Puertollano and the Alcudia valley to Madrid: when the AVE pays off and when the car with a driver to Atocha, Chamartín, Estación Sur or IFEMA

When is it worth catching the AVE in Puertollano?

Almost always when one person travels, in daytime, to central Madrid. Puertollano station is on the Madrid–Seville line, served by the Avant trains coming through Ciudad Real and some of the long-distance trains towards Córdoba and Seville, and Puerta de Atocha is a little over an hour away. The station is inside the town, with parking and within walking distance of many homes, so no car is needed to reach it. For an errand at a ministry, an appointment at a Madrid hospital or a working day with an afternoon return, a single traveller's ticket is hard to beat, and the final stretch by metro or Cercanías from Atocha is done without luggage and with time to spare.

The AVE has two limits worth knowing before taking the trip for granted. The first is the timetable: the first Avant of the morning leaves with the town already awake and the last one back reaches Puertollano at night, so a departure before dawn or a return past midnight has no train. The second is that not every train on the line stops in Puertollano: some only call at Ciudad Real, 42 km away along the A-41, and when the only train that fits stops at the other station, the transfer to Ciudad Real beats waiting for the next one. The guide to the province's two stations explains how to choose between them.

When is the car with a driver to Atocha or Chamartín the better choice?

When the trip to Madrid is really a connection with another train. The AVE trains on the Andalusia line arrive at Puerta de Atocha, and from there the trains to the east coast, Barcelona and the south depart; but those to Galicia, Asturias, the Basque Country and much of Castilla y León leave from Chamartín, on the other side of the city, and it is worth checking the arrival station on the ticket, because some trains on the line continue to Chamartín and others do not. Crossing Madrid from one station to the other with luggage, by Cercanías or metro, adds an hour of uncertainty to a connection already bought with a fixed time. The car drops you at the door of the right station: Puertollano to Chamartín from 298,35 €, with pickup set by the time of the connecting train.

The road route is the A-41 to Ciudad Real and Puerto Lápice and then the A-4 to Madrid, entering from the south: for Atocha you stay on the A-4 to Méndez Álvaro, and for Chamartín you loop round on the M-30 or M-40 towards the north. It is 241 km to Atocha, about 173 min without traffic, and the part that varies is the entry into Madrid at rush hour, not the run through the province. The price is fixed before booking and per car, so for a family with luggage or two colleagues leaving at the same time the direct transfer comes close to the cost of the AVE tickets and avoids the change. For one person at midday, the train still wins.

What if the destination is the Estación Sur coach station or IFEMA?

Madrid's Estación Sur, in Méndez Álvaro, is where the long-distance coaches to almost all of Spain, to Portugal and to other European countries leave from, and many of them depart in the small hours or arrive at dawn, exactly when there is no AVE in Puertollano. It is a short step from Atocha, so in daytime the train plus a short Cercanías ride works; at night, the direct car is what makes it possible to catch a coach leaving at six in the morning without sleeping in Madrid. It is 239 km and the "from" fare is 286,81 €; when booking you give the coach departure time and pickup is worked back from it.

IFEMA is the opposite case: the exhibition centre is in the north-east of Madrid, next to Barajas, at the point furthest from Atocha. Anyone going to a trade fair from Puertollano by AVE arrives at Atocha and still has the metro with changes to Feria de Madrid ahead, carrying the company's material; the car goes up the A-4 and round the M-40 to the hall entrance, 251 km and from 300,74 €. Companies from Puertollano and its industrial estate that attend fairs ask for an invoice per service or open a company account with a monthly invoice, and on big fair days it pays to book the return in advance, because transfers from IFEMA pile up at closing time.

How do the villages of the Alcudia valley and the mining basin reach the train?

South of Puertollano the province changes: the plain gives way to hills and to the Alcudia valley, a holm-oak pasture between the Sierra Madrona and the Sierra de Alcudia that the regional government protects as a natural park and that for centuries was the winter grazing of transhumant flocks. Its villages, Almodóvar del Campo, Brazatortas, Mestanza, Cabezarrubias del Puerto, Hinojosas de Calatrava or Solana del Pino, and further west Almadén, with its mercury mines listed as World Heritage, are small and far from everything. The bus linking them to Puertollano runs infrequently and on weekdays only, and none reaches the station in time for the first Avant or waits for the last.

For these villages the Puertollano AVE is their station, but the way there runs along mountain roads that are no pleasure at night, and the car with a driver collects at the front door and drops at the station with the train time as the reference. The same applies to the east: from Almagro and Bolaños, Puertollano is handy for the trains that do not stop in Ciudad Real, 62 km from Almagro. When the trip is to Madrid itself rather than to the train, going direct from the valley pays off: the driver passes through Puertollano and continues along the A-41 and A-4, and the exact price comes from the calculator with the pickup address, because from these villages there is no published route page with a "from" fare.

How do you get back to Puertollano in the small hours, outside AVE times?

It is the most repeated question and the one the train answers worst. A flight landing at Barajas at eleven at night, an international coach arriving at the Estación Sur at five in the morning or a concert in Madrid ending at one leave the traveller in a city with no AVE southwards until the next morning, and the alternative is a hotel or a night at the station. The transfer with a driver is booked together with the outbound leg, with the flight number or the coach arrival time; from Barajas it is 258 km and about 184 min in the small hours, when the A-4 is empty, from 314,31 €.

At the airport the driver waits in the arrivals hall with the traveller's name on a sign and follows the flight on the board, so a delayed plane does not become a car that leaves or a different price; at the Estación Sur and at Chamartín, pickup is set at the agreed exit, because both have several exits and at night it is best not to have to look for each other. The return can end in Puertollano or carry on to the Alcudia valley or Almadén without changing cars, with the price fixed for the full route. How to give the flight number, what happens if the flight is cancelled and how to change a pickup time is explained in the platform's help pages.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Renfe · Avant y larga distancia en la línea Madrid–Ciudad Real–Puertollano (consulted on 27 October 2026)
• Adif · estaciones de Puertollano, Madrid Puerta de Atocha y Madrid Chamartín (consulted on 27 October 2026)
• Aena · aeropuerto Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas: llegadas y accesos (consulted on 27 October 2026)
• Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha · Parque Natural Valle de Alcudia y Sierra Madrona (consulted on 27 October 2026)