Italian Rail

Cookie_Monster

Just to prove IE don't have a monopoly on being useless...

I got 3 trains in Italy last week, was only supposed to get 2 :rolleyes:.

1st Figlini to Firenze: arrived late.

2nd Firenze to Figlini: Didn't leave on time. 5 mins after departure time announcement (in Italian only) that train would be delayed. 20 mins later announcement it was cancelled as broken (again announcement only in Italian). All the while I was watching another train being decoupled and engineers poking around it. Eventually they took off the DVT and hung a red light off the second last carriage, leaving the DVT parked up.

3rd Firenze to Figlini: turned out to be the train I had been watching being fixed

So there ya go, IE aren't the only useless train operator around, though at least TrenItalia have enough trains running to cover (& nicer, cheaper trains)

Partizan

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Just to prove IE don't have a monopoly on being useless...

I got 3 trains in Italy last week, was only supposed to get 2 :rolleyes:.

1st Figlini to Firenze: arrived late.

2nd Firenze to Figlini: Didn't leave on time. 5 mins after departure time announcement (in Italian only) that train would be delayed. 20 mins later announcement it was cancelled as broken (again announcement only in Italian). All the while I was watching another train being decoupled and engineers poking around it. Eventually they took off the DVT and hung a red light off the second last carriage, leaving the DVT parked up.

3rd Firenze to Figlini: turned out to be the train I had been watching being fixed

So there ya go, IE aren't the only useless train operator around, though at least TrenItalia have enough trains running to cover (& nicer, cheaper trains)

Well at least under Il Duce the trains ran on time.

Colm R

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

announcement (in Italian only)

Fair enough, trains were late. But is this an issue really?

Cookie_Monster

Colm R wrote: »

Fair enough, trains were late. But is this an issue really?

every other European country I've been to has multi language announcements. Only for others being in the carriage I wouldn't have known it was cancelled as I don't speak Italian.

anyway, none of it was really a big deal. I found it kinda funny that the train I watched them poking around and trying to fix for ages was the one we ended up on. Some old old heap of a thing, while the slick new one with couldn't be fixed easily.

ciaranmac

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

every other European country I've been to has multi language announcements.

I've never heard a multi-language rail announcement in Ireland.

Cookie_Monster

ciaranmac wrote: »

I've never heard a multi-language rail announcement in Ireland.

Irish-English every stop

Stonewolf

That hardly counts, may as well be in English and aincient Greek.

Run_to_da_hills

I love travelling FS, trains are fast and electric, even their dated rolling stock.

Capt'n Midnight

Partizan wrote: »

Well at least under Il Duce the trains ran on time.

LOL, history is written by the victors, who do you think announced that ?
Back in the Fascist days you could go to prison for a year for illegal parking,

Love the way they took the train on the march to Rome

Capt'n Midnight

ciaranmac wrote: »

I've never heard a multi-language rail announcement in Ireland.

was on a train recently, the announcement was unintelligible even 1m away from the speaker

never did find out why we had to stop for 20 mins , reverse back to a previous station and head on again

penexpers

I have bad memories of trains in Italy. Took a train from Sulmona (on the east side of the country) to Rome. Now admittedly it did have to go up into the mountains but it took forever (the bus from Sulmona is over an hour faster) and there wasn't even a catering trolley on the train.

Cookie_Monster

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

I love travelling FS, trains are fast and electric, even their dated rolling stock.

they've got some nice stuff alright. bo-bo-bo articulated locos.
Plenty of TGV Italias in Firenze too, grey and red. Look good they do.

Does it say something about me that the most interesting part of the trip to Firenze for me was the train station?

Millie

I thought the train service was very bad when in Italy last year.
When leaving Rome for Florence the multi lingual boards stated the train left from platform A however the train we mounted on platform A took us to Naples!
We did finally make it to Florence but the hoops we had to jump through (well my boyfriend had to were comical (well they are now but weren't at the time).

Then when we were leaving Florence for Venice we were extra vigilent but nobody could tell us what platform the train was leaving from but to watch the board. The train didn't appear on the board until about 5mins before we were due to depart and in that time the platfrom number changed on numerous occassions.

All great fun now looking back but I thought my boy would get a heart attack from the stress at the time

Cookie_Monster

don't use the boards, use the printed timetables. They are great. Every train always leaves from the same platform every time except for breakdowns etc. Compare the timetable to the platform display, not the main board.

lord lucan

The graffiti artists love expressing themselves on Trenitalias trains. They give TOX and the boys that graffiti the London Underground a run for their money!

BenShermin

Well I might as well use this thread to vent my anger at zee Germans:mad:.

Last week I was planning a trip from Warsaw to Dublin by train, this week I'm flying Ryanair as a result of Deutsche Bahn's dreadful website. I got a price of €29 for the sleeper from Warsaw to Koln, I then went through the whole booking process, credit card details in all just to be told at the very end of the process that the train was booked out:eek:!! Looked like there was a serious glitch in the system as every single train was advertised as €29 even though in reality most of them were booked out or costing €110.

Fair enough you say, a glitch it happens, only problem was that this glitch was still there a week later and could still be there today for all I know.

Not the first problem I've had with the baxtards, in February I lost the credit card that I made a booking on from Berlin to Amsterdam. The feckers made me buy a new ticket because I had to produce the original credit card:rolleyes:. I also had a Birmingham to London ticket booked under the same circumstances, I explained that I lost my credit card to a member of staff at Brum New Street, his reply was that he didn't give a sh!te once I had paid for my ticket, he then handed me my ticket and wished me a nice journey.


Britain bares the brunt of a lot of slagging about their railway but to be honest it's the best railway I've travelled on in Europe when it comes to passenger information. Britain has excellent station announcements, excellent informative train departure boards in most stations and clear announcements on all intercity trains made by human beings! Also, even though there's tens of companies I find their ticketing systems really easy to understand both on the internet and at the stations.

murphaph

BenShermin wrote: »

Last week I was planning a trip from Warsaw to Dublin by train, this week I'm flying Ryanair as a result of Deutsche Bahn's dreadful website. I got a price of €29 for the sleeper from Warsaw to Koln, I then went through the whole booking process, credit card details in all just to be told at the very end of the process that the train was booked out:eek:!! Looked like there was a serious glitch in the system as every single train was advertised as €29 even though in reality most of them were booked out or costing €110.

Fair enough you say, a glitch it happens, only problem was that this glitch was still there a week later and could still be there today for all I know.

There's a button on their site where you "test availability" for those saver prices before you move on to booking part. Only if they come back as available can you book at the saver price. I would probably design the site a bit differently myself, but it's not a glitch, just not very user friendly.

Southsider1

BenShermin wrote: »

Britain has excellent station announcements, excellent informative train departure boards in most stations and clear announcements on all intercity trains made by human beings! Also, even though there's tens of companies I find their ticketing systems really easy to understand both on the internet and at the stations.

Just a shame their actual trains are so unreliable, dirty and bloody expensive:(

Run_to_da_hills

Southsider1 wrote: »

Just a shame their actual trains are so unreliable, dirty and bloody expensive:(

Bloody rip off, to put it correctly, particularly the airport shuttles from Stanstead and Gatwick. It kills off all the benefits of cheap flights.

icdg

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

I love travelling FS, trains are fast and electric, even their dated rolling stock.

I haven't done much travel on FS, though their non-intercity rolling stock is quite old. I once travelled on the Rome-Lido line (which is operated by ATAC rather than FS) and the rolling stock on it was quite ancient (and grafitti laiden). On the other hand the Rome Metro (also ATAC) has quite new and nice rolling stock, even if it is freaky (too me) to have no doors between the carriages.

Rome Termini station is quite nice and modern though.

mikemac

I got many, many trains around Rome recently. I've had better experiences in Ireland.

It was continually late, maybe they have Irish Rails 10 or so minutes late is actually on time policy.
Graffiti everywhere though that doesn't bother me.

Airport to Roma Termini was 15 euro. No airconditioning so sweating away, if they do have AC then don't bother to turn it on.

If you take the local train to Roma Tiburtina and metro it's 9 euro but takes aaaaages.
8 euro for the local train from Roma Tiburtina back to the airport but two stops before that and only 4km before that it was only 90c.
90c to 8 euro for only two stops?? There is obviously money in getting people to the airport! Quite a hike, hitting airport workers and tourists.

Roma Termini is nice though and they have the nicest canteen in there, I ate there every day.

munchkin_utd

BenShermin wrote: »

Well I might as well use this thread to vent my anger at zee Germans:mad:.

re ticket for Nightrain from Warsaw to Cologne:
You are right. The booking of international night trains can be a mess job via bahn.de .
We have had a similar experience on trains to Holland, only the news that it wasnt bookable came a day later!

Nevertheless: if a day train, including international ones, comes up with a price on that website then its bookable.
Have gotten to Budapest from Munich on a night train for 29 euro and booked it online.

re lost credit card.
It states very clearly that the online tickets are non transferable and completely linked to your id card. If youre not happy with that, then postage of a hard copy transferable ticket is only a few euros.

Anyhow,
Whats more of a scandal is that the Air conditioning in the older ICE trains is not capable of running when the temperature is over 32 degrees.
They never foresaw such an occurrence.
Despite the fact that its not unheard of in Germany. (i.e. randomly looked up, july 1969 it got to 34degrees in Frankfurt)
Apparently its down to scrimping on maintenance more than global warming.
The ICEs dont have openable windows because of the pressure generated going through tunnels so when the AC goes off theres no air at all getting in (not even a fan) and the place turns into a pressure cooker. 50 degrees was the estimated temperature.
It wouldnt be surprising to see some heads roll over it.

And the S-Bahns in Berlin. The life blood of this sprawling city.
That was reduced to an emergency skeleton service for ages as the entire fleet of the most common train was withdrawn as it wasnt maintained correctly and was deemed unsafe.

BTW: both incidents seem to stem from penny pinching in the run up to a possible privatisation.

BenShermin

murphaph wrote: »

There's a button on their site where you "test availability" for those saver prices before you move on to booking part. Only if they come back as available can you book at the saver price. I would probably design the site a bit differently myself, but it's not a glitch, just not very user friendly.

I just tried looking for it there but the only button I can find is a "check availability" one, I can't find a "test availability".

When I click the "check availabilty" button all the correct prices are displayed from Koln to Warsaw but not on the other way around.

RE. My lost credit card, I know I was in the wrong as per the terms and conditions but in my eyes it just stinks of the word jobsworth, even Ryanair are not that bad! It's a stupid rule anyway, how come you can book "print your own tickets" with Thalys, SNCF and Eurostar and not need your credit card, I really feel it's just a money making racket designed to catch unexpecting tourists and poor unfortunates who lose or have their credit card robbed.

Carawaystick

Could the mods seperate the non-italian rail posts from the Italian ones?

Would the OP have liked the other language on the train in Italy to have been German? I mean that's an official language in Italy*

Or would the OP have liked the announcement to have been in english so the OP could have understood it?

Cookie_Monster

Carawaystick wrote: »

Could the mods seperate the non-italian rail posts from the Italian ones?

Why? its fine

Carawaystick wrote: »

Would the OP have liked the other language on the train in Italy to have been German? I mean that's an official language in Italy*

Or would the OP have liked the announcement to have been in english so the OP could have understood it?

Well it is a major tourist location and the last time I was on an Italian train it had english germany and italian announcements (granted it was travelling from Milan to somewhere in Germany via Switzerland). its not that big a deal really, I may even have understood it in german, I have a little bit.

Morf

I travelled Padua-Venezia-Trieste-Mestre-Milano-Parma-Bologna-Firenze-Pisa-Perugia-Caserta-Ferrandina-Roma last September in about 16 days.

The trains and punctuality get steadily worse the further south you go.

I got caught for not validating my ticket even though i bought a certain ticket for a certain service it gave me an open ticket that i had to validate myself. The €5.70 fine wasn't too bad though and i learned my lesson.

I also had a fairly stressful experience getting from Roma Termini to Napoli where all the information screens were down and i kept asking for the napoli train and being sent to the local train when i wanted the Freccia Rosa (Express). There was an announcemnt about 90 seconds before it left in English and i ran to the right platform. I only half heard it and i found myself with a group of Americans boarding asking if we had the correct train.

Overall a pretty good experience with Italian trains.