TrainAtlasAmong the most delayed train routes for the week of 5-11 July 2026, Spain took more than its share. Below are the Spanish routes running furthest behind schedule, ranked by the typical (median) arrival delay. This page refreshes every week from real arrival data.
The most delayed Spanish train routes that week
| # | Route | Typical delay | Late (5+ min) | Trains |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barcelona Estació de FrançaLleida-Pirineus (Barcelona Estació de França to Lleida-Pirineus) | 25min | 79% | 29 |
| 2 | Madrid-Puerta de Atocha-Almudena GrandesSevilla-Santa Justa (Madrid-Puerta de Atocha-Almudena Grandes to Sevilla-Santa Justa) | 19min | 94% | 106 |
| 3 | A CoruñaMadrid-Chamartín-Clara Campoamor (A Coruña to Madrid-Chamartín-Clara Campoamor) | 16min | 89% | 28 |
| 4 | Sevilla-Santa JustaCádiz (Sevilla-Santa Justa to Cádiz) | 12min | 76% | 34 |
| 5 | Alicante/Alacant-TerminalBarcelona-Sants (Alicante/Alacant-Terminal to Barcelona-Sants) | 12min | 64% | 25 |
| 6 | Madrid-Chamartín-Clara CampoamorVigo Urzaiz (Madrid-Chamartín-Clara Campoamor to Vigo Urzaiz) | 12min | 73% | 26 |
| 7 | Madrid-Puerta de Atocha-Almudena GrandesMálaga María Zambrano (Madrid-Puerta de Atocha-Almudena Grandes to Málaga María Zambrano) | 10min | 73% | 85 |
| 8 | SalamancaMadrid-Príncipe Pío (Salamanca to Madrid-Príncipe Pío) | 10min | 80% | 46 |
| 9 | TortosaBarcelona Estació de França (Tortosa to Barcelona Estació de França) | 10min | 67% | 54 |
| 10 | Barcelona-SantsCerbère (Barcelona-Sants to Cerbère) | 10min | 70% | 33 |
Bars are scaled to the worst route this week. "Typical delay" is the median across every tracked run; "late" is the share arriving 5 or more minutes behind. Only routes running 10 or more minutes late on a typical trip, with at least 25 tracked trains, are listed.
Catch a Spanish train?
This is last week. TrainAtlas tells you about your next one - live delays and platforms for your saved routes, across Renfe and 30+ operators.
Why are Spanish trains so delayed?
Three things compound:
- Long radial runs from Madrid. Spain's long-distance network fans out from Madrid in very long spokes - to Galicia, Andalusia and the coasts - and on a multi-hour run a delay picked up early compounds all the way to the terminus.
- Summer heat restrictions. Temporary speed limits in extreme July heat stretch journey times on the longest routes, and peak holiday loading leaves little slack to recover.
- Busy shared corridors. The main high-speed corridors now carry more trains than ever - AVE, Avlo and open-access operators share the same tracks - so one incident ripples through everything behind it.
How we measure this
- Arrival delay, not departure.
- We measure how late a train actually arrives - departure delay understates how late trains really run.
- Median, not average.
- Each route shows the median across every tracked run that week, so one cancelled or extreme train cannot distort the ranking.
- A 25-train floor.
- A route needs at least 25 tracked runs that week to appear, so a single bad day cannot put an obscure route on the board.
TrainAtlas is independent and not affiliated with Renfe or any rail operator. These are our own measurements from public data, not official punctuality statistics - operators publish on-time percentages using their own, more generous thresholds, so our median-minutes figure will usually read worse. Data source: Renfe's open GTFS-Realtime trip updates for AV/Larga Distancia services. Spot an error? Tell us and we will correct it and note the change in the archive.