Welcome to today's thread - #CrossBorderRail 2026 Tour Day 31 - 4 May - Rimini - Bologna - Milano - Lugano - Basel - Strasbourg
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@jon Interesting. What do you like in particular about trains in Italy?
@meganL steady improvement of everything. Good regional and high speed trains. Dense timetables. Fair prices. Generally quite reliable. It’s solid all round. And there are many routes that have beautiful things to see out of the window.
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@meganL steady improvement of everything. Good regional and high speed trains. Dense timetables. Fair prices. Generally quite reliable. It’s solid all round. And there are many routes that have beautiful things to see out of the window.
@jon Ah, that's nice. Unfortunately, the window in my class covered two rows and an Italian woman pulled the shade down so I could not see as much. But what I saw was nice.
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@jon Ah, that's nice. Unfortunately, the window in my class covered two rows and an Italian woman pulled the shade down so I could not see as much. But what I saw was nice.
@meganL oh I’d just push it up again
(I’m aware being that much of a pain might not be everyone‘s style, but I can be very direct and German if I need to!) -
@tobiaswatzl.bsky.social Right. But towards
& 
it’s improving. Towards 
it’s annoying. Towards 
the infra is crap. -
@meganL oh I’d just push it up again
(I’m aware being that much of a pain might not be everyone‘s style, but I can be very direct and German if I need to!)@jon If they hadn't been Italian, I probably would have been more assertive, but it's literally "When in Rome..." there.
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It’s so nice travelling by train in Italy. Pity #CrossBorderRail hasn’t brought me here very much! (Not many borders)
Take your pick of high speed trains in Milano. And a Rock
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Take your pick of high speed trains in Milano. And a Rock
@jon That's more high speed trains in one station than we have on my entire continent.
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Take your pick of high speed trains in Milano. And a Rock
However these data problems here are incomprehensible
DB and SBB think the 12:43 train is to Lugano
Trenitalia thinks it only goes to the border station Chiasso
/ 
(It will go to Lugano)
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However these data problems here are incomprehensible
DB and SBB think the 12:43 train is to Lugano
Trenitalia thinks it only goes to the border station Chiasso
/ (It will go to Lugano)
There were also some ETR500 and Giruno too. But those weren’t so neat to photograph.
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Take your pick of high speed trains in Milano. And a Rock
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@reinouts it is indeed. I took one this morning. They run ok here!
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It’s so nice travelling by train in Italy. Pity #CrossBorderRail hasn’t brought me here very much! (Not many borders)
@jon The problem I had in Milan was buying a ticket. I knew where I wanted to go, but neither knew nor cared which company was running the train, and I was faced with a room full of dozens of ticket machines from different companies with no clue as to which one to use for my chosen destination.
So obvs local people have spotted a business opportunity here, and seeing that I looked a bit puzzled a tout came up to me to offer to guide me to the correct machine. Which he did - thanks! - but he was out of luck because I didn't have any euro cash on me, having just got off the plane.
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Take your pick of high speed trains in Milano. And a Rock
@jon I spot the infamous AlnsaldoBreda VR250, swiftly rebranded after its short-lived and catastrophic appearance in the Netherlands.
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@jon The problem I had in Milan was buying a ticket. I knew where I wanted to go, but neither knew nor cared which company was running the train, and I was faced with a room full of dozens of ticket machines from different companies with no clue as to which one to use for my chosen destination.
So obvs local people have spotted a business opportunity here, and seeing that I looked a bit puzzled a tout came up to me to offer to guide me to the correct machine. Which he did - thanks! - but he was out of luck because I didn't have any euro cash on me, having just got off the plane.
@TimWardCam this is where online ticketing helps
Oh and the forthcoming EU ticketing data regulation will assist further (forcing data sharing).
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@meganL steady improvement of everything. Good regional and high speed trains. Dense timetables. Fair prices. Generally quite reliable. It’s solid all round. And there are many routes that have beautiful things to see out of the window.
@jon @meganL I agree it's good and improving. Some things could be better though:
- Frequency is top-notch on high-speed lines, but clockface scheduling would help on regional lines.
- Luggage space design is poor on high-speed trains. But there is an understanding that in practice some leeway is important for tourism.
- Official options are sometimes terrible with bicycles. e.g. 2 Milano-Napoli connections per day that are very slow and at inconvenient times. No bike spaces on night trains. -
@TimWardCam this is where online ticketing helps
Oh and the forthcoming EU ticketing data regulation will assist further (forcing data sharing).
@jon Well, the existing system did actually work for me ... albeit it didn't work for the tout!
Though I do wonder, in these days when few people carry any cash of any type, how long the touting business will survive.
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@jon @meganL I agree it's good and improving. Some things could be better though:
- Frequency is top-notch on high-speed lines, but clockface scheduling would help on regional lines.
- Luggage space design is poor on high-speed trains. But there is an understanding that in practice some leeway is important for tourism.
- Official options are sometimes terrible with bicycles. e.g. 2 Milano-Napoli connections per day that are very slow and at inconvenient times. No bike spaces on night trains.@cycling_on_rails @jon Oh, man, the luggage rack was a real problem for me in Frecciarossa 2nd class. I would happily have paid for a first class seat, but they were all sold out. That car had an end luggage rack but the 2nd class didn't. My bag was FAR too heavy to put up overhead even for abled folks. Impossible for me.
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@jon @meganL I agree it's good and improving. Some things could be better though:
- Frequency is top-notch on high-speed lines, but clockface scheduling would help on regional lines.
- Luggage space design is poor on high-speed trains. But there is an understanding that in practice some leeway is important for tourism.
- Official options are sometimes terrible with bicycles. e.g. 2 Milano-Napoli connections per day that are very slow and at inconvenient times. No bike spaces on night trains.@jon @meganL There are also some weird gaps in the timetable sometimes. e.g. Milano-Ventimiglia (of #CrossBorderRail relevance) has almost a 2h frequency, except the 13:10 service is missing (goes to Rome instead). So there's a 4h gap between 11:10 and 15:10 without an ideal connection. Likewise between 17:05 and 20:05.
Of course this is all way better than France, but in these cases Italy is so close to reaching the level of its Swiss & Austrian neighbors. 🤏
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@cycling_on_rails @jon Oh, man, the luggage rack was a real problem for me in Frecciarossa 2nd class. I would happily have paid for a first class seat, but they were all sold out. That car had an end luggage rack but the 2nd class didn't. My bag was FAR too heavy to put up overhead even for abled folks. Impossible for me.
@meganL @jon And it's not like the overhead racks are large either on most Italian high-speed trains... Anything larger than a carry-on has often no official spot. Sometimes seats are repurposed as luggage racks: https://cycling-on-rails.com/train-bicycle-guide/images/italy/etr1000-luggage-on-seats.Ao3B9lQMLCZ5.jpg
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It’s so nice travelling by train in Italy. Pity #CrossBorderRail hasn’t brought me here very much! (Not many borders)
@jon best trains in Europe IMHO
