FCE Circumetnea railway

[ChrisDY10]

Does anyone know if the narrowguage Circumetnea service is currently operating? The FCE website is very confusing. I can’t work out if the columns headed ‘SOST treni’ are trains or rail replacement buses. Any insights would be very gratefully received as I plan on traveling tomorrow or Thursday!

 

[eastwestdivide]

Sost would be sostituivo = substitute, presumably a bus.
The timetables at https://www.circumetnea.it/le-nostre-linee/
appear to show, for the anticlockwise direction, trains running Linguaglossa-Randazzo-Paternò, and bus(?) substitutes, very few, Riposto-Giarre-Linguaglossa-Randazzo.

while the metro in Catania doesn’t reach Paternò, only Monte Po (bus between there and Paternò?)

But I wouldn’t be sure.

edit: the Italian version of the wikipedia page doesn’t shed any light, and nor does ferrovie.it, which has lots pf news items on Italian rail.
edit2: I agree the website is confusing, unfortunately typical for smaller operators in Italy.
would @D6130 have any insight?

 

[30907]

Sost would be sostituivo = substitute, presumably a bus.
The timetables at https://www.circumetnea.it/le-nostre-linee/
appear to show, for the anticlockwise direction, trains running Linguaglossa-Randazzo-Paternò, and bus(?) substitutes, very few, Riposto-Giarre-Linguaglossa-Randazzo.

while the metro in Catania doesn’t reach Paternò, only Monte Po (bus between there and Paternò?)

The RRBs Paterno-Nessima Metro are in the PDF of bus services, the very last item. Not exactly helpful!

 

[ChrisDY10]

Thanks for the replies. Am going to go for the 1215 bus from the Nesima metro stop. Wish me luck!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 18 Feb 2026 ==

To confirm the service is running as per the timetables on the FCE website. Replacement bus from Nesima Meteo station to Paterno, train from there to Randazzo, another train from Randazzo to Linguaglossa and then a final rail replacement bus from there to Riposto. A bargain at €7.90 for the whole trip including the metro ride out to Nesima. Fantastic scenery and views of Etna and highly recommended despite the faff