Beware of Trenitalia's Penalties!!
 

Thought I'd share this experience.

Just returned from Italy and
the four of us decided to catch an early train at the Milan Station. We decided to board the train without buying a ticket because we were runnung out of time. The conductor charged us an additional 200.00 Euro total($280.00 US) as a penalty for not buying pre-board. What would have cost if we bought in the stationwas 90.00 Euro but instead cost 290.00 Euro. I take the Metro in NY often and I think they charge an extra $5.00 or less for purchasing on the train, so I had no idea.

As if that weren't maddening enough, we had to switch to another train from Genoa to SML/Portofino, and we were fined an additional $50.00 Euro + ticket price because we all missed stamping the ticket b4 boarding the train. This we should have remembered from the past, but it's not easy to find these machines at some stations so beware.

Finally we left SML/Portofino to go to Florence and we bought the tickets at the staion window. As we boarded the train the conductor informed us that our train didn't have a 1st class car available that particular day, for no known reason, and explained what we considered was to be a headache if we wanted a refund for the difference. We skipped it cause it was too time consuming.

I don't know if all lines follow the same penalty system throughout Europe so please comment what you know.

well, I don't know, I was sold a train ticket on a Czech train and they just charged me the regular price, which was about 5-10 euro.

I didn't do it on purpose, though, it was actually a mistake and the conductor bailed me out -- in fact, I don't think he was going to charge me anything until I reminded him to.

I had got on the wrong train going south instead of north where my ticket was going (wrong platform, signage on train was confusing), so I planned to get off at the next stop and reverse direction. I reminded the conductor I needed to pay extra for that half hour trip south which I had not planned, before turning around, so he sold me the ticket right there.

Christina, I think that was excessively scrupulous on your part; I am sure that very few transport service would penalise you for such an error (except, possibly, Trenitalia). I suppose that you also paid extra to get back to your starting point.

"services". I wish we could edit our posts.

No, all lines (countries) don't have the same penalties (laws). That's like asking if Canada, US and Mexico have the same laws and fines.

Sorry - there is no "Metro" in New York.

If you mean the subway you can;t ride without paying unless you jump over a turnstile - in which case the police may be interested.

If you're talking about the commuter trains (LIRR etc) they charge several dollars more to buy on the train - but the prices are way cheaper. $2 or $3 extra on a $10 fare - not $150.

And agree - you can;t just assume things work the same in all countries. Travel should teach you everything is different - and either ask the question - or take the risk.

(I agree the penalty does seem high - but I would assume that's what it is - not just extra for buying the ticket on the train - but a fine based on the assumption that you were trying to ride for free and were caught.)

I have a funny story. A friend and husband were traveling on a short hop train in Italy. They thought that they could buy a ticket onboard. The conductor approached them shortly after boarding to see their tickets. Of course, they didn't have them. Since the conductor couldn't sell them tickets, he pointed to ticket kiosks just outside of the train. The husband got off and purchased tickets. Later the conductor came back to check on the tickets. Turned out that the traveler had purchased phone cards.......the conductor laughed and moved on.
They called home regularly!

The penalty for not stamping a ticket since 2004 is 25€. I'm not sure what it is for not buying a ticket at all.

A conductor in Italy politely informed me about the penalties when I forgot to validate a ticket on a local train.

He didn't charge the fine, but just a warning. He did say that you can buy a ticket on board or validate on board without penalty (maybe a small fee?) IF (and it's a big IF) you seek out the conductor and ask. If you wait for them to ask you for a ticket you're SOL.

I am a New Yorker and maybe the comment was for Metro North, I believe that's the Connecticut line. I am on the Long Island line and nytraveler has it right for the LIRR.

I do know you must stamp your ticket before boarding in general for Italy. We'll take train Milano to Venezia then to Roma and I must ask where this machine is to stamp the tickets.

Even inside Trenitalia, penalty can vary. As nytraveler wrote, it seems to me that OP was fined for riding the train "intentionally" without ticket. It doesn't matter if it was your intention or not but the conductor interpreted it like that. That's what I think. On the train did you go to find the conductor yourself to say you had not had time to buy ticket OR just waited for the conductor to come around to check the tickets? Last year I took a train at last minute without ticket, same situation as you, from Venice to Milano. Once on the train, I did go looking for a conductor right away. I found one and asked her to sell me a ticket. As far as I remember, she charged me perhaps maximum 5-10 % more than normal price. So I suppose there are different levels of penalties and and it's up to the conductor de decide which to apply in each case.

It is indeed a heavy penalty you got. If it happened to me, I would be upset. It happens I get on the train without ticket, when in a hurry, here in Switzwerland, e.g. Geneva- Lausanne. There I sit and wait for the conductor to come by, then ask for a ticket. That costs a little penalty of about 10%.

I see J62 already wrote the same above.

Also what J62 wrote : He did say that you can buy a ticket on board or validate on board without penalty (maybe a small fee?)

If you get on board without validating your ticket with machine, you go to one of the conductors right away. That's what I did once for Milano to Venice (or somewhere else, I'm not sure). She just stamped it herself and without fine.

Here is Trenitalia's words on riding train without ticket:

http://www.trenitalia.com/en/area_cl...0BORDO%20TRENO

Hi SF,

Thanks for the reminder about buying tickets in advance and stamping tickets before boarding.

Sorry to hear about your experience.

In France, there are signs on the trains saying that you may not ride a train without a ticket.

Penalty is full fare + a fine of 25 to 75E.

((I))

200 E. is more like $315-320 right now, not $280 (those were the days ...).

maybe a silly question but how do you stamp a ticket? what if you bought your ticket online and it's just a print out?

If you are traveling on an ES train you don't need it stamped because the ticket is for a specific train and time. Scroll down for a picture of the ticket stamping machine.
http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/trains/station.htm

bookmarking

Thanks for all your replies on this.
I'd say the lesson to be learned is to buy the tickets on-line ahead of time, but Trenitalia's website wouldn't accept my CC payment. I tried for over an hour and gave up. I've since learned this is another often experienced Trenitalia trait.
By the way, the conducter came to us. She was the same person that we asked if the train we were running to catch was the train to Genoa and she replied she didn't speak English. Amazingly she learned it fairly well within a 1/2 hour or so when she came to us. I wouldn't doubt that she pocketed the 200 Euro.