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Trenitalia new Dynamic Pricing (like airlines) eff. 1.1.2026

Posted by (San Francisco Bay Area (USA)) on

Sorry I might be late to announce this, but there is a major change in the way Trenitalia sets prices eff, the beginning of this year. The system replicates what airlines have been using for years.

Until 2025, there were a number of tickets sold at discounted rates for each train (Super Economy, Economy, etc.), once those were sold out the price would be a fixed BASE price that was fixed for that segment and never changed until the time of travel.

No longer. Now, like with air tickets, prices for the same segment will continuously fluctuate every day according to demand and supply, based on some algorithm, so it might be beneficial to always purchase in advance (and/or not to travel on peak days/hours).

This new pricing system affects only Freccia trains, but not Regionali or Intercity, both of which receive government subsidies from the Regions and therefore will remain unchanged in the way the price structure is set.

This piece of news has been all over the Italian media for a few days/weeks now, but couldn’t find sources in English yet.

https://www.ilpost.it/2026/01/06/prezzi-dinamici-alta-velocita-trenitalia-frecce-dynamic-pricing/

https://www.repubblica.it/economia/2025/12/31/news/trenitalia_fs_prezzo_biglietti_aerei-425069052/

Posted by
6790 posts

Roberto, thank you for your once again very helpful input! Happy travels in the New Year!

Posted by
1849 posts

Any word on whether .Italo is going to follow along or are they sticking with the old system? I generally only look at them if I'm unhappy with the Trenitalia schedules but it sounds like they may become more of the default vendor for travellers.

Sounds like France where they hired airline people to run the TGV and they brought all the features people hate about airlines to the Ouigo train system.

Thanks for the heads up, Roberto,
=Tod

Posted by
3593 posts

On Tuesday I was on an ICE from Frankfurt to Amsterdam where 2nd class was packed, and 1st almost empty. DB really missed an opportunity by not selling 1st class upgrades at a discount at last minute...

So yes, dynamic pricing can make sense. Railways want to make money. As long as they do not start behaving like SNCF and actually reducing service every year in an attempt to get every train 100% full.

Posted by
3473 posts

Thanks Roberto. Helpful info since I’ll be in northern Italy this year and traveling by train between towns.

Posted by
886 posts

Hmm, I purchased 2 tickets on the app a few days ago. I like to purchase tickets that can be changed and refunded just in case life goes sideways. Anyway, my tickets from Rome to Trani and Bari to Rome were in the range of 45ish euros. Is that good or bad or normal? It's been a while since I've gotten tickets on Trenitalia so I can't say for sure if things looked the same or different when ordering them.

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