When trains strike in Italy

from what I know it depends on what train you are. Certain trains are gauranteed to run

As I posted in your other post, Trenitalia has an agreement with the unions that keep many trains running. They don't shut down the system. Could there be croweded trains? Perhaps.

We were in a "strike train" a couple of years ago South of Naples. We did not know about the planned strike, and we were in the middle of a nite train ride from Naples to a town in NE Sicily. ( A beautiful trip...during daylight)

At the "appointed hour", the train came to a halt in the middle of nowhere, everybody was offloaded into buses, bussed around the "strike zone", and then packed like sardines in another waiting train. We were not given 1 class seats again.

It stopped at a station before our final destination. At that time, we then had to locate transportaion. We ran to the bus station before everyone else found out that all trains had been shut down. It was total chaos.

What a mess, but a great story!

As mentioned, some trains run, others don't. Yes, there is some chaos, but since strikes are announced, Italians make other arrangements, leaving I guess, mainly chaotic tourists. You could certainly do the same, move your travel day, or risk it, if you do run into issues...find the nearest cafe and order a bottle of wine.

This doesn't have to do with train strikes...but WE got stuck in Frankfurt, Germany
and couldn't connect to Florence, Italy because of a strike hitting airports
in Florence, Pisa, Bologna & Venice..it was a nightmare last Tuesday.
Somehow Lufthansa never contacted us to let us know ahead of time there
was a scheduled strike in Flor. We arrived in Frankfurt around 9:30 AM..w/o
any connecting flight around 11:30 AM...we were put on STANDBY on a full
plane at 5:05 PM..what a hassle...the Frankfurt airport is not the place to be
there are hardly any seats/chairs for stranded passengers. Since we checked
with Lufthansa's Transfer center very early...we were the lst 3 with boarding
priority ...and thank goodness were able to get on that flight.

there is also a list posted on their site that lists which trains are protected

Maybe you already know this website with the strike schedules, but will come in handy if you don't know about it. I kept an eye on this site before my Italy trip in November 08. There was a strike when I was there, but ended earlier.
http://www.summerinitaly.com/planning/strike.asp

Got caught in a train strike this time last year, Venice to Rome. It was chaos at the station; no help, advice or guidance and long lineups going nowhere -we stood for an hour in the INFO line only to be greeted by a lady who said we were in the wrong line.

We had pre-booked tickets with reservations for a particular train; they became worthless. We managed to buy (full cost, no seat reservation) for the next train thinking our seat reservations would apply; in fact the ticket agent said the same seat #'s applied.

We got on the train about 3 hours late and one US couple (I'd say Texas from the accent), in the same situation as us, were escorted from the train by the police because they felt their reservations for the cancelled train applied on the later train (they didn't) and wouldn't take no for an answer.

Trenitalia basically double booked the later train with no consideration for those who had their seats reserved for the earlier train.

Long story a bit shorter; my wife managed to sit for most of the trip but we both kept moving seats wherever a vacant one existed. We spent the last two hours standing in the bar-car downing cold beer as we were basically no reservation/seat passengers, notwithstanding a Eurail Pass and reserved seats on the cancelled train.

All to say; go with the flow, stand if you must so long as you're going in the right direction, expect no help from Trenitalia, and if your seat reservation is for a cancelled train and someone with a ticket has reserved your 'place', give it to them or risk a handcuffed removal/escort from the train.

Speak to the locals (your hotel) to get the accurate explanation of what to do -is it a day strike, an hour strike, a strike because the expresso's not hot enough, only the trains on stike, we'll only be on strike over the lunch period,....- welcome to Italy!

Hi Geoff: Ahhhh, customer service, Southern European style....(BTW, D-Day 65th anniv is Saturday)