Best way to buy train ticket

[jacksmycat]

I'm cruising out of Ravenna next year. I'll fly into Venice and spend a couple of days there. I want to take the train to Ravenna the day of the cruise. Is it best to buy train tickets early? Also, is Omio a good site to buy them from? If not, what site is best to buy a train ticket from Santa Lucia Station in Venice to the station in Ravenna?

[cruisemom42]

You should always buy train tickets from the actual service provider, in this case Trenitalia. There is a button in the top right to change to English. 

 

As long as you know when you'll be able to make the train, buying in advance isn't a bad idea and sometimes results in savings on the ticket price. Just realize that if you don't make the scheduled train, there is no refund and no 'allowance' to use the ticket on a later departure. (This is for the high speed train portion of the trip, from Santa Lucia in Venice to Bologna where you'll have to change trains to a regional line.)

[jacksmycat]

50 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

You should always buy train tickets from the actual service provider, in this case Trenitalia. There is a button in the top right to change to English. 

 

As long as you know when you'll be able to make the train, buying in advance isn't a bad idea and sometimes results in savings on the ticket price. Just realize that if you don't make the scheduled train, there is no refund and no 'allowance' to use the ticket on a later departure. (This is for the high speed train portion of the trip, from Santa Lucia in Venice to Bologna where you'll have to change trains to a regional line.)

I tried to look at the main site and it wasn't very user friendly. I know they don't have the schedule out for next year, but when I put in a date for a couple months out, it only listed trains for the afternoon. Nothing in the morning. Maybe I did it wrong but I was confused. Omio shows plenty of trains starting around 6am

[jacksmycat]

And on this trenitalia site I will be able to buy tickets for both legs of my travel. On the fast train and the regional? I don't want to have to worry if there will be tickets available on the day of, so I want to buy the full journey ahead of time.

[marazul]

11 minutes ago, jacksmycat said:

And on this trenitalia site I will be able to buy tickets for both legs of my travel. On the fast train and the regional? I don't want to have to worry if there will be tickets available on the day of, so I want to buy the full journey ahead of time.

Go to the website:

https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html

Enter the date and stations. Enter the time. You will see all the options. 

And there will always be tickets on the regional.  It is a commuter train.

Edited July 22, 2023 by marazul

[Post Captain]

36 minutes ago, jacksmycat said:

I tried to look at the main site and it wasn't very user friendly. I know they don't have the schedule out for next year, but when I put in a date for a couple months out, it only listed trains for the afternoon. Nothing in the morning. Maybe I did it wrong but I was confused. Omio shows plenty of trains starting around 6am

 

I just checked the Trenitalia site out of curiosity, putting in some random dates, and got the same results as you reported. Very odd--I might be wrong, but I would assume it's a temporary glitch. One hopes the problem will be corrected in a day or two.  (Or maybe not?...) I used the Trenitalia website extensively for train journeys in Italy this past spring and never encountered this problem. 

 

Edit:  I just checked random dates for this route on thetrainline.com website, and found plenty of morning trains, just as you did on the Omio site.

 

As I general rule, it's almost always best (and least expensive) to purchase train tickets directly from the particular train operator's own website (in Italy, Trenitalia or Italo) rather than from a third-party booking site.  In a couple of rare instances, however, I have used the Trainline website without any difficulty either on the purchase end or the rail journey itself.  Your mileage may vary, as they say.  

 

 

Edited July 22, 2023 by Post Captain
Additional information added.

[jacksmycat]

14 minutes ago, Post Captain said:

 

I just checked the Trenitalia site out of curiosity, putting in some random dates, and got the same results as you reported. Very odd--I might be wrong, but I would assume it's a temporary glitch. One hopes the problem will be corrected in a day or two.  (Or maybe not?...) I used the Trenitalia website extensively for train journeys in Italy this past spring and never encountered this problem. 

 

Edit:  I just checked random dates for this route on thetrainline.com website, and found plenty of morning trains, just as you did on the Omio site.

 

As I general rule, it's almost always best (and least expensive) to purchase train tickets directly from the particular train operator's own website (in Italy, Trenitalia or Italo) rather than from a third-party booking site.  In a couple of rare instances, however, I have used the Trainline website without any difficulty either on the purchase end or the rail journey itself.  Your mileage may vary, as they say.  

 

 

So I went back to the site too and I kept scrolling and it showed the train schedule for the next day. So let's say I wanted a ticket for Saturday morning, I would have to put in Friday as my day of travel and it gives me times starting around 2 something in the afternoon. If you keep scrolling, it has the times for Saturday mornings. There is a warning that comes up saying these times are for the next day. Very strange, but at least I figured out how to find them if this isn't a temporary glitch.

[cruisemom42]

Trenitalia has been having some kind of problems with their website this week. It's been discussed in the long pinned thread at the top of this forum.

 

Give it a few days.

[euro cruiser]

There is an issue currently with the Trenitalia site.  It adjusts for your time zone, so if you are on the east coast of the US it adds six hours to the time you input.  Just subtract the number of hours your time zone is different from Rome and you'll get the full schedule.

[Post Captain]

57 minutes ago, jacksmycat said:

So I went back to the site too and I kept scrolling and it showed the train schedule for the next day. So let's say I wanted a ticket for Saturday morning, I would have to put in Friday as my day of travel and it gives me times starting around 2 something in the afternoon. If you keep scrolling, it has the times for Saturday mornings. There is a warning that comes up saying these times are for the next day. Very strange, but at least I figured out how to find them if this isn't a temporary glitch.

 

You're right. I see the exact same results using that method.

 

... Which gave me another theory, which I tested and found correct:

 

Say you put in a departure time of 09:00, for example.  Well, here on the east coast of the U.S., which is six hours behind the current time in Italy, the Trenitalia "adjusts" that time six hours ahead to 15:00 (i.e., 3 p.m., Italy time).

 

Again, that's very curious, as that "problem" never occurred when I was using the Trenitalia site a few months ago.  Back then, whenever I put in 09:00, the site showed me trains that were departing at the "real time" (i.e., the local time in Italy) of  09:00 and later.

 

So, the "glitch" evidently has something to do with the time setting of your computer (and mine)--the Trenitalia site "reads"  my 09:00 as 09:00 EDT, not 09::00 CEST, and factors in/"translates" (???) the time difference, showing trains that depart at the "same" time in Italy (i.e., 15:00 CEST and beyond).  Clearing cookies or allowing Trenitalia to place functional cookies might solve this "glitch."

 

But as I say, this situation did not arise at all when I booked Italian train tickets from the U.S. a few months ago.  Go figure.🤔 

 

Edit: I see that cruisemom42 and euro cruiser have provided a fuller explanation confirming my theory--although the glitch evidently stems from faulty Trenitalia website programming and not from our own computers! 😉

 

 

Edited July 22, 2023 by Post Captain
Additional information

[marazul]

I always enter 5:00 am and it gives me all the trains for that day.

[Milhouse]

On 7/21/2023 at 6:44 PM, jacksmycat said:

I tried to look at the main site and it wasn't very user friendly. I know they don't have the schedule out for next year, but when I put in a date for a couple months out, it only listed trains for the afternoon. Nothing in the morning. Maybe I did it wrong but I was confused. Omio shows plenty of trains starting around 6am

 

On 7/21/2023 at 7:04 PM, jacksmycat said:

And on this trenitalia site I will be able to buy tickets for both legs of my travel. On the fast train and the regional? I don't want to have to worry if there will be tickets available on the day of, so I want to buy the full journey ahead of time.

 

We had similar wants and issues when trying to book our trip from Fiumicino Airport to Ravenna this spring.  Our main problem in searching for a complete journey was the Bologna Centrale to Ravenna leg on the regional commuter train which didn't publish its schedule far enough in advance. 

 

We just ended up booking our high speed train to Bologna Centrale first (which has reserved seating) on the trenitalia site.  We then bought the tickets for the Bologna to Ravenna when in Italy.  No cost savings (8e) for the second leg for booking in advance and it ran hourly.  YMMV but we thought there was plenty of seating on the regional train in both directions we rode it.  However, there's limited space to store luggage and there's an upper level which could be a pain to navigate with luggage so I wouldn't dilly dally getting onto the train and finding a seat. 

 

I would however suggest booking the high speed trains sooner than later.  We didn't prebook tickets far in advance (only a day and day of) on our return legs from Bologna to Florence and then Florence to Rome to give ourselves some flexibility.  Unfortunately, we found options more limited and pricing more expensive.  

[euro cruiser]

7 hours ago, Milhouse said:

We had similar wants and issues when trying to book our trip from Fiumicino Airport to Ravenna this spring.  Our main problem in searching for a complete journey was the Bologna Centrale to Ravenna leg on the regional commuter train which didn't publish its schedule far enough in advance.  

 

There was a particular issue this spring with the Bologna-Ravenna line due to flooding, the line was closed down for a period of time.