Usually regional trains have short routes. But the regional train with the longest route in Italy leaves from Milan. A journey that goes all the way to central Italy on the Adriatic coast: over 500 km and nearly 8 hours of travel time. To be exact, a 522km-long route that crosses 4 regions with 30 stops in between including terminuses.
It passes through Lombardy, Emilia Romagna, Marche to arrive in Abruzzo.
The regional train with the longest route in Italy leaving from Milan
It leaves early in the morning from Stazione Centrale and in almost 8 hours you get down to Pescara, all by regional train starting from Milan. The stops are:
- Lodi and Codogno in Lombardy;
- Piacenza, Fiorenzuola, Fidenza, Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Bologna Centrale, Imola, Faenza, Forlì, Cesena, Rimini, Rimini-Miramare, Riccione and Cattolica-S-Giovanni-Gabicce in Emilia Romagna;
- Pesaro, Senigallai, Ancona, Camerano Aspio, Loreto, Porto Recanati, Civitanova Marche-Montegranaro, Porto S. Giorgio-Fermo, and S. Benedetto Del Tronto in the Marche region;
- Alba Adriatica-Nereto-Controguerra and Giulianova in Abruzzo.
It leaves around 6:30 a.m. with train 2493 to arrive by early afternoon. A solution that applies only on Saturdays according to what can be verified on Trenitalia‘s website.
However, there is to specify that the Milan-Pescara is the regional train with the longest route from Milan, but in Italy there is another long route carried out not by high speed: the Turin-Ancona. Its route is about 491 km. The journey time in this case is 6 hours and 26 minutes, with a total of 29 stops.
For sure, regionals do not have the same comfort as a high-speed train, they are slower and more prone to cancellations and delays, but they definitely offer cost savings. Those who like to travel by train may find this a viable alternative.