Traveling to Calabria by train during the Christmas period is «a Wild West with abnormal increases in tickets of up to 96.66%» going from “railway lounges at 430 euros per person to travel times of up to 20 hours and 25 minutes”. This is what it highlights Federconsumatori Calabria which prepared the annual survey of travel offers to Calabria in the run-up to Christmas. Train travel offers were sampled for Saturday 21 December 2024 with multiple detections made between November 8th and 26th. The survey, it is written in a note, examined 994 train travel proposals: 897 Trenitalia and 97 Italo from 7 departure locations (Genoa, Milan, Turin, Bologna, Florence, Rome and Naples) towards 7 destinations of the Calabria (Scalea, Paola, Lamezia, Vibo-Pizzo, Rosarno, Villa S. Giovanni and Reggio Calabria) which serve the Tyrrhenian ridge and from which connections to the hinterland and the Ionian coast extend. The survey, explains Federconsumatori, «highlighted the abnormal push for increases compared to August 2024 and the marked differentiation between the comfortable and short trip for the wealthier pockets and the “odyssey” trip for those who, unable to organize departure well in advance, taking advantage of the discounts, will have to endure travel times of up to 20 hours and 25 minutes for a Turin Reggio Calabria in Intercity”.
On 8 November, the first survey of the Survey, Italo’s travel proposals for reaching destinations in Calabria for 21 December were 50% available (56 out of 113). As of 26 November, of the 897 total Trenitalia solutions from the 7 cities sampled to the 7 destinations in Calabria, 58% of the total were bookable, almost all with more changes and longer travel times; however, only 8.36% of the direct arrows were available, without changes, equal to 76 solutions: from Genoa 0, from Milan 14, from Turin 3, from Bologna 22, from Florence 10, from Rome 20, from Naples 6.
Regarding Trenitalia, Federconsumatori reports, the average increase in December over August 2024 is 66.9% towards all destinations: towards Reggio Calabria: +64.68% from Milan, +57.26% from Turin, +96.66% from Bologna, +69.71% from Florence, +61.18% from Rome, +51.76% from Naples. The average Italo Smart increases is 30.4% in December on August 2024 towards all destinations: Italo towards Reggio Calabria +41.46% from Milan, +45.56% from Turin, +20.93% from Bologna, +26, 13% from Florence, +14.31% from Rome, +34.12% from Naples. «The increases recorded for trips to Reggio – it is written in the note – uniformly affect all the other 6 Calabrian destinations».