Old Yard Dog
Established Member
- Joined
- 21 Aug 2011
- Messages
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Why does the ticketing system make it so difficult for visitors to use public transport in Italy?
I wanted to travel from Malpensa to San Donato Milanese changing from the Malpensa Express to line S1 at Boviso. The Trenord websites showed no through ticketing option, even though both services are run by the same company.
The chap at the Malpensa ticket office sold me a ticket to "Milan" and said I could use to it to San Donato Milanese. I queried this as I knew the latter was juts outside the Milan urban ticketing area (unlike San Donato metro station whic is inside). I was told to ask again at Boviso.
I then got fined 5 euros as I hadn't validated my ticket correctly, there being two machines, one yellow and one green, neither of which seemed to work. But the conductor again thought I could use the same ticket to SDM. But when I asked again at Boviso, they said no and sold me a 2.10 euro ticket for the second leg. Everybody then stands around the departure board waiting for the S1 platform to be displayed. This didn't happen till 2 mins before departure, when a big scramble down the steps ensued.
On arrival, I found San Donato Milanese to be a forlorn graffiti infested station with not a ticket office or ticket machine in sight (even thought it's only 6 years old). So what do people starting from there do?
Buying bus tickets at San Donato is also a nightmare as there are lots of different operators and it is far from clear whether standard ATM tickets, bought from the nearest tobacconists, are valid or not. In the event, there was a strike the next day so I ended up using very expensive taxis.
I wanted to travel from Malpensa to San Donato Milanese changing from the Malpensa Express to line S1 at Boviso. The Trenord websites showed no through ticketing option, even though both services are run by the same company.
The chap at the Malpensa ticket office sold me a ticket to "Milan" and said I could use to it to San Donato Milanese. I queried this as I knew the latter was juts outside the Milan urban ticketing area (unlike San Donato metro station whic is inside). I was told to ask again at Boviso.
I then got fined 5 euros as I hadn't validated my ticket correctly, there being two machines, one yellow and one green, neither of which seemed to work. But the conductor again thought I could use the same ticket to SDM. But when I asked again at Boviso, they said no and sold me a 2.10 euro ticket for the second leg. Everybody then stands around the departure board waiting for the S1 platform to be displayed. This didn't happen till 2 mins before departure, when a big scramble down the steps ensued.
On arrival, I found San Donato Milanese to be a forlorn graffiti infested station with not a ticket office or ticket machine in sight (even thought it's only 6 years old). So what do people starting from there do?
Buying bus tickets at San Donato is also a nightmare as there are lots of different operators and it is far from clear whether standard ATM tickets, bought from the nearest tobacconists, are valid or not. In the event, there was a strike the next day so I ended up using very expensive taxis.
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