Barcelona Guide
Arrival
By train
The main station for domestic and international arrivals is Barcelona Sants, 3km west of the city centre. There is a tourist office here (with an accommodation booking service), as well as ATMs, an exchange office, car-rental outlets, a police station and left-luggage facilities. The metro station (accessed from inside Barcelona Sants) is called Sants Estació – line 3 from here runs direct to Liceu (for the Ramblas), Catalunya (for Plaça de Catalunya) and Passeig de Gràcia, while line 5 runs to Diagonal.
Some Spanish intercity services and international trains also stop at Estació de França, 1km east of the Ramblas and close to oBarceloneta. Other possible arrival points by train are Plaça de Catalunya, at the top of the Ramblas (for trains from coastal towns north of the city, and towns on the Puigcerdà– Vic line), and Passeig de Gràcia (Catalunya provincial destinations).
The high-speed AVE line (Alta Velocidad Española) between Barcelona and Madrid (via Tarragona and Zaragoza) started operation in 2008, cutting journey times in half between the two cities (2hr 45min to 3hr 25min, depending on the service). Arrivals and departures are at Barcelona Sants, though a second high-speed station is planned at La Sagrera, east of the centre beyond Glòries (though probably not until 2013).