Estació de França — Local services in Barcelona

A railway station was first built here in the 19th century as the main terminus for trains arriving from France (as its name still suggests), but also for services to North East Catalonia and the Costa Brava.

Re-built and re-opened for the 1929 International Exhibition, the two monumental buildings that make up the station were designed by the architect Pedro Muguruza and inaugurated by King Alfonso XIII. They surround the railway tracks in the shape of a 'U'. In total, the station's structure is 29m tall and 195m long. The station was closed for renovation between from 1988 and 1992, reopening for the Olympic Games of 1992. It is generally seen as the city's most beautiful station. It is worth seeing in its own right for the restrained mix of classical and more modern styles - complete with decoration in marble, bronze and crystal, and modernista and art déco motifs. Over the last three decades it has been eclipsed as Barcelona’s main station by the subterranean sprawl of Sants. Indeed, most other stations of Barcelona are at least partly underground.

The station's status as the terminus for international trains from (and through) France ended with the discontinuance of the trenhotels in 2013, which coincided with the introduction of the new high-speed daytime services to Paris, Toulouse, Lyons and Marseilles, all of which call at or terminate at Sants. Part of the original building now belongs to Pompeu Fabra University, serving as its...

Extremely poor service and lack of basic information

I had a very disappointing experience at the Estació de França ticket office on September 15th. I bought three tickets to Madrid, and the young man at the counter was extremely unfriendly, dismissive, and gave no information at all. As a foreigner who doesn't speak Spanish, I had no idea that the train would actually depart from Barcelona Sants, not this station. Because of this, I missed the train, had to spend over €300 on new tickets, and lost over two hours of travel time. A simple explanation or even a basic sign would have avoided all this. The staff should be trained to provide clear and helpful information, especially when serving international travelers. I hope this improves...

Most un-service friendly Rodalies + Renfe staff (two men looked similar - one with beard!). Even though I spoke Spanish, was traveling with two kids and the train was leaving within 5 minutes, they directed me to buy the tickets in the machine even though none of them had any other to attend & no queue. I informed them that one of the machines was broken and the other one had a queue!!!! And still they couldn't help me! In turn I had to help the people at the machine to buy their tickets! I know they could've helped me, because I bought a similar ticket from a Rodalies just the week before.

Spain in a nutshell, do anything not to work. Very...