A Warm Welcome In Irun
Michael Portillo’s documentary on travelling by train from Bordeaux to Bilbao gave me the impression that finding your way from the French to Spanish railways systems is easy.
So I went into the station at Irun and asked if I could buy a ticket to France. I didn’t get an answer from the guy in the ticket office, but I heard him swear under his breath. Railwaymen the world over tend to be cherry souls, who are usually willing to help, but this oaf was by a long way the worst I had met. He made the staff at Osnabruck, when I was abandoned by Deutsche Bahn, seem to be some of the best customer service people, I’d ever encountered.
I then looked around for a helpful notice, that might say you took a taxi to the nearest French station and it would cost you so many euros. But there was nothing!
I had noticed taxis outside, but was reluctant to take one, as they would probably charge a British tourist a hundred euros to go a couple of kilometres.
In the end, I walked into the town and asaked a couple of teenage girls, if they could help a lost traveller. After all, I did hope that they had learned some English.
They had and told me to walk to the Metro station with the blue sign, from where I could get a train to Hendaya. I knew that I could get a train from Hendaye, as the French call it, to Biarritz.
The Anonymous Widower 
[…] only staff I met were from a completely different mould to their countryman at Irun station, and sold me a ticket in a pleasant […]
Pingback by From Irun To Hendaya « The Anonymous Widower | December 15, 2013 |
The perils of relying on Michael Portillo!
I’ve been in that area quite a lot recently, and had the same experience as you in Irun (apart from the teenage girls).
Euskotren actually run hourly trains from Bilbao to Hendaye, with a change at Donostia (San Sebastian to non-Basques) Amara. This is the narrow-gauge (1m) line, basically commuter trains which stop at every station and make no claim to being express. Because the (CAF-built) trains are narrower, they feel more like trams than trains, and are laid out more like trams. They start in Matiko in the north of the city, but if you’re at Abando, then cross the river to the Old Town station (Zazpikaleak in Basque, a word I have great difficulties remembering). The whole journey takes over 3 hours, as opposed to Alsa buses, which take 1.5-2 hours to Irun with only 1 stop.
This whole journey should be substantially faster and easier once the Basque Y is complete. I see the final outstanding bit, the route into Bilbao Abando, has just been approved, so they’re talking of 2028 completion. And a brand new station in Irun was also recently approved https://www.adif.es/w/adif-contrata-construccion-por-65-3-m%E2%82%AC-estacion-irun-promovera-movilidad-sostenible-e-integracion-urbana. It seems that for the Donostia-Irun section, they will replace the current Iberian-gauge track with dual-gauge so the existing Renfe trains and international high-speed can both use the same track. The new station will include the Euskotran line too, so will accommodate 3 gauges in all, with different platforms for standard/dual/narrow gauges. There’s talk of ‘intermodal’ too, so presumably the Alsa and other buses will use the new station too. This should make Irun station a much more attractive proposition than it is at present.
The Basque Y is not high-speed by Spanish standards, being only 220kph max, and if they’re not upgrading the track on Donostia-Irun that will be even slower. However, that’s true on the French side atm as well. There seem to be a lot of tunnels (not surprising, given the coastal mountains all along there), so it probably won’t be a scenic route.
Comment by Peter Robins | February 15, 2023 |
as a follow-up to this, https://www.railwaygazette.com/passenger/cross-border-local-train-service-proposed-in-the-basque-country/64153.article reports on a cross-border study on introducing an hourly San Sebastian-Bayonne service once dual-gauge track is completed on the Spanish side next year. They estimate the costs of acquiring EMUs for operating the service should be outweighed by a substantial increase in passengers.
Comment by Peter Robins | June 4, 2023 |
I saw that! My bucket list includes going to Canfranc!
Comment by AnonW | June 4, 2023
If you don’t know, the station building there is now a luxury hotel https://www.barcelo.com/en-gb/canfranc-estacion-a-royal-hideaway-hotel/ So if you’re feeling flush, you could spend the night there. AIUI, the station has been moved to some much more modest former freight offices. Adif is currently converting the track on the Spanish side to dual gauge, which international services could use. However, I wouldn’t count on anything much happening on the French side in the near future!
Comment by Peter Robins | June 4, 2023
And as a further incentive for you to go to Canfranc, CAF is currently testing their hydrogen bi-mode on this line https://www.caf.net/en/sala-prensa/nota-prensa-detalle.php?e=423 “This is an outstanding highlight, because the Canfranc line is a particularly demanding line due to its steep and high gradients.”
Comment by Peter Robins | June 6, 2023