaire, and for a one-day trip from the capital it is a reasonable option. For three or four days it stops being so: parking builds up a cost close to the return transfer, and whoever comes back at night with suitcases has no wish to hunt for the car in a dark car park. From the towns there is another factor: leaving the family car a week in Ciudad Real leaves whoever stays behind without a car.

The transfer works the other way round from parking: you pay for the trip, not the days. You book with the train time and the driver sets the pickup to arrive with the margin for the access check, which at these stations is brief but exists. On the return you book with the train number: if it runs late, the driver sees it on the board and adjusts, so nobody is left on the Ciudad Real platform at eleven at night working out how to get back to Daimiel.

What about Alcázar de San Juan, which has trains but no AVE?

Alcázar de San Juan is one of the big junctions of the conventional network: trains pass through its station towards Madrid, towards the east coast (Albacete, Alicante, Valencia) and towards Andalusia, but none of them high-speed. For Madrid by train from the north-east of the province it remains useful, with times of around an hour and a half to Atocha or Chamartín depending on the service. For Córdoba or Seville, by contrast, the AVE from Ciudad Real wins by a wide margin, which is why some travellers from Alcázar, Campo de Criptana and Tomelloso connect by car with Ciudad Real station: 91 km from Tomelloso.

In the other direction, Alcázar station receives travellers from the south of Toledo and from Cuenca who arrive by car to avoid tight connections. The guide to the La Mancha of Alcázar and Tomelloso tells that other half: how the Alcázar junction is used and why Barajas is done by car from there.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Renfe · AVE, Avant y Media Distancia con parada en Ciudad Real, Puertollano y Alcázar de San Juan (consulted on 27 October 2026)
• Adif · estaciones de Ciudad Real y Puertollano: servicios y aparcamiento (consulted on 27 October 2026)
• Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha · transporte interurbano de viajeros por carretera (consulted on 27 October 2026)