PWMTrav

I missed that news. I hope it comes to be - I never count on an Italian infrastructure project until it's finished! I'll do some googling, but any idea if the rail or the easements already exist?

KLouis

No, not yet, unfortunately.

Perche

I never bother with taking the Metro from Termini to Colosseo or Fori Imperiali It's a 15 minute walk, a nice one, that can be used to take a breath and enjoy a Prosecco and being in Rome. For Spagna, that's two train changes after arriving in Rome. I wouldn't consider a hotel out near Tiburtina. If you want to experience Rome, it's a one hour walk to get from Tiburtina to city center, such as to the Colosseo. It's over an hour walk to get from Tiburtina to the Pantheon, or Piaza Navona.

I would never consider staying way out in the Tiburtina area, so there is no reason to go out there to get a train. I like to stay near the Pantheon, or in the Monti area. Tiburtina is basically an hour away on foot from central Rome, so to do most things you are always dependent on cabs or the metro. The one or two euros that you save taking Italotreno is lost by having to take a cab or metro to go back and forth to interesting places in Rome, which is about 15 euros each way.

Forrest Bump

As mentioned no need a cab from Tiburtina only cause it's Tiburtina, since it's just few metro stops further from the old town than Termini. And in any case no one wants to walk dragging luggage from Termini station to Pantheon anyway.
Having said that Tiburtina has been developed and designed to reduce travel times on the north-south director, opposite to Termini that is a a head station.
It is not ideal lodging area by any means, like is not Termini.
Simply there's no reason to pick one or other based on mere logistic, IMHO, unless you're sleeping in the very proximity of the respective stations.
BTW Italo operates also in Termini, not only in Tiburtina.

KLouis

I think where one stays in Rome is, often, a matter of "taste". Just because it brings back fond memories from the time I lived in Rome, I stay close to Corso Trieste, i.e. really far from the centre. I would never send anybody there who wants to be near the tourist sights. Therefore, since Tiburtina and Termini are almost equidistant from my hotel, I prefer the former (when I take the train to Rome), because I arrive to my hotel about 15 minutes earlier.

I have another reason for preferring le Frecce to Italo: On two occasions when everything (and I mean really everything) was sold out, Trenitalia would let you know immediately while Italo's site would let you go through the whole booking process until you'd find out. Perhaps they've improved the process, I haven't bothered to check...

Perche

I know that Italotreno now has obtained the right to enter and depart from Termini, but it's a small win, because for many places, when they arrive, they are still having to leave you outside the city, as is the case to or from Florence to Rome, Milano to Torino, etc. Then, you have to switch and take Trenitalia or a regional the rest of the way, so why not just start with Trenitalia?

Exactly. Tiburtina is far away from the city sights. From Piazza Navona or Pantheon, it is another two stops on the train. Every night that you want to do something or stay out late, you have to take a train or cab home if you stay in a hotel near Tiburtina. Unless someone forces you to, why build a train station way out there? It is because Trenitalia had secured the written rights, and forced Italotreno to have in most cases, inferior locations.

Coming to Rome and staying around Tiburtina is like coming to visit NYC and staying in Queens.

Sure, if you are staying near the Pantheon and arrive at Termini or at Tiburtina, a cab will cost a similar price. But if you stay at a hotel near the Pantheon you do not have to take a cab or the Metro again, because you can walk to everything except perhaps the vatican. If you stay in a hotel at Tiburtino you are so far away that when you want to go out you have to call the front desk and ask them to get you a cab every time. And, unless you want to walk for an hour, you'll also have to call them to get you a cab to get home.

Tiburtina is off limits. The only reason Italotren built a train station way the heck out there is because it was the only place they could. I don't want to go to the outskirts of town to take a train that costs one euro less if afterward I have to spend 15 euros each way to get back and forth to the real city in a cab, or have to take the metro.

KLouis

I'm not writing in defense of the Tiburtino (the "o" for the area) but of the off-centre Rome: I could list several restaurants that are much, much better than the ones in the centre (my favourite one is in the Prenestino). Of course, most tourists will not go to them, even if indicated in tourist guides not only because of the price and the hassle (as Perche wrote) but because tourists have an inherent fear to leave the centres of foreign cities. In practical terms, therefore, Termini is the place.

Forrest Bump

Nobody is talking here about picking an hotel near Tiburtina.
We all agree it is pointless.
The topic is whether makes sense arrive/departure from Tiburtina, which on the contrary is perfectly logical.

Perche

Some have posted that they depart from Tiburtino because they stay at a hotel or an apartment near there.

People usually prefer the closest train station. For most of the hotels in Rome where someone is likely to stay (near Colosseo, Piazza Spagna, Forum, Barbarini, Vatican, Pantheon, Campo dei Fiori, Piazza Venezia, Navona, del Popolo, etc.,), Termini is the closest train station. Tiburtina is a longer walk, cab, or Metro ride.

Those staying near the Vatican, Piazza Barberini, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, the Spanish Steps, have to take two different trains to get to Tiburtina. Where do they have to change trains? At Termini. Someone staying near Colosseo or the Forum doesn't have to change trains, but they have to stop at Termini on their way to Tibertina outside the city center.

For those taking a cab, from most places it costs more to go to Tiburtina than to Termini, in some cases, almost twice as much.

The disadvantages of Italotreno have been only slightly overcome now that they depart from Roma Termini and go directly to Florence, Venice, Bologna, Naples, and a few other cities. I say only slightly because even though they now depart from Termini there are basically only two departures to the north, and two departures to the south, each day.

If you miss the 10:26 AM departure going South, you have to wait until 9:15 PM for the next one. If going North from Rome to Venice, Florence or Bologna and you miss the 6:40 AM train, you have to wait until 2:30 PM for the next one, and that's the last one. It's still only a skeletal service.

As with Tiburtina, Italotreno still sometimes suffers from unfavorable locations away from more central locations. If you want to go from Rome to Torino you have to get off in Milano at Garibaldi and take Italotreno to Torino Ponte Susa, then take the local train to Torino city center (Porta Nova). Or, you have to take the Milan local train from Garibaldi to Milano Centrale, and take Trenitalia to get to the center of Torino.

To me Tiburtina seems logical if going to the train station by cab from a hotel equidistant or closer than Termini, and that's generally not going to be the case. Or, if someone believes that the Italotreno experience is superior enough to warrant traveling outside Rome city center to get it, that's a matter of preference, not logic. I personally don't see enough difference between the two train systems to take the metro to Tiburtino outside the city center just to take Italotreno, to be dropped off on the outskirts of Torino.