You are correct, Spanish reservations are one of the biggest headaches for passholders. It is certainly, along with SNCF and their subsidiaries the most openly obstructive country to foreign passholders.

Some of the commuter services do not share their timetables with the European systems and will not show up consistently or at all on the planner, adding them manually can often be the only option.

MD - There are some Cercanias/Rodalies that are marked as MD, these do not require reservations, those on longer routes generally do, I don’t believe there is a complete list anywhere but the planner is usually correct about the need for reservations.

If the Interrail booking platform will book it for you then that price is correct, take it. It has only recently been able to book any Spanish trains and is still not 100% but is the only online portal available for passholders. Outside of that, and for trains it cannot book (such as the 2 daily RENFE Barcelona to/from France) the only option is booking at RENFE ticket offices.

About the only positive is that there are no quotas for passholders in Spain, it is just the relative difficulty in obtaining the reservations and the prevalence of them even on trains that anywhere else would be regional reservation free that cause problems.

The DB planner is usually correct about mandatory reservations in Spain. The rail planner app is less reliable in that respect. For example, it claims that MD trains in Catalonia have mandatory reservations, which is not correct, e.g. Portbou-Barcelona.

Some regional and regional express trains are also without mandatory reservations.

There are a few more options to book Spanish trains, see:

With regard to Spanish trains, I have found that it is usually fine just to get to the station with time to line up at the ticket counter and get the reservation on the day.  Or take more time and do all your reservations in one hit if you know when you are travelling.  The only time I’ve had a problem is at Easter when the trains literally fill up completely.   FEVE doesn’t need reservations at all.  Maybe one day RENFE will have a usuable website!

And with timetables: I bought the European Rail Timetable for each trip: (global pass last year and this year)  and although it felt like an expensive extra, given there is DE and trainline etc.  It has been so useful - it gives accurate timetables for each country and heaps of extra information, with holidays noted and also when  certain trains won’t be running. For example, I had planned to go on the Yellow train from Spain to France last year but saw that it wasn’t running at all when I’d hoped to go, and so I had time to re-plan my journey.  It also gives all the ferry timetables for everywhere in Europe.  And it is fun to browse.

A question about RENFE - I have a first class pass, so which class can I use in Spain? there seem to be three classes.  Thanks

AFAIK you can then book anything you like.

Seat 61 explains RENFE classes:

https://www.seat61.com/train-travel-in-spain.htm#Spanish_train_classes

Thanks rvdborgt! 

I too am finding the whole system in Spain confusing.  Briefly, I’ve purchased a 22 day global pass and intend to use it in April.  I’m taking a flight to Seville and travelling down to Lebrija (50 minutes south of Seville) for a few days.  I’ll be getting there using the Seville Cadiz line and paying for it outwith my Interrail pass. The cost is 4.55 € (net of Tarjeta Dorada discount).

It’s only now that I’ve started to plan the pass trip that I’m starting to find anomalies similar to those that @ztzthu has come across.   Starting with a Journey back to Seville that I’m informed require a reservation at a cost of ‘from 6 €’.  Can this be correct?  I’m intending to stay outside of main cities and ‘commute’ in to see them or travel around the surrounding areas.

Trains that exist on Renfe aren’t appearing on the App or DB planner, I could of course entrust things to using ‘manually added’ trips.  However, I’m not certain that this can be trusted. 

Of course it may be that trying to plan these ‘dummy’ journeys using dates so close to Christmas is not a good idea, but I’m starting to lose a bit of confidence, I’m seriously considering returning the pass and booking journeys directly with the Spanish/French rail companies which may prove more expensive but a lot less stressful.

Can anybody reassure me?

Depends on the train. For an exact answer, please mention route, date and departure time. Reservation fees in the app are not always correct and often include a €2 booking fee that is only applicable if you book through Interrail/Eurail.

Manually added journeys are just as valid. But there's no need to add any journeys a long time in advance. Often, the rail planner app will have been updated on your travel date.

The most reliable source for Spanish timetables are renfe.com (awful website though) and www.raileurope.com. The latter seems to have a direct connection to Renfe but their website is not so awful, although they also include other trains and buses where passes are not valid. I any case, never use the rail planner app to plan. It's often the least reliable source available.

thanks @rvdborgt for your prompt response.  Below are some screenshots showing a journey from Lebrija to Sevilla-Santa Justa. Firstly RENFE - I haven’t confused matters further by applying the Tarjeta Dorada discount which reduces the fare to 4.55 €.  I actually progressed furthe through the RENFE booking procedure to the point of entering my credit card details with no admin charges/reservation fees being added.

07.39 chosen from Lebrija to Sevilla-Santa Justa which resulted in this cost

The same search on Interrail gives me these results

Clicking on the ‘More information’ link produces this:

The equivalent of this journey will actually be my ‘activate pass’ journey in April.  I appreciate that I can manually add the journey to my trip.  I further appreciate that not adding my pass to my profile may be further muddying the waters - I’d much rather wait until I’m more familiar with the workings of Interrail before I do that.

thanks in anticipation for your help

Pass reservations for MD are often €4 (except for Catalonia, where no reservation is needed). They can't be made online. The Interrail website can currently only book a few Renfe train types and MD isn't one of them.

Many thanks.  Is there a list of these “few Renfe train types” on the Interrail website please? - and, probably more useful a list of unsupported types.  I appreciate that this problem isn’t of Interrails making.  However, given that my intention is to move between ‘backwaters’ close to Cities and stay there - it really could be a showstopper.

Please see:

https://community.eurail.com/train%2Dconnections%2Dreservations%2D47/how%2Dto%2Dget%2Dreservations%2D105/index2.html?postid=18419#post18419

AFAIK currently only pass reservations for AVE, Alvia and Euromed trains can be booked online through Interrail.

thank you very much @rvdborgt you’ve helped me see through this mist a little and will help me make my final decision(s).  I know you don’t want to be PM’d but I have no objection.

If you are planning on staying outside main cities and commuting in then check whether there is a Cercanias service. These are run by Renfe so if you have a continuous pass they are included and not reservable. Otherwise there is a relatively small charge. Some of them operate a zonal system rather than a point to point pricing. (Barcelona scheme is called Rodalies).

https://www.renfe.com/es/en/suburban

thanks @Yorkie I am aware of these renfe ‘commuter’ lines and the fact that you can utilise them using Renfes “Combinado Cercanias” scheme if you are travelling outwith a interrail pass.

Given that I already hold a Tarjeta Dorada card, and can benefit from the discounts it provides, I have to make the decision as to whether using a system where there seems to be a plethora of messages informing me that seat reservations are required when seemingly they’re not.  Then struggling to find trains that I know exist on the planner.

Clearly I need to do some homework on route finding given that I intend flying into Seville and leaving from Santander over 3 weeks later.

Obviously, it isn’t purely a matter of cost.  Other factors do come in to consideration and I need to make my mind up.