Italy train questions
 

Anyone able to describe the differences between the Eurostar trains and the IC trains? The timetables seem similar enough, and the IC trains are a tiny bit less expensive, so is there a huge difference in quality?

trying to work out my budget for trip at Christmas....

thanks!

Hi Mac,

Go for the ES* when possible. They run on time.

2cl on the ES* is as good as 1 cl on the IC, for about the same price.

((I))

If you go to the trenitalia site and click on 'trains and stations' you can get pictures of eurostar trains and descriptions of inter city. The inter city trains used to be composed of side corridor compartmented trains but the newer ones are laid out very much like eurostar now.

I have not noticed any significant difference in timeliness between the two. If there is a way to tell in advance whether you get the older i/c configuration or the newer one, I haven't discovered it. I prefer the newer to older versions. There's a picture of the older version on the trenitalia english page though for reasons I don't understand it's not on the italian page.

ES tickets purchased in Italy or on Trenitalia.com include your sear reservation. IC trains don't include seat reservations so you will have to add a few Euro to the IC prices.

>I have not noticed any significant difference in timeliness between the two.<

On our last visit to Italy, the IC from Naples to Rome departed 2 hr late and arrived 3:15 hr late.

The ES* trains are guaranteed to arrive within a set time (1 hr I think) or your money back.

((I))

Trenitalia's arrival guarantees, such as they are, can be found at

http://www.trenitalia.com/en/area_cl.../viaggio6.html

If a eurostar train is 25 minutes late you get 50% off; if an intercity train is 30 minutes late you get 30% off. Both of these depend upon your having purchased the ticket or a supplement ON THE TRAIN.

I have not noticed any significant difference in the timeliness between the two trains. There are always individual instances where one train is late; but, as a rule, if there is such a thing in Italy, the trains run according to schedule.

Thank you, Hal, for the update on the guarantees.

((I))

The ES is faster than the IC. Also on the IC, there were people bugging me to buy "new" cameras and such. I did not have this problem on the ES.