I just found this on another travel website:
"Just thought I would add that a friend has just done the "Barajas metro to Atocha route" with a slight variation the metro personnel told her to do.( If this variation has been posted, please forgive)
Take the metro to Nuevos Ministerios.
Get off there and change to the "Cercanias" trains. You need to buy a new ticket from the machine. It lists the most popular destinations first, and then you select "more destinations" and "Atcoha" comes up.
No more changes. In two stops you are at Atocha!
Very fast, direct, and a close second, or perhaps first, now, in my mind, for getting inexpensively to that seemingly far away train station."
http://www.renfe.es/cercanias/madrid/in ... arios.html
"Just thought I would add that a friend has just done the "Barajas metro to Atocha route" with a slight variation the metro personnel told her to do.( If this variation has been posted, please forgive)
Take the metro to Nuevos Ministerios.
Get off there and change to the "Cercanias" trains. You need to buy a new ticket from the machine. It lists the most popular destinations first, and then you select "more destinations" and "Atcoha" comes up.
No more changes. In two stops you are at Atocha!
Very fast, direct, and a close second, or perhaps first, now, in my mind, for getting inexpensively to that seemingly far away train station."
http://www.renfe.es/cercanias/madrid/in ... arios.html