What Are Spain’s Media Distancia Trains? My Experience Riding the Overlooked Rail Option
I was in Girona, a small city that sits in a province away from Barcelona. Both cities are on the route of Spain’s most impressive train route, the “AVE,” or “alta velocidad” high-speed train.
Reaching over 200mph (320kph), they zip between the cities in just 39 minutes.
I’d taken the high-speed train around Spain before, between Barcelona and Madrid and even down to Seville and back. But on this trip, I decided to take the sexy “media distancia,” (mid-distance train option.
In this article, I’ll share my experience, what you need to know about booking and riding the media distancia train, and the lessons we can learn about improving transportation from Spain’s media distancia trains, which is sort of like the “missing middle” of rail.
TL;DR: The Media Distancia Trains is Slept-On Option
- Media Distancia trains are comfortable, clean, convenient, and fast. Honestly, if this were in the U.S., we’d probably call it high-speed rail.
- They’re usually cheaper than AVE, and slower, but still quite fast. My Girona–Barcelona ticket cost €12 instead of €17.
- They make more stops, which often makes them more useful depending on where you’re actually going.
- You often have to buy the tickets at the station. The prices are fixed and you can get it last-minute. In Girona, this was easy and stress-free.
- In the U.S., we know we’re behind on high-speed rail. Spain shows we’re also behind on medium-speed rail.
What Are Spain’s “Media Distancia” Trains?
Media Distancia is a regional rail service in spain that, as the name suggests, goes medium distances. They’re operated by Renfe and fill a gap between local commuter trains and high-speed rail.
Their routes are shorter distances than the high-speed train, and don’t get between major cities like Barcelona and Madrid, but still reach up to 100mph.
In practice, they serve regional routes, but are faster and more comfortable than most of Spain’s commuter rail lines. It means proper seats and better on-time performance than the commuter lines like the Rodalies.
They’re not quite “show up and go” frequency, but they are frequent.
A helpful way to think about it is this:
If AVE is about crossing regions as fast as possible (like Barcelona to Madrid), Media Distancia is about stitching an entire region together (like Barcelona and Girona).
On my trip from Girona to Barcelona, the Media Distancia train took 1 hour and 10 minutes, compared to 39 minutes on the AVE. But I did get something for this. It cost less, and I could get off at a station in Barcelona much closer to my destination.
Really, it’s just another train option, better and worse than other train options depending on the specific circumstances.
My biggest takeaway from taking the MD train is that great transportation systems have many options. High-speed rail alone is not enough.
My Experience: Girona to Barcelona on Media Distancia
I didn’t choose the Media Distancia train just to save a few euros, though saving money never hurts.
There were two reasons why I took it. First, it was the next train to come when I was ready to leave Girona. The Media Distancia trains are a way to add frequency between cities and town. Second, the routing with extra stops made more sense.
Yes, Girona and Barcelona are both AVE cities. The high-speed train gets you between them in a sleek, impressive 39 minutes. But the AVE only stops at Barcelona Sants, which meant I’d still have to hop on the metro afterward and backtrack toward where I was staying.
The Media Distancia train, on the other hand, had a stop at Passeig de Gràcia, walking distance from my final destination. That one extra stop effectively saved me about 15 minutes of metro travel. So while the train itself took longer (1 hour and 10 minutes), my total travel time ended up being only a few minutes slower than AVE.
On paper, it’s a slower train. In practice, it worked out the same.
High-speed rail is incredible, but if you’re not going to or from city centers, sometimes other trains are better.
Booking: In-Person, Last-Minute, Fixed Price
AVE prices are more like plane tickets. They can fluctuate like crazy based on demand. But Media Distancia tickets you buy at the station, not online.
I bought it at the station in Girona. The station had plenty of kiosks, and the whole process took maybe two minutes. I said I was going to Barcelona, tapped my credit card, got a paper ticket, and headed upstairs to the platform.
The train arrived on time, and within minutes I was rolling south toward Barcelona.
Comfort: More Intercity Than Commuter
Inside, the train felt immediately familiar similar to any modern European trains or Amtrak’s Acela in the Northeast U.S. The design is similar, and so is the comfort level.
I chose a table seat, though there were plenty of standard forward-facing seats as well with tray tables. The seating was comfortable and clean, with enough space to spread out a bit, though not quite the generous legroom you get on some Amtrak routes. To be honest, Amtrak’s slow chunkers are usually more comfortable, with cushioned seats, but I’ll always take the speed.
Although the booking experience is more like a commuter train, the ride itself was firmly intercity.
Overall, comfort-wise, it was absolutely comparable to high-speed rail.
Calm, Local, and Guiri-Free
The train was quiet and calm, filled almost entirely with locals, likely students, commuters, and people moving around the region as part of daily life. There wasn’t a tourist in sight. No rolling suitcases. No frantic energy.
It was a guiri-free zone (well, except for me.)
And that’s kind of the point.
Practical Tips for Travelers Using Media Distancia Trains
Book last-minute in-person. I bought my ticket at the station in Girona, minutes before departure at a staffed booth. You don’t need to get it ahead. You get it at the station. I wish you could buy it online, but so be it.
Seating is open, not assigned. Media Distancia trains don’t typically have reserved seats like AVE. Your ticket gets you on the train, and you choose your seat once you’re onboard. In practice, this feels more relaxed and closer to a commuter-rail experience, just with better comfort.
Prices are lower and more predictable than AVE. Media Distancia tickets are generally cheaper and don’t swing wildly in price. On the Girona–Barcelona route, I paid €11 instead of €17 for the high-speed option. You’re trading some speed for flexibility, not comfort. But some AVE tickets get as low as €9, so it’s worth checking.
Luggage is a non-issue. There’s no weighing, no sizing, and no extra fees. If you can carry it, you can bring it.
What We Can Learn From Spain’s Media Distancia Trains
High-speed rail on one end, and really good metro systems on the other are what get the headlines.
Spain, in general, has both.
But systems like Spain’s only work as well as they do because they’re built as networks of complementary tools.
High-speed rail, metros, commuter rail, and medium-distance trains all do different jobs. AVE is excellent at moving people quickly between major cities and regions. Commuter rail handles daily, local trips. Metros solve dense, urban mobility. Media Distancia fills the space in between. It connects cities that are close enough to interact economically, socially, and culturally, but far enough apart that a metro or slow commuter train doesn’t quite cut it.
That middle layer matters more than it gets credit for.
More Rail Service, More Options
By adding Media Distancia routes, Spain increases the overall supply of rail service.
More routes, more frequencies, more ways to move. That gives people more options, which affects their lives. It also, by increasing supply, can keep prices in check without regulation. When there are multiple viable train options on a corridor, high-speed rail doesn’t have a monopoly on demand.
After all, I chose this train partially because it cost less than the AVE on that day.
In the U.S., we often point to Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor as proof that people will take trains if they’re fast and reliable. And they will. But because there’s so few alternatives, Amtrak ends up trying to do everything at once, as an intercity rail and quasi–high-speed rail all on the same tracks. And, Amtrak’s frequency is limited by the infrastructure we have right now. Demand is high, frequencies are limited, and prices reflect that. Amtrak is too damn expensive.
Spain, by contrast, doesn’t ask one service to do every job. Media Distancia absorbs trips that don’t need the AVE, freeing up high-speed rail for the trips it’s best at.
Right now it’s sexy to talk about “missing middle” housing. Media Distancia trains are like “missing middle” rail service. (Except, since don’t have high-speed rail, we’re not there yet.)
This is How You Encourage a Car-Light Society
This is partially a chicken-egg situation. Spain has always had lots of village-like towns that make sense for walkability and taking transit, as opposed to the sprawl of much of the U.S.
Nonetheless, good transit has allowed Spain to continue to have relatively modest car ownership rates (compared to the U.S.). When people have lots of car-free options, they’re less likely to use a car. Duh. More trains that go more places at more speeds and price points is just better.
That, of course, has ample environmental benefits.
Every additional rail option is another opportunity to avoid a car trip, especially on regional corridors where driving is often the default. You don’t need a 200-mph train to reduce emissions, you need reliable, frequent, reasonably fast alternatives that fit how people actually travel.
Most importantly, Media Distancia trains recognize a basic truth of transportation planning: people don’t all travel the same way, for the same reasons, or on the same schedules. Good systems meet people where they are. They offer choice.
Integration With Urban Form
Another critical lesson is how Media Distancia interacts with the cities it serves. Girona, for example, is compact and dense, with a station within walking distance of the city center. You don’t need a metro to move people efficiently here — good regional rail coverage is enough. Many smaller cities and towns along Media Distancia routes work the same way, demonstrating that medium-distance trains can make transit useful even without a full urban rail network.
The quiet, medium-speed trains stitching regions together are often doing just as much work as the ones grabbing the headlines.
After exploring so much of Spain, traveling on all its transit options, it was impossible for me to notice that, even things like the Media Distancia trains we don’t have back home.
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