Train from malpensa airport to Rome termini

Generally not a good idea to buy advance discount tickets when arriving at the airport. You don't know if your flight will be delayed, regardless how long it takes to get through immigration and get your luggage. Right now, the cheapest Super Economy tickets are 40 EUR which become worthless if you miss you train. Walk up prices are 92 EUR.

For this you might be better with Italotreno, although they have fewer departures. But their Economy tickets retain some value up to 3 hours after the train departs. You get 20% of the cost of the ticket toward the walk-up fare for the next train. And their walk-up fare is 85.90 EUR. Economy tickets for direct trains look to be 45.90 EUR now for June 19.

Anyway, budget 1 hour to get through Immigration, then another 2 hours to get to Milano Centrale on the Malpensa Express train. That costs 13 EUR no matter what and just buy when you get to the station.

Sam overestimated the train journey from Malpensa to Milan Centrale. It’s only 52 minutes, not 2 hours. However, if you want to take a chance with pre-purchasing tickets, I would go with his estimate and make sure that the departure from Milano Centrale is at least 3 hours after your scheduled landing. Actually I would give myself at least 4 hours, because even 3 could be tight if there is even a small delay in your flight.

So, no direct trains - you'll have to go to Milano first and change trains for one to Rome.

Awesome. Thanks! Feel much better about our plan now!

The Malpensa Express train does indeed take 52 minutes to go from Terminal 1 to Milano Centrale, but it goes every 30 minutes. Luck being what it is, you will arrive at the platform to watch it depart and then wait another 30 minutes to the next one. Then when you arrive at Centrale, it will take a few minutes to get your bearings, locate the departure board and figure out what track you will be leaving from, then walk there. Thus a ballpark of 2 hours.