Milan Porta Garabaldi to Milano Centrale-Transfer time

Brad, AFAIK, you should be able to connect with the Metro at Garibaldi, as it's a transfer station. If that's the case, Milano Centrale is only about two stops using Metro Line 2 (green colour, direction Cologno Nord / Gessate) so it should be a quick and easy trip. As time is a factor, it would probably be a good idea to keep some change at hand for the Metro ticket machines. I assume you need to connect with a particular train, as you've already purchased tickets? Good luck and happy travels!

Yes, they are very close by Metro. That connection is too close for me, though. I believe that the train into Garabaldi is likely to be a Regionale? A couple of weeks ago my train from Basel/Bern/Spiez (the other line into Italy) to Milano Centrale was delayed at the border by the border police and passport control. Given I have to find my way around the first station, find the Metro stairs, get tickets, wait for the train, get to Centrale, get up 3 flights on the slow moving-sidewalk, and find my train and car; whew!, I'd think that;s cutting it a bit fine. Bet the Metro would not be a whole lot slower than a cab.

I am curious why you would not just take one of the faster direct trains from Lugano to Milano Centrale and avoid that extra connection.
Actually it's an extra change at Chiasso too.

thanks everyone for taking time to respond! thanks Nigel, you are giving me pause about this whole situation. maybe should spedn the night in Milano and get to rome the next am. Ken, i have not purchased the tickets from milano to Roma yet til i can get a better grasp of this issue and the next train out of milao to roma is a loooong intercity or regionale overnight train. Lola,originally we were going to take the 1740 train out of lugano that arrives at Centrale..... no problem... but when we realized that the Bernina Bus that arrives at 1730 in lugano from Tirano after the Bernina express trip earlier that day, we felt forced to take the later train, whcih unfortunately ends up at the Garabalid statioin. Ten minutes to get off a load bus in Lugano , collect luggage and get to the 1740 train out of Lugano to Milano sounded impossible, esp since the bus is traveling with"road traffic" and could be unpredicatable and arrive late. Even if on time , 10 mins to get luggage out from under the bus and make the 1740 train seemed not doable. thanks for your thoughts

If you do find that you want to stay in Milano for the night you could do much worse than the Hotel Berna . We were there a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed it. Just across the street from the station, quiet, on a quiet street, excellent service before and after arrival, yummy brekkie, reasonably priced (for us).

I see.. You are taking the Bernina Express that day, and arriving in Lugano at 17:30. I would not be comfortable with a 10-minute transfer from the bus station to the train either. And actually I would not to continue on to Rome after that nice train/bus ride on the Bernina. Why not spend the night in Lugano? Beautiful small city on the lake. . . check in to your hotel, have a stroll by the lake, a nice dinner. Or stay in Milan, Milan, see the Duomo, Galleria, etc. Either way you can stay on the fast IC trains from Lugano to Milan and Milan to Rome, and avoid that pesky transfer from Porta Garibaldi to Milano Centrale. Trenitalia doesn't even show that route from Lugano to Rome, only the direct Lugano-Milano Centrale route. Which means bahn.de has greater faith in the Milan cross-town transport system than Trenitalia does.

Brad, Brad, Brad.
Go for it! The stations are only 1 mile apart. No need to spend the extra night and €s. I walk between the two stations. A taxi is cheaper than another night in Milan. You can do it!

It's not extra euros---they would just have one hotel night in Lugano (or Milan) instead of getting in to Rome late at night and paying for the hotel there.

Why not take the train from Tirano to Milano? There is a direct regional train (#2571) leaving Tirano at 15:10 and arriving at Milano Centrale at17:40.

Thanks William!! This acctually would be great and solve my problems. I have looked on trentalia, bahn de and rail europe and so far can not find this trip you mentiioned. can you tell me where you are seeing it please? When i frist started planning this whole adventure about 5 months ago, i recall reading about a train that left Tirano approx 1315 and made good connections in Milan and then on to Rome that all made sense. i researched it a the time and it all looked great. Now i can not find that either. I appreciate your help and everyone else who has chimed in.

Brad, I must have overlooked the fact that you were travelling from Tirano to Milan. For some reason the Trenitalia website hasn't been displaying that route lately. If you want to research trips from Tirano to Milan, use the Swiss Rail website. Trains run about every two hours. Hopefully the "renovations" to the Trenitalia website will be completed soon. Hope that helps.

it certainly does help. thanks Ken. I see options on the swiss site that i do not see on the italian or german sites. i have spent hours on this. i guess several months ago it was the swiss site that i had been looking at, but had forgotten that little detail. your help is much appreciated!

Brad, I see what you see. I'm getting squat on Trentialia and a bus/EC train run via Lugano on www.bahn.de. On the Swiss site www.rail.ch, I am seeing the Regionale mentioned by William above only it's train 97101. Here's a link to what I see on the Swiss site for the 15:10 direct train to Milano Centrale. http://gyazo.com/08cd473a6c1d23c10ef577347d95cf47 Here's another link to the overall schedule with the 15:10 train shown in detail. http://gyazo.com/ccc7e21b462c09ad0b2330a2cf3ea4e1

I had to input Tirano to Varenna several times to bring up the trains on Trenitalia and the same with Varenna to Milano before they came up. I then matched train numbers and times. No matter how I tried I couldn't get a solution for Tirano to Milano. Prior to the system change I was able to look up trains to and from Tirano,
while reaserching my own trip, on Trenitalia.

Brad, I double-checked the trains from Tirano to Milano using the sbb.ch website, and had no trouble at all finding the trains. As I mentioned earlier, there are departures about every two hours (usually at :10 after the hour on the "odd" hours). The trip is 2H:35M with no changes. Cheers!