TrenItalia
Reviews and Complaints

I am absolutely disappointed with the service
We are traveling to Rome
We supposed to depart from Napoli at 20:45 we and we were standing without moving more then an hour without any information
After that we finally moved and now we are again standing without moving for more then 25 minutes
I do understand there can be some delay in the schedule but this is unacceptable
I will not opt this this service in the future...

I have purchased 2 tickets online for travelling from Flumicino Aeroporto to Roma Termini (Ticket code [protected] and [protected] for May 31, hour 13:23). On that day, our flight delayed for more than 2 hours and landed in Rome after 3PM. Since the website does not have any information regarding the 1.5 hour valid time period of the ticket, I was not aware of this policy until our tickets were rejected at the gate. I explained the situation to the officer in the ticket office in the airport train station and asked him to validate our tickets. The officer did not offer any help, instead asked me to purchase another two tickets.

I approached the company's customer service office at Roma Termini Station since it's staff could not find the information about the valid time period on the website either. She suggested me to file a complaint online.

I returned to Canada and tried to file a claim online, after I entered details on the claim form, I found the tickets don't have the required PNR code I bought online, and when I use 'ONLINE' as PNR code, I could submitted the claim form for validation but the website asked me to go to the train station to file the complaint. How could I go back to Italy and file a claim?

There is basically no customer service in this company, so my advice is to buy the ticket at the station. That's it.

TrenItalia is one of the worst rail services in the world. I bought a train ticket online the night before my trip for 10.00am train. The next day, I got to Roma Terminal and showed my ticket to the person manning the queue to let me proceed to the platform at 9.25am (for the 9.30am train), who let me through and told me "you need to go to number 25" to catch the train. I proceeded to get on thinking nothing of it. Later on the train, while showing the conductor my ticket, he said I needed to pay a fine of €64 because I was on the wrong train, and that I needed to catch the 10.00am train. I reluctantly paid the fine, but find this inhumane. I already had bought my ticket, and that it was a genuine mistake. I was in no hurry anyway. Had I know I would have been given this fine, I would have waited to catch the 10.00am train. It's not like I was deceiving Trenitalia evidenced by my departure time on my flight ticket. Even at 10.00am, I would have arrived at the airport with 2.5 hours left - so the train conductor should have worked out I had a valid ticket (just half an hour later) - especially given that I was a tourist. Lucky for me, I got the name of the conductor by asking for his name badge, and found his profiles and photos and particulars on Facebook, so I could character assassinate him. €64 is a lot of money (and if this cause significant impact on my family (current medical issues etc) - then I vow that the conductor would have a miserable life, for the rest of his life. He will understand what being a "Paraplegic" is like and I will see to it that it happens. So this isn't about money, it's about principle and not "scamming tourists" as I know tourists who innocently not validate their tickets and got massive fines too. MY SOLUTION: I am liaising with him on Facebook and told him "what was taken from me must be taken from you" - at this stage it's only €64. I want to see evidence that he has deposited €64 to a charity of his choosing (bank statement and receipt) and if not I will slowly character assassinate him first online, then offline (fliers etc lol I can't wait) and then we will come to the more serious stuff. If the general public want to read the exchange of FB convos with him (assuming he doesn't accept my resolution) then I'd be happy to share it here. PS TrenItalia need not worry about this being tracked, I've got a great VPN and using Tor Browser in a public wifi (among other things) so I'm all good.

I was at the balie in Venice station 26 Feb 2018 round 11 hours AM; the person working there: Franco A. 285733. Wasn't helping to costumers/travelers. Then suddenly he press the bottom calling for number in the queue he call 4 numbers at once ; of course 4 travelers jump to the balie and 3 of us lost their place. I waited the were finished. When it was my turn. I ask for a ticket and he start to complain in Italian about me and the other travelers I understood what he es saying but I reply in English that it wasn't our falt to miss the number if he call 4 at once. He start to say he can't speak English and talk in Italian. I ask if anybody else could help me, no one did. Finally another passenger offer to help me. The crazy things is, he ask what was the problem I said: this man is treating me like [censor] and I don't understand why, I did nothing wrong I just se need a ticket and he reply sometimes you get treat like [censor] here, it's how it works here.

If only you could see their terrible trains you would understand what I'm talking about. The furniture and its covering are made of very cheap material. There's no balance in temperature inside the trains. It's either hot or cold, no golden middle. Counting that summertime is pretty hot, it's easy to catch a cold after going outside of the cold train.
The floor covering is dirty as well. Yes, there are many people, but does anyone clean trains after it arrives?
The price formation is strange too. Same tickets back and forth may cost differently, often more expensive, of course.
Feeling sorry for using them.

Date - 25.10.2015 station - firenze smn incident - I booked a reservation at firenze smn to venezia sl for 10 euro on 25.10.2015. The personnel did not know to use my card for payment. She deducted my payment twice so I paid 20 eur. When I was instructing her how to use my card she did not listen and swiped the card twice and deducted payment twice. She said that payment was not made in first attempt. I showed my bank statement of payment done twice then she accepted her fault and said one of the payment would be reversed within a week as it takes a little time to process the request. Until now I haven't received the refund for double payment. Its been quite long time now. And the online complaint form of trenitalia shows a runtime error. How miserable trenitalia can be!

On 14 july 2014, I made ticket booking on www.trenitalia.com, for trip on 28 July 2014 from Venice (07.25) to Florence and inversely, from Florence (20.30) to Venice for 2 person. But, on the e-ticket I received by email, the date is 22 July 2014. Then, I tried to make a changing of the date by the facility ‘Manage your ticket’ on that website, I have changed the date from 22 july become 28 July, but the e-ticket I received afterward, by email, remain showed 22 July 2014 (I don't know what happen, did I do a mistake or there was a problem with the website?).

Furthermore, I have called contact center. The officer (she) said that I could not make a reschedule or cancellation.in order to do that I have to make a new booking and after the new booking completed, the previous booking will be cancelled and refund then. Afterward, she helped me to make new booking for date 28 July 2014 (and it has been paid as well, so I have paid for two times booking). However, until now I have not received yet that new e-ticket in my email and the refund of the previous booking as well.

Today, I called the trenitalia.com call center again, instead of giving me the solution he blamed me for doing mistake while changing the date and said that I should call contact center to do it (while there is a room for customer to make a change through the website) as well as said that I have lost money for that two booking (2 x 138 Euro).

Anyone know how is the solution? Thank you

I tried to change my ticket reservation at Firenze SMN from 3pm to an earlier train and this rude, unhelpful and uninformative station staff talked to me in Italian when I stated I don't understand the language and he was so rude and sarcastically asked me if I wanted to go for the 1am train when I asked him to tell me what time the trains will be available between 1 to 2. Noting that I was copying his staff number, he even attacked and torn off my paper and threatened me that he would cancel my reservation (No reservation means No ride or be fined)

The worst thing was I tried to file a complaint at the station and the train staff there showed no interest in dealing with it and told me 'No complain, no complain!'

So, I tried to file a written complaint at their formal website, and again, it was hopeless because there is a technical error in inputting the date in the calendar for the complaint form and so the complaint can never be submitted. The most ridiculous thing is the complaint form is only available in Italian version.

I guess this is the main reason why Italians can be so rude.

And so, if you want to have a pleasant journey unlike mine, stay away from one of these rude customer service officers if you ever have to come to this station.

On monday 11th april my colleague and I arrived in rome with the intention to proceed to citta' the castello. We were directed by our italian hosts from villa montesca to proceed by train (trenitalia) to ponte san givanni by train and then to get another train (fcu) to citta di castelo. From rome termini station we bought return tickets (jc 5049961 and jc 5049962 for € 104.20) the ticket master was very helpful and he directed us to proceed to the train on our journey to citta di castello. We spent three fantastic days. Although we were on project kickoff meeting (prosave) with other european partners and had a very tight two day working schedule we enjoyed the work, the meetings and the presentations by our colleagues. All in all it was a very good stag and we managed to achieve our set tasks and schedules. On returning back from ponte san giovanni, I went to the ticket booth and asked for two tickets which would connect me to fiumicino airport after arriving at roma termini station. I gave the ticket master my second return ticket to show him that I already ad a return ticket to termini and all I needed was two other tickets to take my colleague and I to the airport. We purchased two new tickets (jc 3670026 and jc 3670027 for € 28.00) which would take us to the airport from roma termini. At 13.55 we got on the train from ponte san giacomo and in front of u there was a student who had just purchased the ticket from the same ticket booth and after whom we were just next in the queue. His name is alessandro minestrini a bright young law student at the university of perugia who is from citta di castello. He is interested in politics and is already active on a regional level. On the other side of the isle in front of him sat a stylish good looking young girl very well groomed and very well dress by the name of consiglia stilo. She I from naples and is a biomedical engineer by profession specialising in vascular prosthesis, stents and grafts employed with biotronic italia. Behind us facing our backs, there was a young monk in his mid 20's sitting quietly. Further backwards there were about another eight or ten other passengers among whom there was a mother with a young child on her lap.
We started the trip from ponte san giacomo and my colleague and I were saying how nice it was at citta di castello. We had a wonderful time, meeting teachers from several schools, two mayors one assessors the bishop and also a parish priest. We were among our european partners from italy, rumania, bulgaria, greece, spain and italy.in no time before we arrived at the firsts top, in comes a lady inspector, whose asks passengers for their ticket. She stops in front of consiglia, and immediately at no chance for consiglia to explain she fines her for not having a ticket. This poor lady told the inspector that she had booked and paid the ticket on-line and that she had the ticket verification on her mobile and was showing it to her. The inspector kept increasing her voice and trying to embarrass girl and still issued a fine. My colleague and I were rather perplexed and we were discussing amongst us that this is rather unusual and quite awkward not knowing what was coming to us. Consiglia remained calm and in great embarrassment she looked very surprised and could not understand what hit her. When the inspector finished with consiglia, came on us and I handing to her ticket jc 5049962 expecting her to punch the ticket but instead with a loud voice she told me "allora signori le devo fare la multa" I thought it was a joke and smiled at her but she raised aher voice and kept telling us that we had to pay a fine. I could not understand why. I had purchased the ticket from a trenitalia boot. The ticket master understood us pretty well when we purchased the return ticket. Also less than an hour before I had shown the ticket to the ticket master at the biglietteria at ponte san giovanni and he said nothing. Also the new tickets lookes similar to the one I had. So what was the problem? Why all this aggression with two foreigners? Wee looked normal, caucasian, well dressed and spoke very polite in fact I was speaking to her in italian to show respect and facilitate an easy communication channel. Why is this happening? On four occasions my colleague asked her and made signed for her to kindly lower her voice because it was becoming embarrassing. Also I was in a state of shock, hardly understanding what was happening and I ask to speak to her superion and she replied, again in a very loud voice "I sono il capo treno." ok, I said and again politely, I asked her for her name and to show me her identification card. She told me that this is private and I had no right to ask for it. She gave me a ticket (ci 204 treno n. 13117 dd14/09/11) and I paid €99.99. I gave her two € 50 notes and she gave me € 0.01 change which is still in my pocket and not in my purse to preserve her fingerprint as a token.
On arrival at roma termini I lodged my complaint with the customer care office situated at the far end of binarion 1. I explained what happened and the lady explained to me that I had to clock the ticket before embarkation. But the gentle lady by the name ornella, who showed me her id card without any objection told me that our case is a very genuine one and was clear that we had no ulterior motives. She saw our tickets from termini to fiumicino and our tickets soon after to malta. The lady at customer care advised us to lodge a complaint and handed us a complaint form.
This is a very unfortunate incident which reflects very badly how companies treat their clients. Above all we were foreigners and surely we can inadvertently miss a coma or so in the riddle of rules and regulations, however we had paid for the ticker she punched it when I handed it to her. Thus the ticket could not be used again. Above all the treatment we got by the tone of vice and the embarrassment we had to endure. By the way, the monk got the fine as well, and chucked out of the cabin to a lower class, and the lady with the child got a fine as well. All passengers in this cabin made a joke out of these situations and in no time we were all laughing and this morning we are all on face book and twitter sharing what a trip it was from ponte san giovanni to roma termini yesterday thursday 14th april on train n. 13117.
Hope trenitalia will take note of these incidents, register the amount of commission this capo treno is making whilst on her shift and investigate whether there is any abuse. Ironically I went to citta di castello to embark on a daphne project being led by villa montesca. The project's name is prosave and we shall be studying and recommending the commission with regards to bullying and violence in primary schools. This incident pushes me to apply for funding to study the extent of bullying being exercised on trenitalia clients, passengers, locals and foreigners, ordinary people, students, clergymen, parents travelling alone with their children, ordinary people and business men. I invite you to look at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

(united break guitars on you tube) which has been viewed by over 10 million viewers. I guess a similar video on trenitalia would have similar effect. I shall lodge an official complaint to trenitalia and will report the outcome on tripadvisor.

I have a fraudulent charge posted to my debit card from trenitalia for over $230. I've never been to italy nor have I ever been to their website or purchased tickets through a third party. Since the company is overseas, my bank cannot contact them through a phone call to verify the charges. My debit card is now useless and I will have to wait 7-10 days until I get a replacement. Also, since my debit card was used, those funds will not be available to me for 5 days or so. What a mess!

During a recent trip to europe we (my wife and i) experienced a fine being imposed (100.00 euros) because we failed to validate train tickets before getting on the train. The "conductor" was spoken to by the italian traveller sitting next to us trying to intercede as we don't speak italian and the conductor apparently did not speak english. The conductor was rude and abusive to both us and the other passenger. There is no instruction given by the ticket agent when selling us the ticket and no signs or instructions or directions to the validating machine (it too is not identified).

I would like to know if I have any recourse to recovering some or all of this fine.

Trenitalia complaint ref 2008/881 fao elosai wish to write a letter to trenitali but the relevant page is in italian, can you please advise what action to take
Also I am sending an e mail about my recent visit to your country and the experiences I had

With reference to my recent visit I am writing to complain at the treatment that we received
My wife is a fulltime wheelchair user and diabetic, I am her carer and we thought we would have a few days in your country
When we arrived at malpensa air port at 4.55 we were transported to the shuttle bus stop
1 ½ hours later we were still there. They then told us that there is only one bus in there fleet that has an entrance that lowers so that wheelchairs can board. This however was broken down.
We were then taken round to terminal one where we were told to get the metro to cordona station where we could get another train to milan central.
On arrival at cordona we found that none of the lifts worked and my wife had to be manhandled to the next platform. Again on arrival at the station for centrale again the lifts weren’t working and 6 workers had to manhandle my wife in the wheelchair up two long flights of stairs.
We then crossed the road and entered the station where we bought the train tickets for bologna at a cost of 32 euros. We were told to go to platform 9 and validate our ticket and proceed down the platform to carriage 4. We got down to the carriage and the guard was very unpleasant and wouldn’t let us on to the train and told us to go the customer care office. When we asked what we had to do and we were told to come back in the morning as the ticket was valid for a month. We already had our hotel booked in bologna and I wasn’t about to pay another 700 euros for a hotel room in milan always assuming we could find one. We were told that we should have booked 24hours in advance for a lift to get the chair on to the train.
There is two arguments against this.
1) is that nowhere on any website we checked when booking and before travelling was any mention of pre booking a lift for wheelchair passengers
2) is even if we had booked the hoist, we would have missed the train because who would have imagined that it would take over four hours to get from the airport to central station.
They also said we could get a refund on the unused ticket the following morning with no problem either at bologna or milan.
We therefore had no option but to get a taxi at a cost of 350 euros which I paid with credit card on which I will be paying unnecessary interest that I can’t afford as we had had nothing to eat since 5.00am that morning and you can imagine what that was doing to my wifes sugar level. It was taking me all my time to stop her having a hypo attack. Causing extra stress and trauma to both of us
The following day when we booked our return rail ticket at bologna station they said they couldn’t give me a refund and I had to fill a complaint form and I could expect word in about 8 weeks time, which I think is outrageous
Also I would like to mention that on my return trip we arrived at milan central station and came outside into the square we couldn’t see a taxi rank the only people we saw to ask were a crowd of policemen. They were all standing around smoking and with their hands in their pockets. When we asked about a taxi we were greeted with a cursory grunt and a nod in the direction of a rank.
Whilst there were some friendly people most of the people we encountered were ill-mannered and made us feel as if we were in there way, pushing and shoving us out of their way. The traffic also didn’t stop even when we were crossing the road via zebra crossing
The kerbs are far too high for a self propelled wheelchair user cross the road from one pavement to the other
Taxi drivers also charge an additional baggage for the wheelchair which I find very distasteful. One taxi driver was going to assault me because I questioned this
I look forward to hearing from you and your thoughts
Without prejudice
Ian blackey

On viewing my credit card statement online I noticed $368.60 had gone to trenitalia. I had to google this to see what it was as i'd never heard of it before and then I came across this site with other people in the same boat. I contacted my credit card company immediately and they have promised to contact me within the next 7-14 days. Hopefully the person responsible will be found before it happens to other people who may not notice.