Validating train tickets

It depends. If they are open tickets for Regionale trains - no seat reservation, no date noted on the ticket, etc. - then the answer is yes, you can validate all at the same time. However, one caution. Your journey must be completed within five hours of when the ticket was validated. The validation is a time stamp and it will note the station so that the conductor knows you are traveling in the right direction. In other words - you are going from A to B. You cannot within the five hour window go from B to A.

However, if the ticket specify a date, time, train number, car no, seat number, then that ticket only good for that train at that time. Those tickets do not need to be validated since they are only good for one train at one time. Now you could have a combination of both. So validate the Regionale train tickets and not the others.

Thanks Frank. I am traveling from Vernazza to Venice which is about a 5 hour trip if all goes well. I think I will validate the Vernazza/La Spezia, La Spezia/Pisa, and Pisa/Florence tickets and save the Florence/Venice ticket and validate in Florence. Hopefully the trains will be on time. Thanks again.

And FYI, in a lot of the stations they've moved the validation machines off the waiting platforms and into the subterranean passage that connects the various tracks. And the machines used to be yellow like this but now they're dark green like this

@jetchison, you have the right plan there. Just speaking from personal experience, in the rush of moving from one train to another in Florence, do NOT forget to validate your tickets for that last journey, or you may come to regret it. If by any chance you do forget to validate and the train is moving, then be sure to seek out the conductor and advise him/her, before they come to check your tickets. Travel well, and in peace!

If your last connection looks tight, you can validate the last ticket at any station where you have time. Personally I would validate all of them at the beginning, keep them all until your last ticket is checked - the conductor will be able to see from the time stamps and train schedules (on his/her computer) that your journey was continuous.

The Florence to Venice leg most likely would be on something other than a Regionale train unless you specifically chose a Regionale.

We are doing that same trip but with printed off tickets we bought online at Trenitalia.
How do we validate them?

You need to validate tickets that say "convalidare" near the top of the ticket. If you can print them at home, they are pre-validated (even the regionale ticket). Print-at-home tickets don't fit in the validation machines, so don't worry, just show them to the conductor.

Ann

As Zoe says, if you have printed the tickets just show them to the Conductor. They need the PNR number or the QR code / barcode.

By the way, what is the "DR" in your profile? Democratic Republic of Congo? It doesn't sound like a State or Province?

You ONLY validate tickets for Regionale train purchased at a ticket machine or ticket counter. These are open ticket go for sixty days and need to be validated (time stamped) for a specific trip. Then the clock starting running and you have five hours to complete you trip on a Regionale only train.

Tickets purchased on line will come with a specific seat reservation, train no, car no, and date/time. Those tickets are only good for that train - day and time. If your trip involves a mixed of high speed, IC, and Regionale trains - a couple of changes invloved - then the Regionale ticket is pre-validated with a three hour window. Howver, never purchase an individual ticket for a Regionale train on-line.

Actually three of the trains are regional and the train from Florence is Frecciargento and it looks like there is a seat number if Trento 9416, Carrozza 006, Posti 3A, 4A finestrino names a seat. I will validate this ticket in Florence and look online to intrepid the rest. If anyone happens to know that would be great. My guess is car 006, seats 3a and 4a. What must we do if one of our legs is delayed and we miss this train. I am guessing we get out our credit card and rebook.

That is the only ticket that you do not need to validate. It is only good on train 9416. Miss the train, you need a new ticket. The other Regionale tickets need to be validated prior to boarding somewhere along the way.

Thanks Frank. I hope I do not need my credit card in Firenze. You have been very helpful.

If you miss the last train because your connecting train arrives late, go to the customer service window and they will issue a new ticket ar no charge. If you miss the train for any other reason, you will have to pay for the replacement ticket.

You have decoded the ticket correctly. Look for the correct carriage number before you board if you can.

I will never again validate connecting train tickets one at a time. I now validate all at the same time, in order, at the start of my trip.

The truth is trains are often very late arriving/leaving stations. Last November I got into a situation that felt like a vortex. The Ancona train left Termini terribly late, arrived at Ancona well after my connecting train to Porto San Giorgio was scheduled to leave Ancona.

Only as we pulled into Ancona an announcement in Italian came over the PA, saying that no connecting train had left the Ancona station, all were waiting for us. Only I had No idea where my track was. I didn't even know I was on the ground level of tracks. When I deboarded the Ancona train I was alone. Everybody had scurried off to their trains.

Then I saw a conductor watching me from a car door. I asked him where Is the train to PSG, and he said Track 4, upstairs, and pointed to the elevator.

Only I remembered my ticket was Not validated. I looked around and saw a validator box down a tunnel. It was far away and I had Two bags with me. I was sooo tempted Not to bother, but in a flash I ran to it, my bags rolling at lightning speed. Validated the ticket, raced back to the elevator. Ran to Track 4 where oddly a passenger was standing on the steps of the first car I saw. He reached down, grabbed my bags, and then hauled me up like a piece of luggage.

In the nick of time. The train began moving right after I landed on the floor. You already know that your layovers are tight and you have four tickets! My tickets had a 6 hour shelf life. That's plenty of time to accommodate late trains or missed connections. And if it happens that a validator stamp ages, you will be fine, you can still take the trains.

The Italian train system is more sophisticated than that. I mean, this is what they do, this is their business. They all know when trains are late and that you and your family cannot be racing down tunnels to distant validator boxes when your train in theory was already supposed to leave the station. You're living in time that doesn't really exist, why everything was so quiet and alone. If your train is still on the tracks, those are minutes you need to find it. Don't share them with frantic efforts to validate tickets.

And please do Not board a train with unvalidated tickets. I did that once in Napoli and barely survived the third conductor who read me the riot act. Yeah maybe the first two conductors won't bother you, but there's a third conductor, the shake-down guy, who is coming around. That's why the first two leave you alone, they know he's coming!

Validate all your tickets, in order, at the start of your trip.