Electronic train ticket validation

If train tickets are purchased online, how are they validated?

All train tickets purchased online are already validated. Only (paper) tickets purchased at the train station need to be validated (date/time stamped)

Enjoy your time in Italy!

Oh!! Super!! Thank you!

One reason there is no need to validate regional tickets bought on the app is that you buy a ticket for a specific train and time, where the regional paper tickets are good for any train on that route that day, so you have to validate.

Please ignore the previous replies, the system has recently changed (and one of the above messages was incomplete even before).

• Trenitalia's high speed and IC trains tickets never need to be time-stamped because you have a reserved seat and the ticket can't be re-used. Stamping day&time on such tickets is just pointless, but I guess you like the punching noise made by those machines. I do.
• Trenitalia's Regional train paper tickets (i.e. not purchased on line) must be time-stamped by punching them into the small machines by the tracks. Then they can be used on any Regionale running that route within 4 hours (or less)
• Trenitalia's Regional train e-tickets must be validated via app before getting on the Regional train. Now You need wifi or data connection to use these tickets. There is complimentary wifi on Freccia trains.

Italotreno runs only high speed trains with reserved seats.

Thanks for the update, Dario. Does the regional ticket validation apply to Trenord tickets as well?

I am not good with apps. How does one use the Trenitalia app to validate a Regionale ticket purchased 2 months earlier?

Edit:

This is what is says on Trenitalia about validating Regionale tickets bought online:

Your online ticket is already validated and allows you to travel on your pre-chosen train or on others - along the >same route - in the four hours after the time originally selected at the time of purchase, except for exceptions >foreseen with specific regional tariffs.

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

How does one use the Trenitalia app to validate a Regionale ticket purchased 2 months earlier?

If you don't want to use the app, you must push the green button on the mail sent by Trenitalia. Of course it's a link to a validation page: no internet access, no validation.

Does the regional ticket validation apply to Trenord tickets as well?

No idea, but I guess that if you get a TreNord ticket purchased on the TreNord site for a train run by TreNord... you can follow the TreNord rules.

These tickets were bought from Trenitalia. We have some Trenitalia Regionale tickets as well, all bought on Trenitalia.com and I have printed them out.

Is it possible that the validation requirement only applies to tickets bought with the app and displayed on the phone? The Trenitalia page I linked above pretty clearly states that tickets bought on the website are pre-validated, and good only for the limited time shown on the ticket (usually 4 hours from the selected time). And it further states that the ticket PDF can be printed out and shown to the conductor:

After completing the purchase procedure, you will receive a confirmation email with your travel ticket attached >in .pdf format.

You can choose to print it off (A4 sheet) and take it with you or, when asked to by Trenitalia Staff, show it on an >electronic screen (pc, tablet or smartphone) on the condition that you are able to correctly show the attached >receipt, including the Aztec code that collects all the ticket data.

I think I found the answer. You are referring to this new rule for validating digital tickets (purchased on the app), since 5 August:

https://www.trenitalia.com/it/treni_regionali/nuovo-biglietto-digitale-regionale.html

However, for tickets bought online from the website, and printed out, the tickets do not need validation with the app before boarding. They are “pre-validated” and good for x hours from the time selected. I quoted the English version above, and here is the Italian page:

https://www.trenitalia.com/it/treni_regionali/viaggiare_in_regione.html#4