Italy: Train tickets: reservation and payments

The official website of Italian railways can be found at: http://www.ferroviedellostato.it. There you can browse route options and timetable as well as purchase your train ticket! However, payments by credit card are not always successful! You may find yourself struggling with registration, credit card processing and eventually failure.

A new payment option has been recently added to the site: now you can make your train ticket reservation without registering or using your credit card as you will be given the option (once in Italy) to make the payment cash at one of the many shops in Italy that are connected with the SISAL network! (most Tobacco shops)

You can also pay directly at train stations (cash or credit card), or at any ATM of UniCredit bank network (using your credit card)

To complete the payment (at the latest 24h prior time of departure of your train) you will only need the PNR code that is associated with your on-line reservation! At the moment this seems to be the easiest way to go!

A technology that would improve this system would be 2D barcodes that would be read by portable barcode-readers. After purchasing your ticket on-line you would receive the 2D bar-code as image on your cell phone. It would be enough to hand the cell phone to the employee on the train and have your payment verified. Check NeoMedia Technologies company (http://www.neom.com) as they are working on developing this technology that could be applyed to anything! From tickets for concerts, to bus tickets, to shopping and gift certificates... and anything else you can think of! In case you loose your cell phone it would be enough to call the operator to have all of your purchases and money blocked from being spent! The system would transfer your purchases and credit to another SIM card! No more woollett or cash! No more risk of carrying cash as you would be able organize your e-Woollett from a PC or from your smart phone!