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 | Milan Trains Reviews | Tips 1 - 10 of 76 |  |
I have now been to Italy several times and each time have travelled around this fabulous country by train.
Once you get the hang of it, train travel in Italy is easy. It is also a great way to see the beautiful countryside on the way to your next destination.
I have travelled a couple of times using a rail pass, but the last couple of visits have just purchased tickets for each individual trip as we went.
That said, we often have purchased tickets a day or two in advance - particularly if the particular train requires a seat reservation, or if it is a busy time of year.
Purchasing a little in advance also means that you don't miss the train you want to catch due to a huuuuuge queue for tickets...
Last trip we used the automatic ticket machines at the stations and found them excellent.
Also, I have travelled both first and second class, and didn't really find much difference - travel second class and you can use the extra money to buy more wine/food etc
Just remember with all tickets that you need to validate them in the small yellow ticket machines before you board your train. Leave a Comment |
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This is a mandatory thing to be done in Italy before getting up in the train.
The train tickets have a validity of 3 to 6 month from the acquisition date and in order to be used for a trip should be validate.
The validation machines are to be found all over the station (look like yellow boxes - see picture) and at the beginning of the platforms in the biggest stations. Theme: Train |
The railroad station Milano Centrale was one huge construction site when I was there, to get ready for the opening of a new high-speed rail connection between Milan and Bologna.
Everything was still in operation, but not always easy to find.
Second photo: Central Station from the outside.
Third and fourth photos: Here, hidden away on the left had side of the station behind a lot of construction fences, is the left luggage office. I left a suitcase here over the weekend while I went to Cremona and Busseto, and it cost me EUR 15,40. (The exact price depends on the number of hours.) The maximum storage time is five days.
Fifth photo: Before boarding a train in Italy, don't forget to validate your ticket -- and your bicycle ticket -- by inserting the tickets, one at a time, into one of these yellow "Convalida" machines. Leave a Comment |
Another great train station near Central Station (2km far).
In front of the station there is the BUS TERMINAL where you can find bus for the most important cities of Europe and Italy.
Under the station there is the underground station (GREEN LINE) and the other underground station for Malpensa's airport.
In the station there are a lot of shops, bar and three newspaper kiosks where you can buy the underground and city bus tickets.
The station is oriented from EAST to WEST. Leave a Comment |
This was actually our second trip through the MIlan train station. The first was on the way to Venice and that was truly a blur in my mind as we did little more than move from one train to another. This time, however, Milan was our destination and we needed to take note of our surroundings.
This is a big place. Built on a grandiose scale in the early 20th century, it is one of the biggest train stations in Europe and I found it to be a bit intimidating. A very busy place and, it seemed to us, to lack a very intuitive pattern of egress. What seemed to contribute to the confusion is the main ticket hall's location which is at grade with the train platforms but 2-3 stories above street level. The prospect of carrying our luggage down a very long flight of stairs was daunting. Ultimately we located the escalator to the far left end of the gallery (when exiting the platforms). Taxi queues were located at the exit at the bottom.
The building itself is magnificent but sadly the concerns of transit took precedence over our quest for aesthetics. Leave a Comment Theme: Train |
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At the moment I took this photo we were just 263 days, 7 hours, 2 minutes and 48 seconds away from the opening of the new high-speed railway line between Milan and Bologna.
The construction of this new stretch of track began in November 2000 and is scheduled to be completed by December 15, 2008.
The new line will be 182 kilometers long, and for part of this distance the trains will be able to travel at up to 300 kilometers per hour.
A train trip from Milan to Bologna will then take exactly an hour, instead of the one hour and 42 minutes that it takes now.
Second photo: Milan's Central Station (Milano Centrale) with the high-speed (Alta Velocità) railroad countdown clock. Now it's only 261 days, 13 hours, 33 minutes and 2 seconds till the opening of the new line. Leave a Comment |
With the help of the Internet site of the Italian Railway I perfectly planned my trips by train around Italy.
The site is offering detailed information about all the trains with the complete schedule and prices.
There is also the possibility to acquire the tickets on-line. |
I arrived at Milan Central Station on a Cisalpino tilting train from Spiez, Switzerland.
These trains go under the Swiss Alps through the new Lötschberg Basis-Tunnel, which was built from 1998 to 2006 and was opened for full-scale scheduled rail traffic in December 2007.
This new tunnel is about four hundred meters lower than the original Lötschberg tunnel from the year 1913, and it shortens the distance from Spiez to Brig by about ten kilometers.
The tilting train is the one on the left in the photo, and on the right is a conventional (non-tilting) Cisalpino train.
The advantage of the tilting trains is that they can lean into the curves and thus go faster through mountainous routes than conventional trains. But the downside is that some people start feeling queasy if the leaning is too severe. Leave a Comment |
The ticketing machine or in Italian "sportello rapido" (rapid office) was my good "friend" during this trip to Milan.
Will the long, unfinished line at the ticketing desks buying a train ticket in due time was something like mission impossible.
Although at first sight, it may seem difficult to use, the menu is in six languages and very easy. More over, for the ones who did a previous research on Trenitalia (see the above tip) it's even easier because menus are identical.
"Sportello rapido" can be found in almost all the train stations around Italy and in Milan station are to be found both on the right and left side of the ticketing offices.
The machines are accepting all types of Euro banknotes and coins, just be sure that you choose the right one because there are also machines that are accepting only credit cards. Theme: Train |
Milan has 5 important train stations: Stazione Centrale, Milano Lambrate, Cadorna, Rogoredo and Garibaldi.
Stazione Centrale is the main station, while Cadorna is the central-city destination for the shuttle train from Malpensa airport and the other three are used for regional links.
Beside the above mentioned train stations there are other smaller stations used for short distances rides, like Piazza Genova Train Station used for the links with the city of Alessandria. Theme: Train |
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on November 29, 2004
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