Experiences with Italia rail?

[ejkj84]

Does anyone have any experiences with Italia rail? I was going to purchase our Eurocity express train tickets from Termini to Civitavecchia. The cost would be $31 total including fees because we could buy the advanced purchase discount “mini” ticket. If we wait until we are there it would be 27 Euros ($38) because we could no longer get the advanced tickets. Also I would not have to mess with the ticket machines and all of our luggage.

 

I know there are cheaper regional trains, but it seems like this train does not have any stops in-between and has a better chance of leaving out of the 1-24 tracks instead of the satellite tracks which are further away.

 

The tickets are electronic does anyone know exactly what this means for train travel? Do I just show my emailed ticket? Or will I still need to go to a ticket machine to print the real ticket?

[nparmelee]

Termini to Civitivecchia are mostly regional trains and only 4.50 euros or so if you choose one of those, no mini fares for those and you can easily just get those tickets when you get to Rome, remember to validate them in the yellow box. If you are looking at the IC trains, then those do cost more and are a little faster. The regional trains mostly take about 1 hour 8 minutes, the faster trains 40 minutes, not sure if the extra cost is worth 20-30 minutes. http://www.trenitalia.com is the official train website, compare prices to there, select the English option at the top of the page. To see regional train prices, choose a day of travel in the next 7 days.

[riffatsea]

Italia Rail is a USA site that has an agreement with Trenitalia(the Italian train company) to sell tickets including the discount minis. Italia Rail charges in dollars so it adds a conversion fee to the price and then adds a $5 handling fee.

You can use the English version of Trenitalia to buy the same tickets and it will come out a little cheaper IF you have a credit card that also charges a conversion fee. IF you have a credit card that charges NO conversion fee then buying on Trenitalia will be even less expensive.

Both offer the electronic tickets so you just print out the e-mail that they send you and show it to the ticket collector on the train.

To see mini fares on Trenitalia you must first pick a train and click on continue. Then it shows possible fares.

[ejkj84]

I agree that the IC trains are not worth the extra money just for the time savings. I thought it might be worth the extra money when you dont have to walk 10-15min to the further away tracks. Also the not stopping part is appealing.

 

I went to buy my tickets on the trainalia site, but it would not accept my credit card. Doing some more searching it seems like it was common for this site to not take US credits cards. That is how I got to the Italia rail site. However, I do not know much about them.

[riffatsea]

Trenitalia used to have a prob with USA credit cards but it seems to have changed so now it is easy. I don't know why you had trouble? I just bought a ticket the other day with my USA Chase Visa with no probs.

Italia Rail is perfectly safe too. The site is probably easier to use than Trenitalia but it will cost you a little more money. Both will send you the e-ticket to print out.

[Eileen G]

It always amazes me when people talk about the walk to the trains to Civi in Termini. I just don't think it is that far a walk. I have done it three times with luggage and it's no big deal. The most important thing to me is to get a train that ends in Civi so you have enough time to get your luggage off the train before it leaves. Also most of the trains that end in Civi (not all) are on binari 1 or 1A so there is no going up and down the stairs to get under the tracks.

[CathyCruises]

I have done it without luggage and it is no big deal. But I have also done it with everything I own in a backpack, and that WAS a big deal!

[LTCOP]

If you use the e-ticket, do you still have to validate those before you board?

 

Thanks for the info on this thread!

 

Pam

[ab0si]

If you use the e-ticket, do you still have to validate those before you board?

 

Thanks for the info on this thread!

 

Pam

 

Basically the rule is: if your ticket is good only on a specific train on a specific day, you do not need to validate it. If otherwise, you do.

 

That said, don't worry about it. Just find the yellow box and stamp the beast. It never hurts to validate a ticket which does not need validation.

[riffatsea]

An e- ticket gives you a PNR( record locator no.) There is nothing to validate. You just show it to the conductor when he asks for your ticket.

Even if you have a normal ticket, if it's for one of the fast trains where you have a specific seat res then you don't validate that either.

You only validate the regional train tickets which don't have seat reservations.