Italian night train services Rome – Sicily will be reduced

Press Release FS Group: Night Rome – Sicily: merging trains, no cuts

It is not true that Trenitalia is about to cancel the Intercity Night links between Sicily and Rome, as it has been written and announced in recent days by some media.

From the current four trains (two Intercity Night Rome – Sicily and two Sicily – Rome) the future will bring two daily trains, one from and to the island, always departing from Siracusa and Palermo in two sections that join and disembark at Messina.

The only motivation that drives this option is a more rational use of public resources, given that in the first eight months of the year the occupancy of these trains, except for a few days, has been less than 50%.

The remodeling would involve the merging of the two trains in a single multi-carrier train (with more cars and a capacity of 792 seats) not only able to satisfy the demand extensively until today, but to absorb more . In any case, in the periods of the year where demand is commonly grown (summer, Christmas and Easter holidays), would be an ad hoc extraordinary offer.

There is therefore no justification for fears about a gradual cutback of medium / long distance links to and from Sicily. Indeed, the new Public Service Agreement between the State and Trenitalia has identified and secured the financial resources necessary to preserve the existing standards and more for the entire Intercity Day and Night Offer.