Regionale electronic vs digital Trenitalia tickets

Hello Kathy, I think this is a legacy of the old physical ticket system with the digital tickets added on.

In the old days you bought a physical ticket that was good for a train at any point in time eg this ticket will get you from Florence to Siena whenever you decide to use it. And you 'activated it' by validating it in a time stamp machine on the platform as you approached the train. You have 4 hours from the time of stamp to use it for that journey.

So the printed out regional pass is the same kind of ticket - think of it as a just stamped paper ticket with a 4 hour lifespan for a specific journey. They are technically the same kind/style of ticket at that point.

The e-ticket validation is new as of October of last year and previously e-tickets were just purchased and used. The point of validation is require you to "use" a ticket up. Without validation you could buy a Florence to Siena ticket and ride the train until a conductor asked to see it and then buy another one and repeat. Validation requires you to "use" it even if you never get asked to see it by a conductor. Both the paper and the regionale pass are "used" because you have 4 hours to spend it or it's lost and validation makes e-tickets "used" as well.

Does that help? The trains are less confusing once you actually use them. My only real complaint with the e-ticket validation is you can't buy a ticket after the departure time of the train. So you can actually catch the train at the station you thought you missed - because it is 5 minutes late - and physically be on it but unable to buy a ticket for it. The ability to buy tickets for a train after rushing straight to the platform was the best part of e-tickets.

Have a great trip,
=Tod

Kathy, I had the same question before our trip last September, traveling with our extended family in a group of 8. I pointed out the difference between the two situations as you just did, and no one ever resolved the dilemma. I thought Dario could but that was when he stopped posting.

I concluded that the distinction must be between Regionale tickets purchased on the website (which can be printed at home or displayed on a phone) and tickets purchased through the app (which require the “check-in” before boarding).

We traveled with no issues on our Regionale tickets I bought on the website, using either the paper copies or mobile displays (I gave everyone on the trip both). We did not have to validate or “check in”.

But that was September, and I believe there was some change in the process in October, mandating the “check-in” for Regionale tickets. Most explanations I see online say that means one must “check in” on the day of travel for all Regionale tickets by validating the ticket in the app, using a link sent to the user.

I am wondering, like you, if this still only applies to the “digital regional ticket’ bought through the app, not the tickets bought on the website. The language in the links you posted above logically supports that interpretation. One way to look at this is that the app tickets are “anytime” tickets that need to be validated before use, just like a paper ticket purchased from a machine or agent at the train station. The tickets bought on the website, on the other hand, whether printed out or downloaded onto the phone, are for a specific train (or one within a few hours of the original departure time). How would one even “check in” with such a ticket? Does the Trenitalia app send you a link to do that, even though the ticket was not purchased through the app? If not, how can they enforce that “check-in” requirement? What about people who do not even own a phone? What are they supposed to do?

I hope we get some official clarification on this. The strict interpretation (one must check in for ALL regional tickets, whether purchased through the website or the app) means that everyone is required to have a mobile phone and use the Trenitalia app. That makes no sense to me. And the language in the upper link you posted above does not support that interpretation.

Tod, I don’t see the problem you describe. My understanding of the digital tickets bought with the app is you check in any time after midnight on your date of travel and it is valid for travel on any regional train on that route on that day.

You can’t board a train and then buy a ticket on the app but why would you be in that situation?

Hi Kathy,

Yes, an eticket can be printed at home or elsewhere you have access to a printer but it also can be produced in electronic form; that page doesn't say anything about having to do the pre check-in thing explained on the page for the digital ticket.

I understand your confusion because I was confused also when I was doing a search a few weeks ago.

I think the “check-in” of Regional tickets is fairly new and trenitalia has not updated that section of their website to include this information.

The link explaining the new “check-in” process: https://www.trenitalia.com/en/purchase/digital-regional-ticket.html does specify the following:

• Remember to check-in before your scheduled train departure time to validate your ticket.

• Simply open the “My journeys” area in the Trenitalia APP or website or open the link in the e-mail or text message you received and select “check-in”.

Therefore, anyone buying a Regional train ticket online via the trenitalia website, or app, will receive an email, or text, explaining the need to “check-in” before boarding the train.

And to add to the confusion, check this out!
It looks like there will be a new way to buy regional tickets simply by tapping your credit card directly at the validating machines marked with the TAP&TAP pictogram.
Now available on the Verona Porta Nuova - Venezia Santa Lucia route!
https://www.trenitalia.com/en/purchase/tap-and-tap.html

I wonder if American credit cards will work on this new technology?

Safe travels!

@sasha According to the Trenitalia website:

"Once you have checked in, the message “validated” appears with a dynamic green bar to confirm that your ticket is validated.
The Digital Regional Ticket is only valid for the train(s) for which you have completed check-in."

So once you're checked in you need to take that train. You can only buy a ticket up to five minutes before the departure time of the train and validate it before the departure time. So you can physically get on the train but because the train departure time has passed you can't actually buy a ticket. If you could buy a ticket up until the actual departure time rather than the scheduled time - or even a few minutes past - this wouldn't happen.

The original joy of e-tickets was arriving in a station and finding huge lines at the ticket machines or your train about to leave you and just heading to the platform and buying tickets en route or even sitting on the train. But that is not the case anymore so if you're day-tripping and get back to the station you have to watch the train you want to take leave and wait for the next one instead.

=Tod

@Priscilla - the tap technology. is in place in other european countries. We recently used it in the Netherlands (bus/tram/in country trains) and Belgium (bus/metro/tram/NOT train). American credit cards, phone wallets, watches all work. Its a great system and gets rid of the need to buy tickets beforehand.

Got it. So you have to double-check the number of the train pulling up to make sure it isn’t an earlier train running late.

But this doesn’t answer the Ozp’s question if tickets bought on the Trenitalia website and printed out have a check in requirement. And so how do you do that?

But this doesn’t answer the Ozp’s question if tickets bought on the Trenitalia website and printed out have a check in requirement. And so how do you do that?

Doesn't Trenitalia provide the answer at the link provided above?

It says they are already validated, Note the conditions: you must have an account on the Trenitalia website and provide an e-mail address. So the assumption us that you bought the ticket logged into your account.

It then says that you will receive the ticket via e-mail, which you can print out or show [ the e-mail] on a phone or tablet screen - I assume the QR code is displayed.

It then repeats that the ticket is already validated, is good for four hours, etc.

Please take them at their word.

I would be interested in knowing what you would see if you opened your account on the app and looked in My Journeys - is the ticket there, if so, is there a green bar under the the QR code, etc.

The Trenitalia app is so easy to use and validation is such a minor detail once you've done it, I can't imagine buying Regionale tix any other way.

Kathy,

I found more detailed information about which regional tickets need “check-in”, and which do not: https://help.raileurope.com/article/43563-italian-regional-train-mandatory-check-in

This excerpt from the website linked above:

Regional train tickets issued WITHOUT the remark NOT VALID FOR TRAVEL that bears a barcode does not require the check in process to be performed and do not get impacted by this new policy.

Mark a, the problem I have, and I think it is the source of Kathy’s confusion too, is that the information in the upper link says nothing about the check-in requirement. Under the heading “Regional Electronic Tickets” it says this, in full:

After completing the purchase procedure, you will receive a confirmation email with your travel ticket attached in .pdf format.

You can choose to print it off (A4 sheet) and take it with you or, when asked to by Trenitalia Staff, show it on an electronic screen (pc, tablet or smartphone) on the condition that you are able to correctly show the attached receipt, including the Aztec code that collects all the ticket data.

Your online ticket is already validated and allows you to travel on your pre-chosen train or on others - along the same route - in the four hours after the time originally selected at the time of purchase, except for exceptions foreseen with specific regional tariffs.

You can purchase your regional ticket to travel whenever you want up to up to 5 minutes prior to departing.

Nothing about check-in requirements or the green light. If that is required with print@ home tickets, it is not stated there, and one would have to know about the October 2023 change which is stated somewhere else on the website (shown in the lower link). What about someone who uses their home computer to buy and print their regional tickets in advance, and doesn’t even have or carry a mobile phone? Or someone like me who just prefers to do it that way and not use the Trenitalia app at all?

There seems to be a distinction between “Regional Electronic Ticket” (purchased on the website) and “ Digital Regional,Ticket” (purchased with the app). And I suspect that distinction is intentional, meaning the two ticket types are treated differently in terms of the check-in requirement. But I should read both the pages in Italian to see if the distinction exists there as well.

Thanks to all who have generously responded.

For clarity, Tod, I am familiar with and have taken Italian trains, and I am aware of the when the whole check-in thing occurred. I'm also not traveling to Italy soon although I sure wish that I was! My question is so when helping others navigate the Trenitalia system I have the distinction between these two types of tickets completely straight.

Lola, you've hit the nail on the head: It's confusing and they are not clear about the need to check in for the one but not the other. The only difference may be that the one requiring check-in is for ANY regionale train making the specified route at ANY time during the specified day, and the other is for a very specific regional train departing on a specific day AND time. Dunno.

I thought Dario could but that was when he stopped posting.

LOL, he personally thought the whole check-in "nonsense" (his word) was a solution looking for a problem. :O)

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/transportation/italy-train-question-trenitalia-website-says-must-check-in-for-regional-train

I miss the man; he was a wealth of information and I sure hope he's alive and well somewhere out there! Well, for our own future trips this app-exhausted traveler will probably continue to use manually stamped paper tickets but never say never.

Well, for our own future trips this app-exhausted traveler will probably continue to use manually stamped paper tickets but never say never.

Too funny. “App exhausted” describes me perfectly. We are going to Italy in September and that will be my plan as well for regional trains. Or maybe I will just avoid the issue altogether and confine our trips to Frecce and Italo trains.

Hopefully someone who is in Italy now or later this summer will come back and post a definitive answer to the question Kathy has asked.