Originally Posted by
sophiesophie
I had bought a book to read on the plane about train travel in Italy. I learned something that I had not read about before. When you buy your train ticket, if it is paper, you still have to have it validated. There are white or green machines on the track aisles. If it is not validated, I think you can use your ticket on another day. But if it is validated, then it is a used ticket and can't be used again. The book mentioned that if you are on the train and it is not validated, the conductor can fine you - which they like to do to foreigners! I have read differing rules online, though. When in doubt, validate! I would think Perche can better explain it.
Ticket validation on trains is very important to understand because 95% of the time someone will come by to check your ticket, and if it is one that is supposed to be validated and you didn't, each passenger will get a big fine.
Pleading ignorance won't sway the conductor. I have only seen that work twice, and I've seen a lot of people get fined. Once there were a number of bilingual passengers in the coach, and an unknowing tourist obviously not trying to rip off the train hadn't validated her ticket. As she tried to explain it to the Italian-speaking only conductor many of the bilingual Italians in the coach started haranguing him, demanding that he let her go, and with great reluctance, he did. The second time was me on a local train from Parma to Modena. I simply forgot. And I think I was the only one in the coach. I had a lengthy argument with the conductor telling him I just forgot, plain and simple, and I'm not paying. He finally said, "I believe you," gave me a stern lecture, and let me go.
The validation rule is simple. On the major trains the ticket has a date, a time, the number of the carriage you are assigned to, and your seat assignment. There is no way you can use that ticket again and again and again because the ticket is for a particular seat on a particular train on a particular date and time. If you try to reuse the ticket the next day the conductor can see that, and will fine you. No need to validate a ticket if it has a date and time on it.
Local trains do not have a date and a time on the ticket. You can buy it and use it A month later. Before you get on the train, however, you must validate it by sticking it in the machine that stamps the date and time on it. That means that if you use that ticket today, you can't use it tomorrow because the conductor will see that it was already used yesterday. If you don't date/time stamp your ticket before getting on the train the conductor will assume you bought a ticket and are trying to use the same ticket day after day.
So, the rule is simple. If your ticket has a date, time, and assigned seat, you are riding on a train where you don't need to validate your ticket. If you have a general ticket without a date and time, as with local trains, you must validate it. Validation just means sticking it in the machine that will put a date and time on it so that you have to use it that day, and if you try to use the same ticket the next day, the conductor will know and will fine you.