This has probably been talked about, but I see that it's a necessary topic:
HOW TO GO TO AVE TRAINS FROM THE METRO.
I'm currently working at the station, and everyday I see the same:
Tourists that get into the metro at central Madrid and get out of the metro at Atocha Renfe stop, getting absolutely LOST once they follow the 'RENFE' signs to the middle of the station.

It's SOOO easy to get to the AVE and unfortunately SOOO easy to get lost.

Let me give you some advices:

-As MadridMan said some months ago, Atocha has TWO stations: the conmuter rail station and the AVE station. The metro leaves you at the conmuter rail station.

-There is a BRIGHT sign just in front of the metro exit, at the far end of the station. It says 'Train departures, Boarding lounge'. YES, in english. Yet nobody seems to notice, they follow the cattle and go DOWNSTAIRS to the conmuter station. Then they find a ticket machines barrier and nowhere to go.
Take into account that most people that gets off the metro go to the conmuter trains, as they are regular Madrid conmuters. DON'T FOLLOW THEM, just go ahead to the TRAIN DEPARTURES SIGN IF YOU HAVE A TICKET.

-In case YOU DON'T have a ticket, YES, you have to go downstairs to buy your ticket. There is a ticket office in the far end of the station at the bottom floor. Then HEAD UPSTAIRS again and go to the bright sign mentioned above, AVE departures are in the first floor and arrivals are in the bottom floor.

Deibid, i wish I'd known that you are currently working at atocha station, we were there last week. I could have come and said Hello, (or Hola!)

Speaking of trains....We had one of our few glitches in the Atocha station. We had purchased a ticket to Segovia and were told it was the train at line two....so when we went down the stairs to line two...there was a train sitting there and we got on!!! OPPss....it was not going to Segovia!!!! Some 3 hours later we finally got our mistake corrected and pursuaded a ticket agent to let us on the right train. We ended up with only a little over 2 hours in Segovia...which was definately not enough...but so it goes. We were very excited to see the viaduct. It was worth the trouble.
We also rode the AVE to Seville and what a wonderful experience that was!!! Why can't the USA have one of those!! Transportation really is pretty easy to manage...well, if you pay closer attention and know a little more Spanish than we did!

Hi, sallyanne!
At least I hope I didn't see you getting lost!

no,I was with someone from Madrid so no chance of that! But you might have seen us smoking on the platform! I didn't know it wasn't allowed until later on that day!!

deibid -

After a couple of days in Madrid I'll be cycling to Toledo, but I was planning to take the cercanias to Humanes de Madrid to get me out of the city. The best info I have is that bicis are allowed on the cercanias until 3 PM - is that true?

I suspect the main idea is that they cannot go in the main direction of travel at rush hour, so I would be OK leaving a city in the morning or entering in the afternoon.

thanks, Charles

Hola Deibid,

We purchased Renfe tickets on the internet to go from Atocha to Leon. We have the confirmation notice to pick up the tickets at Atocha. Do you know where we have to go to get our reserved tickets? Do just go to the regular ticket windows?
Thank you.
Orrie