In Italy, the rail tracks are sometimes tortuous: travelers learned on Friday that their high-speed train had left early in order to arrive… on time, we learned from the railway company on Monday .
On this day of transport strike Friday, Rome Termini station is teeming with anxious travelers. The Frecciargento (silver arrow) train No 8556 of the Trenitalia company is due to leave at 4:20 p.m. for Genoa. But when they were about to board, dozens of passengers searched in vain for him on the departure board, including a journalist from “La Stampa” who reported his misadventure in the columns of the daily on Monday.
To its banned customers, the Italian public company explains that the train left at 3:30 p.m., almost an hour early. As work on the Rome-Genoa high-speed line forced its “silver arrows” to take a slower route, it was decided to depart this train earlier to meet the planned arrival time.
According to “La Stampa”, the train left the capital half empty, a large number of travelers having not received the warning messages sent by the company on their mobile phones, which it denies, citing only a “ small number” of them.
In any case, “the statistics are saved: one less late train, one more train on time (if not early),” quips “La Stampa”.
A Trenitalia spokesperson told AFP that passengers remaining on the platform were able to take the next train at 4:57 p.m. Others were able to claim a refund for their ticket. According to the carrier, its medium and long distance lines recorded average delays of almost nine minutesregional trains of two minutes and international connections of approximately sept minutes.
