For scheduling reasons we had to book one train in advance for our upcoming trip. I know once we are there and buy the P2P tickets for the other destinations at the stations we need to validate them in the yellow machine.
What about the tickets I had to purchase in advance? They are ES trains with seat assignments. Do I still need to validate them? Or are we all set?
Thank you for your help
Validate them the same way. Even if they don't need it, better safe than sorry.
I almost missed my train because I was unecessarily scrambling to validate my ES train ticket with a seat assignment.
Come on people, lets give decent advice. When you have a ticket that id a train car, seat, etc., it is good to go and probably will not fit in a validation box anyway. What you need to validate is an open ticket that does not specify day of travel, train, seat, etc. It is a different size ticket and will fit in the validation box. That is the ticket that needs to be validated. And if you have any question, just ask someone.
And the question, you didn't ask. If you miss the train and there are no restrictions on the advance purchase ticket you have three hour to exchange it for a new one. Not true with a validated ticket -- once validated it is done.
Frank, (and others)
thank you for your help. I won't worry about them then.
Cheers,
Viv
Frank is right about validating tickets that have a reserved spot on a specific train.
But Frank, I've had reserved seat tickets that were the same size as open tickets and fit in the validation boxes.
I also read about having to validate the tickets before boarding the train. And I happened to forget about it due to rushing to catch the train from Rome to Florence, it didn't seem to matter to the person that checked ticket on board. But all my tickets are with specific travel time and assigned seats (all ES ones too).
Frank,
I just checked my tickets, How would I know if there are retrictions on it? (for your comment about missing the train) After looking at them nothing stood out...
thank you again
We also had ES trains and we did not validate them. A conductor or inspector will come around and punch holes in the train.
With a standard fare ticket, you can change them before travel and within 3 hours after if you miss the train. You don't need to validate the ES tickets but I usually do as a matter of practice. All of mine were the same size and did fit in the validation machine. For the open tickets that you do need to validate, they are good for 60 days or until you validate them at which time they are then good for 6 hours.
Thank you everyone for the information.
Viv
The reason I made the comment about restrictions is that it has become common with other train systems for the deep discount, advance purchase tickets to be non-refundable. England is the best or worse example.
Until recently Italian trains were simple and cheap. The only discount was the Amica (20%) on a few trains and not easily obtained. Now there is a whole new discount structure starting at 60% but I do not know the terms and conditions for these discounts. So I didn't know if you had one of the new plans or not. Just a cautionary note until we all get a better understanding of the new discount plans.
Thank you Frank for getting back to me.
cheers
Viv
We were on the 8:42am Venice-Florence ES train today with ticket voucher showing #of people, seat assignment. I bought that in the States. The station attendent told us not to validate in the yellow machine. Shortly after the train took off, a conductor came around and checked our tickets. By the way, Our train was at best 20% occupied, could have saved the booking charge and bought at the station.
