Paying Trenitalia Penalties

I understand that some folks who have gotten these tickets at home have chosen not to pay them. I guess this is an option and I can't see how they could come after you here in North America.

However, it you ever plan to return to Italy you may find yourself in a heap of trouble if you are caught.
My advice, pay up.
Second piece of advice for those who are planning to travel. ALWAYS validate your ticket. We travelled a dozen times or so and were frequently checked.

Another note on the same topic is that travellers can also be fined by Trenitalia for not having a reservation on a train where this is compulsory, OR having the wrong reservation.

I know, as this happened to me on a trip from Venice to Florence several years ago. I was travelling with a Railpass and did have a reservation, but it was apparently not for that particular train. I had purchased the reservation at one of the travel agencies in Venice.

The smiling but apologetic Conductor processed the fine immediately using a small PDA and portable Printer. Fortunately, I had enough cash on hand to pay on the spot. At the time I felt it would be better to pay, as I had visions of being ejected from the train in the middle of the Italian countryside!

After that experience, I'm now very careful to check and double check both the reservations and ticket validation.

Cheers!

You can also be fined for being on a higher category train for the ticket you are holding: e.g. you have a ticket for the "regionale" train but board an Intercity train; you have a ticket for the Intercity train but board a Eurostar train. You'll be fined 8 Euros, plus the difference in fare. If you forgot to punch your ticket (for a "regionale" train),or if you have an expired ticket, the fine is a minimum of 50 Euros. If you board a "regionale" train with an electronic ticket for a long-distance train, you can be fined 50 Euros. You can read all about these penalites on the Trenitalia website.

Dan, that is too bad, we we're very lucky, we forgot to validated our last tickets and the conductor either ignore it or did not see it. I have heard that we could have signed and dated the tickets to validate them. In your case i would wait for the bill.

I was in a huge hurry to get on a train in Salerno, and we came upon the train in the center of it and didn't know at which end the ticket validation machine was located. We boarded the train anyway, but immediately told the conductor our error and he said it was OK. As long as you let them know right away, you should be alright. But since you didn't do this, I would go ahead and pay the fine. You will probably get a bill in the mail some months from now.

Returned to Rome yesterday. Fifth trip in four years. Noticed that the security and ticket checking is very high. In past years never checked, Now there is a ticket checker on the platform in Termini checking the L Express tickets, Most of the previous discussions about not paying tickets revolved around traffic tickets, Don't know of any postings regarding tickets from Trenitalia. Always the possibility of turning it over to aa local bad debt collecter in the US. Good luck

Nothing you can do now...if you use Trenitalia again, then notify the ticket window at the time. If you can't locate the validator and/or in a hurry. You can write the date/time and initial when you boarded. Notify the conductor when he comes around and he will say, "Allora."

We've been caught a couple of times. Once we were on a wrong train, one with reservations needed and we had none, we only paid an extra 25E.(we were told by our host at our hotel we could have been fined 100E each). And once where the two ticket machines we tried didn't work and we had to rush to get on the train. We told the conductor and he was fine with it.
I think writing down the time and signing it is a good idea, I hope it will work. We have been on a few trains where we forgot to get our ticket punched and weren't asked for it , simply lucky I guess.Once we realized that the train ticket we were supposed to punch had no real date on it we understood why you have to punch your ticket since you can use it again.

First of all, I have a "Global Pass" 1st class and plan to travel in Europe next month. What if I hop on a train without paying supplement fee, and it only says "Subject to supplement". Will I get a fine for doing that? Some people say as a Eurail Global Pass 1st class, I don't have to pay supplement fee. I only need to pay the reservation fee when it says "Subject to Compulsary Reservation". Is that true?

If you realize that you've forgotten to stamp your ticket after you're on the train but before they come by to check your ticket, you can make a beeline to the very first car of the train where you will find the conductor. Tell him you forgot to stamp your ticket and apologize (with a worried look). He'll probably take your ticket and validate it for you, maybe with a little lecture to remember it next time. We did this once and it worked perfectly. No fine.

Unless (until) you receive a bill at your home, I don't know how you COULD pay it. Perhaps you could send a money order to "Trenitalia - c/o Gianni" LOL! If the traffic tickets are any indication, you may not hear anything of this for a year or two... "...they wrote down my DL information..." If the Italian officials have so much trouble figuring out USA DLs that they require IDPs to 'translate' them, it may take a VERY long time for your bill to arrive...;-) I vote for not worrying about it - if a bill comes, it comes. You most certainly won't be tracked down by Interpol...probably...