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Travelling into Italy during a rail strike

  • August 4, 2026
  • 3 replies
  • 25 views

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My wife and I have just returned from spending a week in Rome.  We travelled from  London and back on a four day pass.  Our planned route out was London to Paris; Paris to Lyon; overnight in Lyon; Lyon to Milan; Milan to Rome.  

A few days before we were due to travel out we learnt that there was a national rail strike on the day we were scheduled to make the two journeys getting us from Lyon to Rome.    I won’t go into the detail of what we did in terms of rearranging our travel plans and having back up plans should things not work out, other than to say that we spent a lot more money than intended.   

Imagine my astonishment, therefore, when arriving at Milan Centrale station to discover that although many regional trains were cancelled, not a single long distance train was cancelled and virtually all were running on time.  Had we simply taken no notice of the official advice about potential cancellations we would have arrived in Rome significantly earlier than we did.

 

3 replies

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  • Railmaster
  • August 4, 2026

That can always happen. The guaranteed trains are always running and in addition, more trains may be running if staff is available. I think the Trenitalia website will be up to date on the day, but I don't know how much time in advance.

In addition, if you hear about a strike, you always need to check which companies and which trains are involved.


ralderton
Railmaster
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  • Railmaster
  • August 4, 2026

Imagine my astonishment, therefore, when arriving at Milan Centrale station to discover that although many regional trains were cancelled, not a single long distance train was cancelled and virtually all were running on time.  Had we simply taken no notice of the official advice about potential cancellations we would have arrived in Rome significantly earlier than we did.

 

They publish a list of guaranteed trains, which will definitely run, but that’s not to say other trains won’t run. A strike day might even be cancelled.

The only thing you can do during disruption is keep checking, keep flexible, and avoid making any commitments/ non-flexible plans if you don’t have to. It sounds like at least you got certainty, which is valuable in itself, even if you did spend more than you wanted!


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  • Author
  • Full steam ahead
  • August 4, 2026

Once in Milan it is fairly straight forward to choose one of the guaranteed trains to get you onto your destination.  The problem was getting from France to Milan.  In the end I changed from taking the Frecciarossa from Lyon to Milano Centrale to taking the TGV from Chambery to Milano Porta Garibaldi on the assumption that this was more likely not to be impacted by the strike.