Trieste-Villa Opicina-Lubljana in the evening not found

Is there any place at all, where you can find train connections Trieste to Ljubljana via Villa Opicina?

The travel planner on the trenitalia website does not show any, but the two daily trains from Trieste Centrale to Villa Opicina. The Slovenian railways website does not have Trieste (or Trst) in the travel planner and on the information page about international connections travellers are advised to check if the trains are really running, e.g. on the ÖBB travel planner. That one shows only the 19:07 departure from Trieste Centrale to Villa Opicina, as well as the two daily trains from Villa Opicina to Ljubljana (which can also be found in the travel planner of the Slovenian railways). A search Trieste Centrale to Ljubljana on the ÖBB travel planner results in several connections via Gorizia Centrale – transfer to Nova Gorica – and then either via Sežana or Jesenice or connections via Udine and Villach, but not in any via Villa Opicina. (I did all timetable searches for March 30th.)

Independently where I search, the results are somewhat confusing.
(In the case I would travel from Trieste to Ljubljana I would anyway take Trieste urban bus 4 to Villa Opicina).

I'm almost certain I saw all trains in the ÖBB planner, but indeed the morning train from Trieste to Villa Opicina is now missing again. On interrail.eu I can still find it. It could however mean that it will disappear again with the next timetable update.

Hi ​@rvdborgt 

Great feedback. I will escalate this. 

UPDATE:

Thanks for your patience while we looked into this.

We checked this with our timetable specialists and unfortunately this isn't something we can change ourselves. The connection times shown in the planner are based on data provided by the railway carriers, and each carrier sets its own minimum transfer times.

In this case, it looks like the connection in Villa Opicina isn't being shown because the transfer time is considered too short by the carrier, even though the transfer may be perfectly manageable in reality. The planner follows the carrier's rules and therefore excludes the connection.

If you're comfortable making the transfer, you can still look up the two trains separately and plan the journey that way. Just keep in mind that if the first train is delayed and you miss the second one, the connection may not be protected because it isn't recognised as an official connection in the timetable.

Unfortunately, we can't adjust these transfer times ourselves, so the connection will only appear in the planner if the carrier changes the data they provide.

Thanks again for reporting this!

​@Eurail Community Moderator 

The only purpose for both these trains to run from/to Villa Opicina is to connect with each other. If the minimum connection times have been set longer than the time between the trains, then there is clearly an error in the timetable.

Have you contacted Trenitalia and SŽ? That would be the logical thing to do. What did they say?

Train travel related stuff at the end.

That the rather long connection time between two trains from which a least one runs for the purpose to connect with the other one only is considered too short and therefore the connection is not shown in travel planners, could be from the Austrian author Fritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlando (1877 – 1954). Either in the novel Das Maskenspiel der Genien (Masquerade Of The Spirits, which like the majority of his work did not appear in print during his lifetime) where he describes the mysteries of the Leoben train station in Austria with international express trains. Or in the parodistic play Kaiser Joseph II. und die Bahnwärterstochter (Emperor Joseph II. and the station agent’s daughter).
Remarks:
Literary: The original manuscript of the comedy has Joseph II. explicitly in its title, the edited version by Friedrich Torberg, which made it 1957 the first time to a theatre, has the title Kaiser Joseph und die Bahnwärterstochter.
Historically: Joseph II., who died 1790 is a feature of the parody, not a bug.

Train travel related: The SŽ trains should connect with urban bus service 4 at the Villa Opicina station. A few buses make a detour from the via di Prosecco to the station building to connect with the trains. If this service should have been cancelled, from the nearest bus stop in via di Prosecco to the station is a less the 10-minutes walk.  Travel time from Piazza Oberdan in the Trieste city centre about 20 min to the station, with walk from the bus stop via di Prosecco 233 (angolo strada provinciale 1 del Carso) less than 30 minutes, fare €1.50. As the Villa Opicina station lies within the city limits of Trieste using a bus to reach the train station should be fine for every Interrail/Eurail pass user.