May 2024 Train Strike

I am also trying to figure this out. We may see each other stranded at the train station! I’m looking into options for ferry if need be or bus.

If all goes well though, the campania express takes all the stress out of the connection. Crossing my fingers for us both!

The woman who owns the apartment we will be staying in said that she read in an Italian newspaper that the strike starts at 9pm on May 4 and goes until 9pm on the 5th-I hope this is correct but double check.

If I'm understanding this correctly, we now have a big issue in getting from Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre to MXP airport on May, 5th, then, yes? Would we have to backtrack to Florence, to then go to Milan as our only option?

Are there any shuttles we could take that anyone can recommend or any other ideas?

Our flight leaves at 8am on May 6 and we were planning on staying at an airport hotel the evening of May 5th.

Even on days of rail strikes in Italy, so people can get to work, some (not all) trains will run as scheduled between the hours of 6am and 9am, and in the evening from 18:00 -21:00 (6pm-9pm). Monday-Saturday. The problem is May 5 falls on a Sunday. To be certain you make your flight, you might need to depart Riomaggiore on the morning of May 4, if the strike begins at 9pm on May 4.
Because going to Florence involves multiple trains taking 2.5 -3 hours, it actually is faster to first travel from Riomaggiore to Genoa ( 90-120 minutes) and then from Genoa to Milan. Italo, the private train company in Italy, has lots of fast trains taking between 90-120 minutes on May 4 from Genoa to Milan. Because Italo is a private company, it's rarely affected by strikes targeting Trenitalia-- the government-run national train company of Italy www.TheTrainline.com has tickets beginning at $14 per adult for the Genoa to Milan leg. It also is selling tickets for the Riomaggiore to Genoa leg
If you already have bought tickets for Florence to Milan, you can keep them and if the strike actually occurs and it affects your train, you will be able to get a refund from Trenitalia.
Ticket holders can e-mail: info@Italiarail or phone 877-375-7245 ( a U.S. phone number) and they will let you know if your train will run despite there being a strike from May 4 at 9pm to May 5 at 9pm.
Rail strikes in Italy often are cancelled a day or two before, but with an international flight to make, it's wise to have a solid back-up plan.

Good luck to you!

Oh my goodness, Kenko, thanks so much for this info - super helpful!!!!

Hi. A little late to this but similar challenge....we have a AirBNB reserved in Salerno May 3-5. Plan is/was to take high speed train on May 3 from Rom to Salerno and then go high speed train May 5 from Salerno to Florence that afternoon. We rewritten to the States at noon on May 6 from Florence. I was about to buy rail tickets and learned of train strikes, saw this post as well.

Stay the course with high speed trains (original plan) OR do day trips from Rome to amalfi coast?
When would you get to Florence morning on May 5?
Recommendations appreciated.
Thank you!

The 24-hour nationwide train strike in Italy that is scheduled to begin on May 4 at 9pm and last through May 5 ( a Sunday) at 9 pm will impact many Trenitalia and Italo high-speed trains. Regional and local trains also will be affected. This is a national strike, as was the 24-hour strike on March 23-24.
Because May 5 falls on a Sunday, the usual arrangement between the unions and the government that some regional and local trains will run as scheduled so that commuters can get to work does not apply during this strike, according to Italiarail.
What this means is there may be few, if any, local and regional trains running during May 5 in Italy.
If you can determine what Trenitalia high-speed trains are guaranteed to run through Italiarail’s website or telephone number referenced above in this thread, you can buy a ticket on one of those guaranteed trains. Italo also will have some of its high-speed trains that will run as scheduled on May 4-5 and contacting Italo before buying train tickets is advisable.
24-hour rail strikes can also impact train schedules in the hours before and after the strike, according to Trenitalia. When the strike ends, many trains will need to be repositioned from wherever their location was when the strike started. For example, a passenger holding a ticket on a train departing from Salerno for Rome on May 4 at 8 pm may find the train suddenly ending its journey in Naples at 9 pm when the strike begins. You can be holding a ticket from Salerno to Rome, but you may find yourself looking for a hotel room in Naples at 9:15 pm.

And on May 5 when train employees begin returning to work at 9pm, that train will need to be repositioned so its normal schedule can resume. This all means there is a residual “hangover” impact on train schedules even in the hours after a strike has ended.
Buses, of course, are an alternative but they already have skeletal schedules on Sundays and what few are running will be jammed with travelers trying to keep to their personal schedules.
In your situation with an international flight departing from Florence on May 6, it will be best to change your itinerary so you are already in Florence by the afternoon of May 4. With any extra time, you can daytrip from Florence to Siena or Lucca- each being about a one-hour bus journey.
Best of luck to you!

are there any other strikes planned in May and how do we find that out? We are traveling by train on May 21, May 27 and May 30

@Niki - see link in OPs initial ?

@Kenko - we've got a travel day on May 19 to CT from Florence. Our lodging host felt confident that at least there would be trains running to the CT towns from La Spezia that day. Do you have a sense of whether I can hang my hat on that?

I was able to find a bus to La Spezia. In looking at drive options from La Spezia to CT, it's like three times the time, so it seems plausible that that connection might be an important one.

Here is the Trenitalia list of trains guaranteed to run, valid through 8 June.

https://www.trenitalia.com/content/dam/tcom/allegati/trenitalia_2014/informazioni/TABELLA_A_Treni_garantiti_DPLH.pdf

I saw on Tripadvisor a question about whether Italo trains are less vulnerable to strikes. The one answer, from an Italian, says Italo is not less vulnerable. The train workers tend to stick together and go out on strike at the same time.

But that is just one person’s view.

Kendo,

Thank you for the candid advice. I was pretty sure we needed to get buses or alternate plan. This confirms it. Better to arrive with longer duration over not having anything. Appreciate the help!

@Lola. Italy’s private train company, Italotreno (“Italo”) does employ unionized workers so it is subject to labor actions. Thinking since it was a private train company like Thalys, I also thought it was not usually affected by strikes just as Thalys was unaffected by French rail strikes. However, Italo says on its website its 51 trains run 118 trips on a daily basis. An Italo chart of its trains which Italo says are guaranteed to run on May 4-5 shows 70 trains will still be in service. That’s a big reduction of 40% in the number of trains usually in service. So, despite the fact Italo is a private company, it is affected by union-sanctioned train strikes in Italy.
Trenitalia states the daily number of runs of its high-speed “Red Arrow” Frecciarosa trains comes to 120.
The Trenitalia chart you provided the link to appears to show 40 Frecciarosa trains are guaranteed to run during the May 4/5 strike. That’s a whopping reduction of 67% in Trenitalia’s Frecciarosa trains that run on average.
So, the commonly-stated notion I’ve repeatedly seen on the internet over the years that high-speed Italian trains are mostly exempt from Italian rail strikes —at least during this national strike that is now just nine days away — is not the case.
This is a big strike and it’s going to make a mess of travel in Italy.

@kmh1 Trenitalia, Italy’s national train company, states on its website that some regional trains are guaranteed to continue operating during commuter hours so people can get to and from work. It states the hours that some regional trains will run even in the event of a rail strike is between 6am-9am and 6pm-9pm. Monday-SATURDAY.

Because Sunday is not included, according to Trenitalia’s website, and May 19 falls on a Sunday— I don’t think you can count on any local/regional trains running. There are accounts of visitors to Cinque Terre getting stranded for hours on end during Italian rail strikes. Some have waited by the train tracks for hours only to see a few trains passing by—but not stopping at— the towns of the Cinque Terre.

Is https://scioperi.mit.gov.it/mit2/public/scioperi the website to check for train strikes across Italy? If i already purchased a timed ticket, and there is a strike, will i be notified or do i have to keep checking the site?

We are in Venice and planned to travel to Varenna, through Milan, on May 5, 2024. Our trains are not on the guaranteed list. We will watch to see if the strike is cancelled, but have a rental car reserved if needed. We got international driver’s licenses before leaving the states. Wish us luck.

Good Luck! You planned ahead and are all set.
It looks like Trenitalia & Flixbus have added a lot of buses from Pisa to La Spezia for Sunday, May 5. There are now 39 buses during May 5 that will travel to La Spezia, which is just four miles from Riomaggiore.
Pisa has high-speed train connections with Florence and other cities that make it convenient for getting to the Cinque Terre. The biggest ticket— a high-speed train ticket on a guaranteed train going to Pisa on May 5– has long been sold out.

The usual fleet of buses driving from Florence to Pisa will also be beefed up to accommodate passengers.

For those intrepid travelers who still want to get to the Cinque Terre this weekend, If you can find your way to Pisa ( just look for the Tower), there are scores of buses (39 so far) driving 90 minutes to La Spezia which is about 4 miles from the first town in the Cinque Terre, Riomaggiore.
La Spezia can also be reached from Florence on Trenitalia’s high-speed Frecceargento trains in 1:40.

A five-times a day ferry ⛴️ from La Spezia stops in Riomaggiore, Manarola, Vernazza and Monterosso. Boats have to skip Corniglia because there are no docks in Corniglia. One-way fares from La Spezia are €10-€15 with boats taking 80 minutes to reach Riomaggiore 90 minutes to Manarola and almost two hours to Vernazza/ Monterosso. www.CinqueTerre.eu.com has the ferry schedules, which are 5x daily from April 22 until September 22.

( Do you think there’s any chance the strike gets cancelled?!).

@Kenko - Can you explain a bit more about the high speed train option on a Sunday strike day? And how that would work with connecting service to Cinque Terre? I'm looking at my impacted day (May 19) on TrenItalia, for example, and see a couple solutions for the Florence to Monterossa route that include the FrecciaBianca or FrecciaArgento, but it's bookended with a Regional train on either side. See one example here:
ETRUSCHI LINE 18299/FrecciaBianca 8620/5 TERRE EXPRESS 22942
15:28
2h 49min
18:17
Florence S. M. Novella
Monterosso
2 changes (Pisa and La Spezia)
Tx!

Hi
We were planning to travel from Florence to Cinque terra/Monterosso on May 19th also a Sunday.
Any insight if any trains will run to there or alternate travel options?