How to take the rail journey from Barcelona to Seville/Sevilla on direct trains

Final Destination: Sevilla-Santa Justa

These trains are usually scheduled to depart daily at:

• 08:30; arrives at 14:32
• 15:15; arrives at 21:25

These trains also call at: Cordoba

Boarding in Barcelona:

Aim to be at Barcelona Sants a minimum of 20 mins before departure, in order to allow time to pass through the security checks.

At Barcelona Sants station these trains depart from the part of the station used by the high speed trains - vias (platforms/tracks) 1 - 6.
So when you're in the station follow the signs that are pointing the way to the ' Alta-Velocidad' trains.

Book early and save: Yes

Online bookings open: up to 6  months ahead of the travel date - depending on the time of year.
The online booking window can be shorter between late July and early October.

When looking up journeys (not travelling) between late July and early October, it's likely you won't be able to book for journeys beyond the second Sunday in December.

Book ahead for this journey, these tend to be very popular trains, so can sell out days in advance, particularly in the summer.
These trains usually depart daily at 08:30 and 15:15, so target those departure times when looking up this journey.

You will also likely see a much longer journey by IC train, offered at a cheaper price.

Rail Pass Users:

Spanish national rail operator RENFE does not sell rail pass reservations online, but reservations for journeys on the AVE, Alvia and Euromed trains are now available by using the Eurail reservation service or the InterRail reservation service.

The only option, other than booking them at a station in Spain, is to pre-reserve seats by calling Renfe phone sales: +34 91 232 03 20.

Pre-reserving a seat is possible up to 24 hours before a train's departure. You will receive a PNR code which you must use to pick up and pay for your reservation at a local station ticket office, making sure to show your Interrail Pass. You must collect your reservation within 72 hours. After this time the pre-reservation will expire.
Please note that a pre-reservation is not the same as a reservation. It only holds a seat for you for 72 hours.

Seats on these trains call sell out in 1st/Preferente and 2nd/Turista class, days in advance, so if you wait until you arrive at a Spanish station to make the reservation, there's a chance that no seats will be available.

If you will be using a 1st class rail pass, you can save more than €10 by taking the alternative, but much slower, Torre Oro train service.

Final Destination: Sevilla-Santa Justa

These trains are usually scheduled to depart daily at:

• 09:50; arrives at 15:36
• 13:45; arrives at 19:39

These trains also call at: Cordoba

Boarding in Barcelona:

Aim to be at Barcelona Sants a minimum of 20 mins before departure, in order to allow time to pass through the security checks.

At Barcelona Sants station these trains depart from the part of the station used by the high speed trains - vias (platforms/tracks) 1 - 6.
So when you're in the station follow the signs that are pointing the way to the ' Alta-Velocidad' trains.

Book early and save: Yes

Online bookings usually open: up to 6 months ahead of the travel date .

Both the iro online booking service and Trainline sell tickets for journeys by the iro trains, but Trainline also sells tickets for the alternative AVE, avlo and Ouigo services, though the periods of time ahead of the travel date, on which all four services can be compared, can vary.

The iryo prices are set per departure according to demand; hence the lack of price info below.

In common with the ticket pricing policy for most European high speed rail journeys, limited numbers of tickets will be available at each price, as each quota of tickets available at the cheaper price sell out, they are replaced with tickets at more expensive prices.

Similarly to how the tickets which Renfe makes available for its AVE services are sold, the terms of using the tickets to travel on iryo services, differ according to the class which you will be travelling by.

Incial Flexible

• want to cancel your booking more than 7 days before the journey = receive a refund of 80% of the price you paid
• want to cancel your booking less than 7 days before the journey = receive a refund of 70% of the price you paid
• subsequently want to travel by an alternative departure on your chosen travel date and arrange this a minimum of 24hrs in advance = pay the difference in price if the new departure you want to travel by is more expensive
• subsequently want to travel by another departure on a different travel date and arrange this a minimum of 24hrs in advance = pay the difference in price if the new departure you want to travel by is more expensive + 15% of the price you originally paid
• miss the train you are booked on to and want to travel on a different iryo departure = you will have to re-book an entirely new ticket.

Singular Cafe Flexible and Singular Flexible tickets

• want to cancel your booking more than 7 days before the journey = receive a refund of 85% of the price you paid
• want to cancel your booking less than 7 days before the journey = receive a refund of 75% of the price you paid
• subsequently want to travel by an alternative departure on your chosen travel date and arrange this a minimum of 24hrs in advance = no charge
• subsequently want to travel by another departure on a different travel date and arrange this a minimum of 24hrs in advance = pay the difference in price if the new departure you want to travel by is more expensive (avoid this when travelling Singular Cafe by booking Abierta tickets)
• miss the train you are booked on to and want to travel on a different iryo departure within 2 hours* = €30 for a replacement ticket
  *= the gaps between iryo departures can be longer than 2 hours

Infinita Flexible

• complimentary meal from the Bistro Menu = included
• want to cancel your booking more than 7 days before the journey = receive a refund of 95% of the price you paid
• want to cancel your booking less than 7 days before the journey = receive a refund of 90% of the price you paid
• subsequently want to travel by an alternative departure on your chosen travel date and arrange this a minimum of 24hrs in advance = no charge
• subsequently want to travel by another departure on a different travel date and arrange this a minimum of 24hrs in advance = pay the difference in price if the new departure you want to travel by is more expensive (avoid this by booking Abierta tickets)
• miss the train you are booked on to and want to travel on a different iryo departure within 2 hours* = €10 for a replacement ticket
  *= the gaps between iryo departures can be longer than 2 hours

Infinita Abierta

• complimentary meal from the Bistro Menu =option to pay extra for this
• want to cancel your booking more than 7 days before the journey = receive a refund of 100% of the price you paid
• want to cancel your booking less than 7 days before the journey = receive a refund of 95% of the price you paid
• subsequently want to travel by an alternative departure on your chosen travel date = no charge
• subsequently want to travel by another departure on a different travel date = no charge
• miss the train you are booked on to and want to travel on a different iryo departure within 2 hours* = no charge
  *= the gaps between iryo departures can be longer than 2 hours

Singular Cafe Abierta

• want to cancel your booking more than 7 days before the journey = receive a refund of 90% of the price you paid
• want to cancel your booking less than 7 days before the journey = receive a refund of 95% of the price you paid
• subsequently want to travel by an alternative departure on your chosen travel date = no charge
• subsequently want to travel by a another departure on a different travel date = no charge
• miss the train you are booked on to and want to travel on a different iryo departure within 2 hours* = no charge
  *= the gaps between iryo departures can be longer than 2 hours

Note that a core difference between Flexible and Abierta tickets is that the Abierta tickets can be exchanged to travel on a different date, without the difference in cost between the original booking and the price to travel by the alternative train, having to be paid.
So with Abierta tickets you have the peace of mind of knowing that you can travel on a different date to that which you originally selected, without having to pay more money, despite the likelihood that the price, of what is in effect your replacement ticket, having risen since the time of your original booking.

Making a booking

When looking up a journey on the iryo website only the prices per departure of Incial Flexible, Singular Flexible and Infinita Flexible tickets will be shown.
When more than one person will be travelling together, the price shown will be the price per ticket and not the total price for the entire party.
If you want to travel in Infinita Class with the additional benefits of an Abierta ticket, you can add it to the booking of Infinita Flexible tickets as an upgrade.
Though two options for the Infinita Abierta tickets will be available, because you can opt to pay less and then not have access to the complimentary Bistro menu,

If you want to travel in the Singular Cafe class, what isn't particularly obvious is that you can only do so by opting to upgrade Incial Flexible or Singular Flexible tickets.
To book a Singular Cafe Abierta ticket you can upgrade a Singular Flexible ticket.
To book a Singular Cafe Flexible ticket you can upgrade an Incial Flexible ticket.

Child tickets

An unconventional aspect of iryo's ticketing is that it doesn't offer dedicated rates for child tickets, when travelling with children.
Those aged 0-3 don't require a ticket if they travel on an adult's lap, but they will need a ticket if they are placed in a seat.
Children aged 4-13 travel at the 'standard' rate = the same price as Adult tickets.

This train, which is also known as the 'Torre Del Oro' usually departs from Barcelona Sants, vias (platforms/tracks) 11 - 12, at 09:13.
It now continues beyond Seville and has a final destination of Cadiz.

Aim to be at Barcelona Sants a minimum of 20 mins before departure, in order to allow time to pass through the security checks.

Book early and save: Yes

Online bookings open: 2 months ahead

Note that if you look up this journey more than two months ahead, you will only see the faster AVE trains isted for sale.

If you'll be booking a Barcelona to Seville train journey less than a couple of weeks ahead of your travel date, then this Torre Oro train can be around half of the price of taking an AVE train.
However, note that the journey is also around twice as long as that taken by the AVE trains.

Rail Pass Users:

You'll save €4 if you have a 2nd class pass and take this Talgo train and not the AVE train, but think twice, is it worth spending an additional 5 hours(ish) to make this journey for a €4 saving?

If you have a 1st class you'll save €19 compared to the cost of taking the AVE trains.