Trenitalia Reviews 

Theives!!! I will never ever use this company again!!
I train tickets via omio, and there was a strike and no train was functioning that day. Not only did i have to buy som very expensive buss tickets because it was last minute orientation, but i also never go a refund!!

No refund possible and no modification of the tickets. Would be better if they at least showed the details of the trip before paying.

I give one star to "Trenitalia Customer Service Regional Trains" and not zero star because at least the ladies answering at the call center were polite.
On 31th July 2025 my wife forgot her backpack on the stowage compartment on the train 20731 from Roma Fiumicino to Orte; we got off at 20.45 at Roma Tiburtina: at 21.11 I called 800892021 and they told me they would immediately notify this to the on board crew who would call us back only if they had found the backpack. No call occurred. The day after we went to the hellish infernal circle of Termini Station where, after many unpolite encounters, we found a very gentile young man who made us fulfill a form. The day after I called the Railways Police at Orte (end station) , they gave me the telephone number of the wagon cleaning firm: evasive and suspicious response.
Yesterday 10th august I called again 800892021 and a gentle young lady suggested me to call Roma Tiburtina and ask them about the case, and she gave me the number 060608. Needless to say there was no way to reach Roma Tiburtina at this number ! Moral of the story: lost backpack (and its content); if you are customer of AV (High Speed) trains maybe you have some chance, but we are always the same either on AV Trains or Regional ones !

I am writing to express my extreme disappointment and frustration with the service I received, which resulted in an unfair €50 fine and a complete lack of resolution. This experience has been nothing short of a nightmare, and I feel utterly let down by what should have been a reliable public service.

My ordeal began when I unfortunately missed my scheduled train. Understanding that such things happen, I immediately sought assistance, approaching a 'capotreno' for help with changing my reservation. To my relief, the 'capotreno' offered to help, even taking my mobile phone to make the necessary changes. He explicitly confirmed that the reservation had been successfully changed and rebooked. Trusting his word and actions, I boarded the next train, believing that everything was in order.

However, my trust was completely misplaced. During the journey, it became horrifyingly clear that the reservation had not been changed at all. I was issued a €50 fine for traveling on an invalid ticket, a direct consequence of the 'capotreno's' erroneous assurance and actions. This was not only a significant financial blow but also a deeply upsetting and stressful experience, as I had genuinely tried to rectify the situation and was misled by an official.

Adding insult to injury, I promptly filed a formal complaint through the official channels, detailing the entire incident and providing all relevant information. To date, I have received absolutely no reply or acknowledgment of my complaint. This complete silence is unacceptable and demonstrates a shocking disregard for customer service and accountability.

This entire incident has left me feeling cheated, frustrated, and deeply distrustful of the service. I relied on the assistance of a staff member, followed his instructions, and still ended up penalized. The lack of follow-up on my complaint only compounds the feeling of being ignored and dismissed. I strongly advise others to be extremely cautious and double-check any information or changes made by staff, as my experience shows that verbal assurances cannot be trusted.

I wanted to buy tickets for 36 people in the Cinque Terre. I got detailed information from the ticket clerk in La Spezia. I explained that I would start in La Spezia and get off at Manarola, Vernazza, Monterosso, and Sestri Levante. The ticket clerk pointed out all the stops with arrows on a map she'd marked in her own handwriting. She told me that if I bought individual tickets, I'd pay 10 euros per stop, totaling 40 euros. But if I bought a day pass, I'd have unlimited use and only 32.50 euros. I paid for the 36 people and bought the tickets. We wrote our names on the appropriate line, and on the last transfer of the journey, the Monterosso-Sestri Levante train, the ticket clerk came and told me the ticket wasn't valid for the last transfer, and I ended up paying a total fine of 1869 euros with my credit card. The clerk understood perfectly well that I'd been misinformed and told me I needed to contact Tren Italia for a refund. I was honest; I had the right not to pay that fine if I wanted to, and if I'd known you were so opportunistic, I wouldn't have. If I'd wanted to travel illegally, would I have gone and purchased the best ticket with my credit card, asking detailed questions? Why did I pay a fine because the officer didn't do her job properly and gave me false information? I urge all officials to be ethical and take responsibility.

Today is 2nd of August and the train to Rome has very long delay. They said they would provide water. The staff members come charging down the aisle really fast and start throwing water so rudely to the passengers like they were pigs in a Troff. I was walking back to my seat when this happened and the lady staff said I had to walk all the way back down instead of moving to the side in a very rude way. They also did not provide me any water because I wasn’t in my seat and were so rude I couldn’t believe my eyes. They also only provided water to some carriages as my friend in carriage 11 missed out completely ! Disgusting staff , disgusting treatment ! That rather large female staff member should quit her job if she hates people so much!

We purchased 1st class tickets. The coaches were marked with small 5-inch printed paper labels taped to the window of the car, not visible from the platform. We could not find coach 1. We had to run to the rear of the train for coach 1. We were positioned at the front of the platform where we thought coach 1 would be. I asked a train employee where coach one was, and she ignored me. We found coach 1 after several minutes. All the while the clock is ticking on the doors too close. In hindsight 2 pick pockets cut in front of me and my friend. I turned to help my 72-year-old friend with his luggage. One of the pick pockets pretended to help him with his luggage while brushing up against me. The other Pick pocket continued to hinder the boarding process. No employees offered to help with the boarding, nor did they supervise the boarding. Later, the same employee that ingnored my plea for help boarding said she "found my wallet" She asked how much money was in my wallet.She spoke english, and said my wallet was amptyThe whole boarding process is like Zombie apocalypse. The lazy employees don't bother to help. What is their job anyways? Later that day at another stop, some scary people boarded the train with 3 pit bulls. They looked like gangsters. Soon after the train stopped and police boarded. The gangsters were kicked off the train. Again, if the lazy train employees did their job and helped with boarding this 2nd potential crime could have been stopped. The police intervention made the train late. There was no snack. What is the purpose for 1st class. On the other trains in first class, we received snacks.

We were on a trip around Europe by train. We had a train booked from Milano to Lyon by another company (sncf) that was canceled. So 4 adults and 5 children stuck in Milano. We made new plans and booked seats on the train from Milano to Freiburg (ec 150). That train was later canceled.

We managed later that day to get a train to Zurich Ave then on to Freiburg.

The day after (3:rd of July) I tried to get in contact with trenitalia to get compensation for the canceled train. First of all, there was no way of writing and asking. All there was was pre-written forms to fill in, and it was difficult to understand which one and what information to fill in. Eventually I tried calling, more than an hour of waiting to get the reasons that I have to fill in the forms, no assisting at all.

I then tried to fill in the form and enclose all needed information. After getting an email confirming that they received my refund request (but also stating very clearly not to respond to the confirmation mail) nothing happened.

21:st of July I got another mail saying my request for reimbursement was denied due to the request being sent in to late. The request had to be sent at the same time of the canceled train. This was the time when the Families in a city unknown to us trying to sort out where and how we should go as well as taking care of the children.

The request was sent in the day after. In my opinion that is the opposite of customer care, in addition to the struggle of getting in contact with the company.

I will not recommend anyone traveling with trenitalia!

Today I was travelling from Bologna Centrale to Bologna Mazzini with 3 other passengers. We are four tourists whose first time it is in Italy and in Bologna and taking the train here. We bought the tickets at 20:27 to take a train at 20:35. We tried to validate it on the platform but the machine was obstructed. Since we were about to miss the train, we jumped in rapidly since we couldn't find another machine around without missing the train. A controller started a friendly conversation asking where we came from and telling us that we had to validate the tickets. We tried to explain our situation to the best of our ability but unfortunately the controller stopped the train, took us on the platform and proceeded to make us pay a fine of 306€ for fraud. The value of the tickets being 1,5€, knowing that we tried our best at the station to validate the tickets and that it was our first experience of the train in Bologna, we would like to contest this fine.

I bought a ticket to go to Italy from Paris. I need to add the ticket for my dog (who I want to bring along). It is not possible to add the service from the website. I contacted the customer service and they advised to go to a train station in Italy to buy the ticket since this is the only way. I explained that I live abroad and that I cannot go to Italy to buy a ticket (for a train which will bring me to Italy). Marco, the contact of the support center, was quite unpolite. Extremly surprised that trenitalia and frecciarossa could not support costumers on such basic requests.

Trenitalia don't care, they cancelled our train and made us wait 5 hrs while promising a bus : lesson learned: just take the next train going your way even if the staff say there is no train, if they say its full or refuse to give any information at all! The train was cancelled about 15hrs in advance"because of a fire" but they only had the bright idea to hire a bus at 9:45 am this morning with giant queues of disappointed passengers looking for a refund or a train. Some customers received a cancellation email, but not I. Instead of putting us on the next available trains, the best Trenitalia could offer me at the ticket office was a replacement tkt for train late the NEXT DAY. Yet there were freccarosa trains to my destination leaving same day with empty seats! The proof? I'm in such a train now. I give 2 stars for the fast train i am now sitting in, very comfortable and clean. Also the staff who tried to help were polite friendly even if they let us wait 5hrs, and indeed after 5hrs they eventually offered us a train ticket for 16:40, in compensation for our cancelled 9:45 am train! Too bad about the 5hr delay and disregard for schedules and for customers !

Nice train service but buying ticket is not easy. I was going to Fumicino Airport from Roma Termini but in Online buying I could not find a clear name for the airport to pick from a long list. Tried to find app to download but could not find any. Found one ticket buying machine where at least 50 people were in the line, everybody was having some difficulty but no staff was around to help. When we stated entering from the gate scan machine was not working. Spent more than one hour on Roma Termini before boarding the train - I was about to miss the flight.

Total disgrace! Our train was delayed for 60 min. and we got message from Trainitalia to ask for compensation. Fill the forms and got totally strange and disgusting answer - we can't refund lower than 4 euros...
But the refund was for £20.00
Just a sharks

This was an absolute disaster. For €150 per person in business class, I expected at least basic service. Instead, I got nothing.

The train left 50 minutes late. The so-called bistro car was completely closed, and there was only one trolley for the entire train. If you wanted water, you had to wait 3+ hours. Food? Forget it. No bistro service at all.

The promised welcome drink in business class — water, a snack — simply didn’t exist. No explanation, no apology.

Even worse, the staff were openly aggressive, spoke only Italian, and made no effort to communicate politely or professionally. They were raising their voices and treating passengers with clear hostility.

No service, no respect, no value for money. Easily the worst travel experience I’ve had in Europe. Trenitalia should be absolutely ashamed.

I had the same experience as another reviewer who was also fined for not knowing that they had to validate their tickets. I bought my tickets from an employee at the train station in Florence to Sienna and he never told me to look for a very small green and white machine to stamp my ticket. Once on the train a young woman employee of Trenitalia started screaming at the obviously foreign passengers in front of me something about their tickets and they either had to pay her 60 euros or get off the train. They got off. I pulled my tickets out of my purse to show her, she looked at me and smiled and walked away. After the train started moving again she came up to me and just stared at me. I asked her in Italian if there was a problem and she said there might be a problem for her. Then she started screaming at me too that I had to pay her 60 euros (which was 3 times the cost of my tickets) and then she threatened to call the police and there would be trouble. She might as well have put a gun to my head. She deliberately set me up. To me that is called extortion and I wish the FBI would investigate this crime. She didn’t ask anyone else for their tickets, not even the young American couple sitting behind me no doubt because they looked Italian.
This is obviously organized crime on Trenitalia and my complaint was denied because they said the conductor was “only doing her job”. BTW, I am a 70 year old grandmother. Trenitalia is fully aware of what their employees are doing and I too am shocked that they are terrorizing foreign passengers.

They cancelled the train and refuse to return the money. Horrible service and total scam.

After the train was cancelled, I submitted a refund request through their website — and heard absolutely nothing for a whole month.

Then I called them three times:
• The first two times, they took my information and promised a refund — but I never received anything.
• The third time, they yelled at me and hung up the phone.

Disgusting service and a complete fraud. They cancel the train, don’t provide the service, then refuse to return the money, and on top of that — they mistreat and humiliate their customers.

I do not recommend this company to anyone. Stay away.

Paid for a train ticket to Viareggio, made us get off TWO stations before the arrival and said we will have to take the bus in front of the train station to arrive at the destination. We have been waiting for HOURS with no bus coming yet we had to pay the full ticket to the destination. Big f you to trenitalia, absolute thieves.

Absolutely Horrible Experience — Never Again

This was by far the worst experience I’ve ever had on a train. I will never use Trenitalia again.

First, we accidentally bought the wrong ticket without realizing. While that part was our mistake, we explained the situation to the staff and were met with some of the rudest and least understanding people I’ve ever encountered. They charged us $58 each for being on the wrong train — even though it was a 5-minute ride and we were honest about the mistake.

Then, the next day, we tried to use Trenitalia with a Eurail pass for the first time. The woman at the station sold us the tickets and told us we were fully set to board. At no point did she mention that we had to activate the Eurail pass for the day — a critical step for the pass to be valid.

Once on the train, the attendant checked our tickets and told us there was a problem — the pass wasn’t activated. To activate the pass, you had to click a single button in the app. We explained the situation again and told him this was our first time using the pass. He refused to let us activate it on the spot, despite the fact we had PAYED for the pass, and instead charged us a $100 fee.

The entire experience felt like a scam — they prey on tourists making small mistakes just to squeeze more money out of them. Staff were unhelpful, rude, and showed zero empathy.

Rome termini platform numbering is rubbish. 2 est is nowhere near 2, over the other side od the tracks then 10mins walk. Platform announced just 10 mins before departure so no time for messing about. Very nearly got onto the wrong train then had to sprint to catch ours. Trenitalia should have enough clout with the station to insist on renumbering - how about A & B for the two rogue platforms?

Great train ride, on time and easy online booking