Originally Posted by bdemaria

A lot of this depends on the type of train you take. Roman commuter trains are notorious for being late. Int'l trains can be tricky as well. However, the Italian ES system runs on time. On the rare chance is isn't on time and you are more than 30 minutes late, you get an immediate cash refund of 50% of the cost of your ticket. In 10+ years of riding the ES, approximately 10 round trips a year, I have qualified for the rebate 1 time. In all other instances I have arrived early, on time or w/in 5 minutes of the scheduled arrival.