What's the difference between Trenitalia and Italotreno rail services?

It looks like the Trenitalia website is having troubles right now.
Italo is perfectly fine, newer equipment, a lot of people who have ridden them prefer them. They don't have as many departures, but their prices are roughly equivalent, maybe a euro or two more expensive. You may find seats in Primo Class for almost the same price as Standard Class.

Thank you. If my searching was correct, I don't think it runs from Venice to Milan which is where we are heading in from. But, I am looking at Italo for our travel from Rome to Florence and Florence to Venice. We are pretty firm on the dates we plan to travel, so it seems like it is good idea to buy now. Do you know if you can change your ticket later if needed? Not sure what "flexible" means on their website.

joe,

Italo Treno is a competing high speed service to Trenitalia and has newer trains. Italo only operates on the main high speed routes (which require special tracks), and both services operate between the cities you mentioned. However one important point to note is that in some cases, Italo uses different stations than Trenitalia. For example, on the Venice - Florence route, both use the same stations, in Milan Italo uses Porta Garibaldi rather than Centrale and in Rome Italo mostly uses Tiburtina rather than Termini. You'll need to know the specific stations you'll be using, as most cities have more than one.

Regarding the tickets, I haven't checked recently but usually "flexible" means that it's possible to change the tickets after purchase. The least expensive tickets are often non-changeable and non-refundable after purchase. Note that tickets on the high speed trains are specific to train, date and departure time and can ONLY be used on the one train listed on the ticket. Especially with Trenitalia, if you board the wrong train by mistake you'll be subject to hefty fines which will be collected on the spot!

If you wish to purchase tickets on Trenitalia, you might also try www.capitainetrain.com as the website is very user friendly. Travel by rail will be faster and more efficient than by car and a better use of your holiday time, especially at that time of year. After all, no car can match a speed of 300 km/h!

in Milan Italo uses Porta Garibaldi rather than Centrale and in Rome Italo mostly uses Tiburtina rather than Termini.

Actually, Italo is now using both Centrale and Termini. http://www.italotreno.it/en

Trenitalia is up now.

For a better price lock in fares now. If I recall you will get half price for children 14 and under.

It's really better to commit to a schedule in advance and not worry about buying tickets on the day of travel. Puts it all in the outbox.

My experience: trenitalia much better schedules, but Italo a bit cheaper. For Rome: Tiburtina is a but farther out but Termini reeks of urine and pickpockets.

Italiarail.com can return lower fares than trenitalia for group travel, esp within 2 months of departure when the cheaper seats are more limited.

Keep it simple

Trenitalia is the national rail company of Italy.

Italo is the new, private line running on Trenitalia tracks. An attempt to provide a little competition for the national rail company. Both are fine. Italo has a limited schedule and sometimes does not use the main train stations.

You have three level of fares -
SuperEconomy which can be very cheap, limited availability, and absolutely no change
Economy - less discount, limited availability but more than SE tickets, ticket can be change once paying fare difference
Base fare - standard fare, available 24/7. Can easily be changed BUT all tickets are dead once the train leaves the station.

And you have a variety of fare classes - 2nd class, 1st class, and no class on Regionale trains.

I've used Italo twice now -- Venice to Florence in 2013, and Rome/Tiburtina via Florence to Bologna earlier this year. I find it more pleasant than Trenitalia overall.

Italo's website allows you to book tickets farther in advance (I booked my late-May trip in mid-January). And in Rome, Tiburtina is a much nicer experience than Termini. It's only four Metro stops further east.

Like I say people, they use Termini now, as well as Tiburtina. Check it out.

Confirming what Sam said. Italo trains now go to Termini in Rome. We took that train ( Venice to Rome) 10 days ago. When I booked it the schedule was to TIburtina, but when we got to Rome they said we would end at Termini, and could get off at whichever station we liked.

Both train companies Re fine, although Italo's website is a bit more user-friendly. Book whichever has the schedule and price you like.

Based on my July experience, I would not wait for a train again at Termini if I could board the same train at Tiburtina.

Trenitalia is selling tickets for December. I bought some a few weeks ago.

For what it is worth, we usually take Trenitalia (TI) because the schedules are better, BUT sometimes Italo has a promotion too good to resist. I fell for one last spring and booked Euro 20.00 per person tickets roundtrip Roma-Salerno. Both trains were abysmally late, although I think the entire system was fraught with problems as TI trains were late, too, and Italo runs on the TI rail network.

TI has upped its game and renewed many trains. The new Frecciarossa 1000 is quite nice, but we do not disdain any of the freccia trains. I buy based on schedule and price, comparing both lines for each trip. Usually, TI is the best choice.

NB: Neither carrier seems to have figured out how to make WIFI work consistently, which frustrates the heck out of me. It is spotty at best, even on Italo. Last trip I had to give up after 30 minutes of fiddling with a connection the came-and-went every 203 minutes.

Regarding Tiburtina, you can easily reach it by Metro although I hate taking the Metro to-or-from Termini as it is a nuthouse. Tiburtina is very nice, almost un-Italian it is so easy to navigate, and NO CROWDS. If you can take the Metro to-or-from Tiburtina without getting on-or-off at Termini, it's not a bad arrival. A taxi from Centro Storico to Tiburtina will run you about Euro 20.00.

But if you are at or near Termini it is a pain to get to Tiburtine via the subway. That is really the deciding question. And if staying near Termini or the center of old Rome, then it is the same situation.

I much prefer Tiburtina and I really like .Italo.

I don't think that a FrecciaBianca gets me much more than an InterCity. Well, OK, it does have an Expresso machine popping out those little white plastic cups with fair coffee inside.

I prefer to go by bus to Tiburtina, and my favourite by a mile is the number 492. It starts up by the Vatican Museums entrance, through Prati, around Castel S Angelo, across the river, past Piazza Navona and Campo de'Fiori, past the Pantheon, and around the back of Termini where any Termini haters can board by the Ministry of Finance, and then over to Termini.

Much better, IMHO/

and then over to Termini.

I assume you mean "and then over to Tiburtina."

I see there is a Trenitalia strike scheduled for this weekend:

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2015/10/19/national-train-strike-set-for-october-24-25_3f1c0234-854f-4a26-89f0-28e960d32283.html

I don't know if it is true, but someone here suggested that Italo is less subject to strikes than Trenitalia. That helped tip the balance for us, and we were very pleased with the ride on Italo.

Hello all -- and thank you for your helpful advice. I did book a ticket on Italo (Rome to Florence) and opted for the Tiburtina station (something I would have never thought of doing).

My first transaction went through without problems. But, when I tried to book passage from Florence to Venice, I got this message:

"It is not possible to finalize the reservation. For assistance, please call Pronto Italo on 06.07.08. Lines are open every day since 6:00 am until 11 pm {CET}."

I called the number listed on the Italo website, but no one there could speak English and I cannot speak Italian.
Has anyone encountered this? My only thought is to try to call on Monday during business hours and try again. Do any of you with experience have any other insight?

Thanks for any help you can provide.
Jo-Ella

joe,

For booking tickets on Italo or Trenitalia, try the Captain Train website that I provided a link for in my earlier reply.

Regarding the problems you've been experiencing, which stations did you specify for your Florence to Venice trip?

Ken,
Thank you for that reminder. I got it done on Captain Train. I tried that site earlier, but for some reason got distracted and did not save it. By the time I got back to booking train travel, I had forgotten about it. Thanks again! Jo-Ella

We just returned from 3 weeks in Italy and we booked Italo for our whole trip at 120days out to get the best price. We used them from Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples and they left out of the major stations (Rome Termini, Florence SMN, Napoli C), with lots of times for us - we found it very comparable to Trenitalia. The main reason we initially went with Italo over Trenitalia is because their website was easier to use here at home at the time. We were VERY pleased.

We bought our tix from Florence to Venice at the Train station the day before. We went on Italo. We thought we'd splurge and get the first class tickets, which they said came with snack beverage service and paid about $20 Euros more. We figured maybe they'd serve wine, a nice snack...so we didn't bring any snacks or beverages with us. We waited more than an hour into the train trip before they did beverage service. I got a four ounce cup of Coke (no Diet Coke available) and a small package containing a cookie. The most expensive Dixie cup of soda I've ever bought!