Ponferrada is on the main rail line between Madrid and A Coruña; trains from Madrid take about four hours. From León, the journey is around 50 minutes by rail. The nearest major airport is León (about 100km east); Bilbao and Madrid airports are the main international gateways for this part of Spain.
By road, Ponferrada sits on the A-6 motorway connecting Madrid to Galicia, making it easily reachable by car. For Camino pilgrims arriving on foot, the town is a natural overnight stop roughly a week's walk east of Santiago, and the infrastructure for pilgrims — albergues, stamps, cafes that open at dawn — is excellent.