The short answer
Marbella has no railway station. Not a small one, not a hidden one: none. The transport ministry's own release on the coastal line states that it serves no municipality west of Fuengirola, and the Ayuntamiento's mobility pages list buses, taxis and hire cars, with no train among them. What the town has is a bus station on Avenida del Trapiche; the trains live one and two municipalities up the coast.
- No service west of Fuengirola, per the ministry
- MITMA (2025)
- Marbella bus station
- Avda. del Trapiche s/n
The nearest actual trains
Two railheads matter. Fuengirola is the end of the Cercanías C1 from Málaga and the airport, 34 minutes from the terminal by AENA's own count. Málaga María Zambrano is the long-distance station, where the AVE and everything else terminates. Coming from the airport with luggage, the honest comparison is in our airport-to-Marbella guide: the direct bus beats the train-plus-bus combination on changes, if not always on price.
- Cercanías line at Fuengirola
- C1
- Málaga airport to Fuengirola on the C1
- 34 min
- C1 single fare, by zones
- €1.80-€3.60
- Long-distance and AVE railhead
- Málaga María Zambrano
Bridging the gap by bus
From Fuengirola station the M-220 runs to Marbella as one vehicle with no second fare, by the consortium's own clarification. It is a metropolitan bus with metropolitan pricing: a single costs by the number of zones crossed, and the consortium's card cuts every step of the ladder. Fares, the taxi tariff and the rest of the road options are measured in the getting-to-Marbella guide.
- The bridge bus, Fuengirola station to Marbella
- M-220
- CTMAM single fare, by zones crossed
- €1.60-€6.25
- M-220 timetable
- siu.ctmam.ctan.es
Madrid, Gibraltar and the long way round
Madrid by rail means Málaga first: the AVE covered Madrid to Málaga in 2 hours 25 minutes at its launch, by the ministry's own release, and the coast leg is yours to add. The alternative is the direct Interbus coach, 7 hours by the Ayuntamiento's own figure. Toward Gibraltar the last station is San Roque-La Línea, still a road trip from the frontier; the workable routes are in the Marbella-to-Gibraltar guide.
- Madrid to Málaga, fastest AVE at its 2010 launch
- 2 h 25 min
- Madrid direct by coach, per the Ayuntamiento
- 7 h
- Nearest station to Gibraltar
- San Roque-La Línea
The train that is always coming
The tren litoral has been coming for as long as anyone here can remember, and it is currently coming in the form of paperwork: in June 2025 the ministry signed the feasibility study for the Costa del Sol line, five sections from Málaga to Algeciras and Nerja, Fuengirola to Marbella among them. A study is not a shovel. No conclusions had been announced when this page was checked; the press expects them in the second half of 2026 (El Español).