Redlandsneen

Hi all. Has anyone tried using a ride share, such as BlaBlaCar in Italy? What was your experience? It comes up as an option on Rome2Rio.

Seamus

Where in Italy?
In Rome the taxi drivers have pretty much crippled the ability of rideshare services such as Uber through local regulations. Florence, on the other hand, has decent uber service.

Redlandsneen

Hello and thanks for your comment. I would not consider a ride-share like BlaBlaCar similar to Uber. In any case, I am trying to find alternative transport from either Tropea to Naples or Cosenza to Naples.

Jean

Alternative to trains because of cost?

A quick check of train fares for next week... as low as 20 euros from Tropea and 18 euros from Cosenza. Blabla charges a transaction fee to riders on top of the shared fuel/tolls costs. Search on viamichelin.com for driving costs and then add the 10-12% fee. Although driving would be faster, I doubt it can beat the train fares... not to mention the comfort of train v. car.

Redlandsneen

Hi Jean. Thanks. No it wasn't really about cost; it was about a quick turnaround of one night in Tropea coming from Messina and leaving the next midday (approximately) to try and arrive in Naples at a reasonable hour (before dark, preferably). If you are happy to give me a hand with the logistics in terms of say, working backwards from 8pm arrival, what time I would have to leave Tropea, change in Cosenza, to arrive at Naples Centrale at say 7 or 8 pm, at the latest, I would truly appreciate it. This is the one link in a long chain of travel plans that gives me the most concern. TIA.

Jean

What day of the week?

On any day but Sunday, you can leave Tropea at 2:30 p.m., change at Lamezia Terme Centrale, and arrive in Naples at 7:18 p.m. You wouldn't go to/through Cosenza unless you wanted to go to Cosenza. Tropea-Cosenza-Naples would be a 7-hour journey, involve 4 trains and give you one hour in Cosenza, but you'd arrive in Naples before 8:00 p.m.

If it's Sunday, staying the previous night in Tropea makes it tricky. You'd have to leave Tropea fairly early in the morning... about 9:15 a.m., and you'd arrive in Naples around 2:30 p.m. If you spent Saturday night in Lamezia Terme, you could hang around until 4:00 p.m.

https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html

Redlandsneen

Hello! Thanks very much for this. It's a Wednesday, so your timetable should work. Are these Inter-city trains? I will have a look on Trenitalia etc.

I guess my other concern is if there is a strike. I MUST be in Naples Wednesday night as I have a big touring day scheduled with a friend I'm meeting there Thursday morning.

This is giving me some hope at least. I would still like to know about the BlaBlaCar as a backup. I have emailed my request but it is way too early. My friend suggested I use a date in the next day or two to see if it is a route that comes up at all.

Redlandsneen

Hi again. So I looked at Trenitalia.

I could leave Tropea on Reg 5476 at 12:29, arriving L.T.C. at 13.23, OR Reg 5478 at 14.29, arriving L.T.C. 15:23, to catch the Inter-city 724 at 16:01, arriving Napoli C. at 19:18.

I imagine to be safe, I should not take a chance with the later train to L.T.C. in case the train is delayed, so I'd be smart to take the earlier train, I guess.

Am I doing this? Yikes!

lavandula

BlaBlaCar is a thing in other European countries - I know of it from Germany. It has been running for a number of years. My students have used it but I have no personal experience of it, unfortunately.

Lavandula