Trenitalia versus rail europe
 

Can someone please help explain the difference between the two? I thought Trenitalia was the actual train company owned by the Italian government and Rail Europe was an agent. However, when I view the schedules for various transfers among cities, they do not coincide at all. For instance, when looking for trains going from Rome to Salerno, Trenitalia lists 5 or so with the first leaving at 10:45 and arriving at 1:12. Rail Europe's schedule is completely different and has their first train leaving at 6:27 am and arriving at 9:23. Before I can plan my itineraries, I need to know which one is accurate and/or I should refer to. It makes a big difference in our plans if I can arrive in Salerno as early as 9:23am or not until 1:12pm. Thanks!

Raileurope is an agent and Trenitalia is the actual company. Therefore I'd be more likely to trust what Trenitalia says except that you must have made a mistake somewhere as a random look at the Trenitalia site gives a first train at 6:27am. You didn't put a deaprture time in by any chance?

Take another look at the Trenitalia site and put in an earlier "hour" for you departure time. I entered "04" and it shows not only the 6:27am departure but also an earlier one that leaves at 5:01am.

And by all means, buy your ticket through Trenitalia and not Rail Europe.

Thank you so very much! I do believe there was a time automatically inserted into one of the fields. I did not notice it as I didn't enter it! Thanks again....

RailEurope is a reseller/booking engine like Expedia, Travelocity or any other business selling another companies' product.

Trenitalia defaults to today's date and random departure times (seems to change every time you log on). You have to be sure to reset each time you search a train route. Sometimes they don't show all train schedules if it involves slower r trains (only options with faster trains show) unless you put a date within the next week or within a month.

RailEurope is a wholly-owned subsidiary of a combination of the SNCF and SBB (the French and Swiss national railways).

It was originally started to promote European rail travel in North America post WWII.

It does not "re-sell" anything..it has the only link to the European railway computer network in North Amercia therefore ALL of the travel agents in the US who sell European rail tickets including Budget Europe Travel service USE RailEurope's computer system but they do NOT necessarily charge the same prices for point-to-point tickets since RE often marks up the prices.

As someone above explained, Trenitalia is the newer name of the Italian State Railways company.

As to the accuracy of schedules...sometimes the RailEurope site has a very ABBREVIATED schedule..at least the one you can access from their website...

Thanks again everyone for your clarification. Unbelievable how this site helps everyone. I love it!

By all means, if you are living in the US and unless you can get your credit card to work on the Trenitalia site.... WAIT till you get here to buy train tickets! They are far cheaper here (P2P) than purchasing through an "agent" such as RailEurope. This link may help you... it's a step-by-step walkthrough for buying tickets at the kiosks - VERY SIMPLE!

Buying a Train Ticket
http://www.roninrome.com/2009/03/05/...-train-ticket/

Some people like to have the physical ticket in hand before they leave for Europe. Rail Europe sends all tickets to your home and any issues you may have can be dealt with in the US -and in english!!

The ticket machines are in English. Wait until you get there instead of paying RailEurope marked up prices and mailing fees.