Trenitalia regional trains DO sell out

I'm no expert, but something feels off here. I did a little online research and think that perhaps the one sold out was the IC train, which does run this route?

It’s marked as Regionale.

This is only the case for a few regional trains, and certainly not that common. You see that on www.trenitalia.com when you look up the prices.

If you see "2 Classe" then you can always buy tickets. If you see "2 Classe Prenotazione" then indeed they only sell tickets for that train up to the number of seats.

Looking at Palermo - Cefalu I see that some trains have "prenotazione" marked, but others do not. I wonder what would happen if you bought a ticket for that other train, and then boarded a "sold out" train anyway. That is the trick you do in France for example.

You know, that’s a good idea. I should have done that. I highly doubt the train staff are checking to see if every person has a ticket. Oh well, I’m always on the 9:31 am train.

For several years now (in fact, since the COVID-19 pandemic), Trenitalia has been enforcing a maximum capacity per train on certain specific busy routes to prevent extreme overcrowding. If a train (especially the early morning train, which is popular with commuters and day-trippers) runs with shorter train sets, the sales limit is quickly reached. Both the ticket machines at the station and the app will then refuse to sell any more tickets.

The most practical option is to download the Trenitalia app. There, you can also see how many tickets are still available for regional trains.

What I still wonder is what would happen if I were to buy a traditional undated regional ticket (these still exist) and then just stamp it and get on the supposed "sold out" train. That is what people do in France on those TER lines where SNCF has been doing something similar.

In the past when buying tickets from a ticket vending machine you did not even select a train from a schedule. You just entered your destination. Same when purchasing a ticket at the ticket window.

Its only recently with the change to having people select a train first that railways actually have an idea which train a customer plans to take. And they seem to abuse that a bit...

IC trains aren't regional trains, and they are clearly marked as such. I remember at the Cinque Terre how they even made announcements when the IC called at Monterosso that people with regional tickets and Cinque Terre Cards could not use that train.

This just happened to us! We checked the app and the tickets had been sold out. Then we went to the train station and the kiosk also said the 8:22 train from Palermo to cefalu sold out. We got tickets for the next train at 9:36 am. We were going to just resign ourselves to waiting but we asked a train employee if it is was okay if we still got on the earlier train even though it was sold out. He said, “No problem.” He was so nice and told us which platform to go to. It was crowded but we went to the end of the train where there were fewer people and even managed to get 4 seats together.

So it appears that Trenitalia is playing the same trick as SNCF (and sometimes DB) are using. Nowadays ticket vending machines and apps always make you select a train first, and this creates the impression that tickets are bound to a train. (In the past ticket vending machines just asked you your destination).

So they are using a psychological trick to steer people away from busy trains...

My question is, why wouldn't you buy Trenitalia tickets in advance? So many advantages, and frankly it's one less thing to worry about in often strange environments--the whole kiosk thing with a scammer coming up to you and asking if he can 'help'. That's typical at Roma Termini station. But I love the Trenitalia app and well in advance of the trip I have all the digital tickets and QR codes in my phone wallet--I managed it that way for 4 people in Florence, Rome, Salerno and Sicily a year ago April without a hitch. Of course, I have hard copies of everything just in case...

The only disadvantage is if you buy super early (upon release of the tickets online) to get the maximum discount is that for the cheap rate there are no changes. Well, when it's a 30 or 40 Euro ticket--unless you're in northern Italy--it doesn't hurt that bad financially if there is a last-minute change to your schedule, which can (and often does) happen.

Worth the risk in that respect.

and asking if he can 'help'.

and then what happens?

and then what happens?

That's a pretty silly question! I'm glad that a lot of tourists are aware of the dangers posed by these scammers and are warning others about them.

Thanks for pointing out I make silly questions, how nice of you.
I'm afraid my wife would agree with you, but I'm still wondering what happens after they have offered to help.

Since you are obviously smarter than me, maybe you can reply? They offer help, you say no. And then? Do they insist?

Or: these scammers offers help, you accept, they ask for a tip, you give 'em a couple of bucks. And then what happens?

It was an experiment that Trenitalia did in June 2020 during the pandemic to limit occupancy to 50%. I think they continued with the experiment for a selection of certain regional trains (over 1000 trains) during critically crowded periods, for example to busy summer destinations during weekends. So it is possible that a train Palermo to Cefalù, being a popular tourist destination, might fall under that category on certain dates and times.