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Oct 12/13 train strike Leonardo Express

Anyone know why the Leonardo Express was affected by the train strike this weekend? We were unaware of the strike happening, but we’ve traveled plenty to Rome and have always been under the impression the Leonardo Express was always exempt from the strikes.

It was absolute chaos at Termini on the 13th. We waited for multiple trains that all got cancelled and had the entire crowd changing trains/platforms at once. The crowd going to the airport was huge and was starting to get absolutely feral, pushing and shoving to get on the train. We had extra time so we weren’t too nervous at first, but then they pushed the next departure for a full hour later and cancelled every train in between. We ended up taking a taxi. I’m not sure if the next train even left on time but at that point we couldn’t risk missing our flight.

We still made it so all turned out well, I was just curious if anyone on here knew what went wrong. Everything I’ve read online for years says Leonardo Express is exempt from strikes but either that’s not the case or something else went wrong with it yesterday.

Posted by
16563 posts

Glad you made your flight! Some digging around turned up this on the airport's website:

https://www.adr.it/web/aeroporti-di-roma-en/azn-news?p_p_id=it_txt_adr_cookiepolicy_web_portlet_AdrCookiePolicyBannerPortlet&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_state=normal&p_p_mode=view

"From 9pm on October 12th to 8:59pm on October 13th, due to the strike of FS Group, Trenitalia, Trenord and Trenitalia Tper personnel, train connections to and from Fiumicino Airport may experience delays or cancellations."

I'm surprised as well that the Express was affected by a strike; my first thought was maybe a track problem. Maybe someone, like Roberto, whose ability to run searches in Italian far exceeds my own can ferret out more about the issue?

Posted by
17480 posts

This was a “general strike” that involved all the train companies. I may be mistaken, but it is my understanding that “guaranteed trains” are not necessarily guaranteed on Sundays. The “guarantee” is to help commuters get to work on weekdays, not to aid tourists in their plans.

Posted by
704 posts

I've always read (Trainline, here etc) that the Leonardo Express runs during a strike but obviously this wasn't the case yesterday.