Advice for Trieste Stopover/Station Change
 

Hi Fodorites!
Our bus will arrive in Trieste at 4:25pm on a Sunday and we need to be in Venice that evening. There are two options I'm considering:
#1 - reserving seats on the 5:02pm Frecciabianca train arriving Venice 7:03pm (so 27 minutes to walk to the train station and print out my ticket at the machine), or
#2 - buying a ticket for the regional train that leaves at 5:44pm arriving Venice at 7:49pm (so 1h 20 minutes stopover...with time for a walk to the seawall).

I'm looking for advice about:
1) It looks like the bus station (we'll be taking an Autotrans bus from Croatia) is next to the Trieste Centrale train station, but let me know if I'm incorrect and need to adjust the stopover timing!
2) I see that the train station is 10 blocks from the Piazza dell'Unità d'Italia and 4 blocks from the seawall and folks are saying it's an easy walk. It'd be nice to stretch our legs in between connections, but I'm not sure it's worth taking the later train for it. To help us decide... What's the area around the train/bus station like? Can we store our luggage safely for the hour using the "left luggage" services (esp on a Sunday)?
3) The 5:02pm Frecciabianca and the 5:44pm regional train both take about 2 hours to get to Venice...so other than the ability to reserve a ticket on the Frecciabianca and it probably being a nicer train, any compelling reason not to take the regional train and give ourselves the extra time for a walk (or a delayed bus arrival)?

Thanks in advance if you're able to shed light on any of these questions!

The bus station and train station are adjacent, so no problems there. You actually have 37 minutes in theory to make the change for the earlier train, but buses can be late, not sure I would want to be committed. Trieste on a late Sunday afternoon is not the most exciting place and the station area is uninspiring, but the Canal Grande and the main piazza are worth seeing. Not sure about luggage lockers, you can probably find out by googling.

In short, I would leave the decision until you are there.

Thanks, tarquin. I think you're right on waiting to make the call when we arrive in Trieste.

Anyone know if I should be concerned about not getting seats on the 5:02pm Frecciabianca or 5:44pm regional train to Venice given that they're some of the last trains out on a Sunday evening?

Thanks!!

Or maybe anyone know if the Trieste Centrale station ticket window is open on Sundays? It seems like it would being such a hub, but you never know...

There is no advantage to buying a ticket for a regional train online in advance. Regional trains don't sell out as there are no reserved seats and no discounts. Online regional train tickets have more restrictions than a ticket purchased at the station.

The AV train seems to go to Mestre so you would have to change trains there if your destination is VSL. The AV train only costs 8€ more than the R train. I would wait until I got to Trieste and purchase. There are ticket machines at Trieste Centrale you can use at any time or there is a ticket window.

Trieste Centrale ticket window info days/hours.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 e Festivi - 6.15 19.50

Hi - just wanted to let everyone know that even though our bus from Rijeka came in 30 minutes late (two of the passengers were lacking visas and needed to complete paperwork), we had no problems getting to the train station, buying tickets, and stretching our legs a bit.

Thanks for all the input and advice!