Getting from MXP airport to Milan central train station

The standard response begins , "If your plane is on time ...... " The consensus recommendation is that you should not buy the train ticket ahead of time for a host of good reasons. If everything clicks, three hours should be adequate. If anything misses you may miss the train. Customs is a walk through. Immigrations/Passport control is a big variable - could take 30 mins, could take two hours - just depends on the number of planes and number of staff on duty. The train can take an hour but if you just miss it then you have to add another 30 minutes. So have a back up plan.

Thanks Frank, I think I may look at other trains departing that afternoon so I won't be stressed trying to make the 12:10!

You have a train every hour so either move back a couple of hours or buy the ticket at the airport station.

By all means, take the Malpensa Express train from the airport to Milano Centrale. They go every 30 minutes and they drop you INSIDE the station at the same level of the train you are trying to get. They are not effected by Milan's traffic.
Did similar in December, taking a noon train to Venice. Spent an hour in Mickey D's checking emails at Milano Centrale. I bought my ticket out of the Trenitalia Ticket machine at the airport with a PIN & chip credit card. Not sure if magstrip cards work.

Donald,

I agree with the others that it's generally better to buy your tickets after arriving in Milan, as some trains have compulsory reservations which are specific to train, date and departure time. If you miss the booked train due to flight delays or whatever, your ticket is worthless.

Unless your flight is really late, you should easily be able to connect with the 12:10 departure to Monterosso. Passport control usually moves reasonably quickly unless a bunch of flights arrive at the same time. You won't have to worry about "Customs" as you'll likely have nothing to declare.

The easiest solution is to buy your tickets for both trains at the airport rail station, either at a staffed ticket window or from a Kiosk. Note that the Malpensa Express has two routes, one going to Milano Centrale and one to Milano Cadorna. BE SURE to board the correct train! The trip is about 52 minutes. Also note that you MUST validate your ticket prior to boarding the M.E. or risk hefty fines.

You'll arrive at Milano Centrale on tracks (Binari) 1 or 2, which are slightly offset from the others. Walk into the main hall and check the electronic board for the departure track of your train to Monterosso (which will probably be an InterCity). Look for the train number, which will be listed on your ticket (it will likely be IC 665). In some cases the track no. won't be listed until about 30 minutes before departure. The ticket for the IC train doesn't have to be validated.

When is this trip taking place?

How do you validate a train ticket?

Only Regionale trains and a few special trains like the MXP expresses tickets purchased via ticket machine or window need to be validate by sticking the little, somewhat stiff, ticket into a green, yellow,red box on the wall that puts a time stamp on the ticket. Tickets for all other trains in Italy are specific to a certain train, at a specified date and time. Watch the local do it. It is simple. The boxes are obvious and near the tracks.

If our mag strip credit cards don't work in the kiosks, am I correct in assuming we will be able to use them at a ticket window? Or better idea to bring enough euros for the first train ticket purchase? ( we will land in MXP, go directly to Varenna...will purchase tix to Varenna, and also return tix to Monterosso at the same time). Thank you....

We flew into Milan a few weeks ago and similarly booked a train from Milan Centrale to Salerno 3 hours after landing.

Our flight left JFK an hour late, but we landed exactly on time in MXP.

Passport control took a while but there was no customs at all.

I bought the malpensa express ticket in advance as well (online tickets don't need validation)

We did make it to Centrale With a good 30-45 mins to spare. But it was somewhat stressful. It may make more sense to buy your tix as you go rather than in advance as I did.

poneill6, there are machines near the tracks for time-stamping tickets which require them. You have to do this for trains on which you do not have an assigned seat/carriage number.

Thank you all for your responses, it is such a help to have those who have traveled to a site help you get situated. Ken, your directions are great and I appreciate the detail.

We landed in MXP at 8:10am. We purchased advanced online tickets from Milan Central to Pisa departing at 1:15pm. The advance family ticket for our family of 4 was such a good deal we decided to take a gamble. The only downside was waiting around Milan Central. It was hot and not much to do.

My sister's plane was 24 hours late so she ate the cost of her advance ticket. It took her a couple of hours to buy a ticket at Milan Central. She had to wait to get in line to get a number that would allow her to get in line to buy a ticket.

jehb2,

"She had to wait to get in line to get a number that would allow her to get in line to buy a ticket."

For future reference, the ticket buying process probably would have been a lot faster if she had used a Kiosk.

She tried. It wouldn't take her credit card.