Free transfers from Renfe - Combinado Cercanías

The Spanish rail operator, Renfe, offers free transfers onto suburban trains and trams when you buy domestic AVE or Long Distance tickets (any fare, route or class).

What is Combinado Cercanías?

The Combinado Cercanías is a five-digit code or barcode that you'll find on eligible tickets.

The code enables customers to obtain a free ticket for a suburban train (and/or FEVE suburban train) within four hours of arrival and/or departure at both the origin and destination stations.

The code can be found in the top left hand corner of eligible tickets; see Understanding your Spanish train ticket for more details.

Eligible services include high-speed AVE or other Long Distance trains such as Trenhotel, Talgo, Alvia and Euromed (any fare, route or class). Short and medium distance trains such as Avant and Media Distancia (MD) do not include Combinado Cercanías.

If your ticket doesn't include a Combinado Cercanías code, you'll need to buy tickets for onward travel on the day from machines in the station.

How to claim your free transfer

The free transfer tickets can be obtained at self-service machines in Spanish station, which show either the Cercanías logo (most of Spain) or Rodalies logo (Catalonia only), shown respectively below. All machines have multi-language options which you can select on the first screen.

You'll need to enter your destination and choose the fare "Suburban Trains Combo fare" (tarifa “CombinadoCercanías”). Depending on the machine, you'll be prompted to enter your CombinadoCercanías code or scan the barcode. You'll need to do this once for each passenger.

If the station does not have a self-service machine, you can go to the ticket window, and present your ticket/s. Staff will issue the ticket for your transfer ticket.
If the station has neither self-service machines nor ticket windows, you can still board the train. The ticket will be validated by the conductor on board or at the destination station. However, please note that this is only acceptable if there are no machines (the ticket inspector are aware of stations that don't have facilities).

Note that Combinado Cercanías tickets do not carry the right to compensation due to incidents/delays affecting the service.

Destinations offering Combinado Cercanías

If you have an eligible ticket, you can start or end the journey at any of the station hubs listed:

Renfe: Asturias, Barcelona (Rodalies/suburban trains), Girona (Rodalies/suburban trains), Camp de Tarragona (Rodalies/suburban trains), Bilbao, Cadiz, Madrid (Cercanías), Málaga, Murcia/Alicante, San Sebastian, Santander, Seville, Valencia and Zaragoza.
FEVE: Asturias, Santander, Cartagena Station and Bilbao.
TRAM: Alicante Tram: L1 – Luceros / Benidorm, L2 – Luceros / San Vicent del Raspeig, L3 – Luceros / El Campello and L4 – Luceros / Pl. La Coruña

View timetables

Although it isn't possible to book tickets for Cercanías or Rodalies trains in advance, you can check if your onward station is included in the Cercanías network and check the Renfe timetables online in advance of travel.

Take a look at our blog, How to get Spanish rail tickets for free, which gives ideas of some suburban routes you can enjoy using this free Spanish ticket facility.