Irritation spread when news arrived that the AVE trains, mostly serving Alicante, Valencia, and Murcia, would bypass Atocha and head straight to Chamartín, a change that left commuters and rail enthusiasts uneasy. Adif, the Rail Infrastructure Manager, defended the decision by arguing that routing Levante trains toward the northern corridors would be more efficient, since Chamartín serves as the junction where routes to Galicia and the Bay of Biscay diverge.
Yet a subtle nuance was left out. A direct Valencia to Valladolid, Santander, Gijón, or Santiago de Compostela was not possible. Direct services from Alicante had not existed for decades. The author recalls annual journeys to Valladolid beginning in 1996. Valencian colleagues attending the Valladolid Film Festival often had to transfer through Madrid to reach Seminci. The Valencia–Madrid line, known as Alaris, differed in its train composition from Altaria and Alvia and felt more compact, almost airplane-like in its interior density and feel.
Those mid to late nineties visits to the Gijón Film Festival and later to the Santander UIMP Courses were shaped by the existence of direct Alicante–Santander and Alicante–Gijón connections in the schedule. The memory lingers of what it was like to pass through two stations in Madrid. The stop at Atocha-Cercanías was brief, often around a minute, while Chamartín allowed a fifteen-minute pause. This window gave controllers and drivers a moment to prepare for the next leg, a practical rhythm of operation that kept the day moving.
Over time, the Alvias that reached Santander and Gijón from 2013 onward extended their life in Madrid by transferring to High Speed lines. Today, the interval between arrival in Atocha and departure from Chamartín is typically about one hour, enough time for crews to coordinate the handovers, clear the platforms, and ensure connections remain smooth for travelers who rely on efficient cross-city transfers.
It is useful to keep the record straight and to rely on verifiable data. Memory travels alongside the timetables and routes, and it matters to those who plan trips, studios, and festivals around Spain’s vast rail network. The balance between historical routes and modern scheduling continues to shape how travelers experience the country’s rail system, a reminder that changes in service patterns have real consequences for itineraries that stretch across cities and regions.