World Travel Guide

City Guide  - Milan  - Rail
Rail

The main station in Milan is the Stazione Centrale, which has high-speed links to other major cities in Italy including Bologna, Venice, Genoa, Turin, Florence and Rome. The vast neo-Babylonian façade dates from the 1930s, dwarfing the ticket offices below from where escalators rise to the platforms and shops. Facilities include a tourist information office (tel: (02) 72 52 43 60), post office, bank and self-service restaurant. Full business facilities are available from Eurostar Club (tel: (02) 66 98 10 13; fax: (02) 67 07 73 55), which offers four conference rooms (16 to 200 people), workstations, fax, copiers and translation services. Membership for six months costs L80,000. Hertz and Maggiore have offices by the Air Terminal (eastern flank of the station), where the buses for Linate and Malpensa depart. The Metro station at Stazione Centrale, on lines 2 (green) and 3 (yellow), is known as Centrale FS.

Milan has ten other stations mostly feeding commuter routes. Porta Garibaldi has useful services to Varese, Bergamo and Cremona. Trains from Cadorna run by Ferrovie Nord Milano (FNM) include the Malpensa Express and regional services to Como. The Italian state railway, Ferrovie dello Stato runs the rest (tel: 1478 88088, local information; web site: www.fs-on-line.com). Trains are reliable and fairly priced, although hefty supplements can be added depending on the type of train (Diretto, Inter-Regionale, InterCity or Eurostar). By law, all train tickets must be validated by stamping them in the yellow machines on the platform before boarding; failure to do so can result in a large fine.

Rail services:
The direct Rome-Milan service between Italy's most important business centres is fast and reliable. Services include the InterCity (5 hours 38 minutes to Rome) and the luxurious Treno Eurostar, which links Milan to Rome (4 hours and 30 minutes) via Bologna and Florence - each service requires supplements. For ports, there are regular trains to Venice (2 hours 40 minutes) and Genoa (1 hour 34 minutes).

The EuroCity train service links Milan to more than 40 other European destinations, including Paris, Basel and Brussels.

Transport to the city:
The Stazione Centrale is 30 minutes' walk from the city's key attractions. Visitors should take a taxi, the Metro (yellow line 3) or ATM bus 60. Cadorna (for those arriving on the Malpensa Express) is on Metro line 1 (red).



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