Michael

When we left Madrid this morning, Aug. 1, there was an extended taxi strike. One traveler said to my wife that people were paying hundreds of dollars to get to the airport. That is unnecessary. There is a bus service for 5€ from Atocha Station (at the back by the round tower at street level) and a metro goes directly to the airport.

We took the bus leaving our apartment at 7:30, two metro stops and then spent time finding the bus stop. Its location is not obvious. One bus never came, we left Madrid with the 8:30 bus which stops at Terminals 1, 2, and 3. We get off at terminal 1 around 9 (10:55 flight) and could not find British Air. Finally learned that it was in Terminal 4 which is a completely separate unit, practically a separate airport. After being taken to the front of the line and getting checked in, while my wife was being wheeled and we were driven to the departure gate, I notice a sign that suggested a 26 minute walk to the gate--it was a long underground van ride to get there. In other words, given the enormous lines to check in and the crowds going through security, count a a full three hours of terminal time to get to the gate; we would not have made the flight without being wheeled and driven to the gate.

We lost a lot of time for the following reasons: What I thought was a 4 day metro pass that started around 4 p.m. the Saturday before did not extend to Wednesday morning, which meant going to the machine to charge the pass for a one way ticket to the train station. In other words the pass operates on a calendar day, not on a 24 hour cycle beginning at the time of first use. Then we lost time trying to find the bus stop (we probably could have gotten the 8 a.m. bus otherwise). Then we lost time trying to find British Air in the first three terminals and airport information is difficult to find too--an Air Canada information desk person told us to take the shuttle to terminal 4.

The other option is to take the subway which takes in an estimated time of 40 to 50 minutes from our metro stop close to the Atocha station according to the tourist office. But the subway goes to Terminal 4, which avoids getting an airport shuttle. On the other hand, one line is closed for repairs and other lines have stations closed if I understood the announcements correctly, so that the accessibility to the metro with luggage may depend on the traveler's original location and might stretch the travel time.

ribeirasacra

taxi strike has finished. BTW it was nation wide.

KTtravel

Good advice. Thank you for posting.

Christina

There are other ways to get there, anyway, not just those two. I used Aerocity, a group airport shuttle van, it worked great. They have a desk right in the airport. I presume a service like that would not be part of a taxi drivers strike.

cruiseluv

If you're traveling with luggage taking subway to airport is not practical.

Michael

That depends on how much luggage. We manage 6 weeks of travel with a 22" suitcase each. But the point is valid, perhaps less for metro than buses. We were riding a city bus near the palace (no metros station nearby) when a young couple wanted to get on with three suitcases and the driver did not let them on indicating, as far as I could understand, that only hand luggage was allowed. I assume that they had to walk a distance to the nearest metro (probably Sol station), feasible without luggage, torture in the 44 degree heat that was posting at the bus stop where we got on. We took the metro when we arrived at the Chamartin train station and for two stops when we left Madrid.

One reason I did not choose the metro is that it involved two changes with one marked as a long walk between the metro lines.