Train alternative Pisa to La Spezia

What is your travel date? I looked at saturdays in June and see solutions for Rome - Vernazza on www.trenitalia.com

Hello, amber_noble, and welcome to the forum,

When are you looking? I see some scattered bus replacements for some times from Pisa to La Spezia but no major day long outages.

You can see the replacement services with a little bus icon and the details will show you what is being replaced:
Autobus FI446 Viareggio (11:36) - Massa Centro (12:10)

From the currently posted schedule it's only a couple of trains a day and you should be able to schedule around it if you don't want to take the bus - which is understandable if you are travelling with luggage from Rome. In general if there are outages they will schedule replacement buses for segments but according to site this doesn't seem like a major problem.

If you have a specific train or schedule you're struggling with provide dates and times and you should be able to get more specific information.

Good luck,
=Tod

Thank you both. June 14 is the specific date.

I am seeing the disruption now. Offhand it seems your best options are fast train to Florence and try to bus from or train past the disruption and back track by train.

Bologna has several ~3:15 connections to La Spezia through Parma. You could train to Bologna from Rome and then do that but it will probably require 2 changes - Bologna and Parma. Bologna is only 30 minutes past Florence so you don't lose much but it will be a 5-6 hour day, but Rome to La Spezia is never going to be fast.

If you want to go early you can do Rome to Bologna 7:50 am – 9:53 am and the 10:33 - 13:52 Bologna to La Spezia.
There's also an .Italo train that gets in at 10:18 but Bologna is one of the few stations I would advise you to leave longer transfer times because the fast train arrive deep underground so getting up to the station is more like an airport than other Italian train stations.

After the 10:33 there essentially on every hour so whatever works for you from Rome should be okay. You will need to book these as two separate tickets because they will not put this route together for you. You can take either Trenitalia or .Italo fast trains from Rome but it will be Trenitalia from Bologna to La Spezia.

If you want to bus from Florence to La Spezia there are a couple of options:
- ItaBus 13:25 - 16:09 2h44
- Marino Autolinee S.p.A. 17:40 - 20:35 2h55

These are obvious options to me and out of these i'd stick to the train, but the decisions are up to you.

Good luck, hope that helps,
=Tod

This is very helpful, thank you so much!

I would not detour via Bologna. Currently Trenitalia is still showing IC and FB trains to La Spezia, where you can change to the local to Vernazza. But you cannot book them yet, which indicates that Trenitalia expects the schedule to be finalized later.

I just checked Florence to La Spezia for June 14th and they are offering trips now but they are all long combos taking you around the section that's being worked on. Some of them essentially route you through Parma or Bologna or even Milan.

Checking from Rome the 8:20 and 10:20 trains do essentially what I suggested and take you to Bologna and then Parma and onto La Spezia. They have it timed at 5:30 hours with good connections so I don't know if you'll be able to do much better. It would be easier if you could change your schedule but once lodging is booked I know how it is having to travel on a day you'd rather avoid it.

Good luck, rolling with the inevitable punches is part of traveling in Italy. Non ha il dolce a caro, chi provato non ha l’amaro.

Have a great trip,
=Tod