Information on train timetables and progress - disseminated primarily in stations and more and more so on web and digital channels - is an indispensable element of rail transport accessibility.

Information to the public in stations, available to all those who access rail transport regardless of their degree of digitalisation, is the backbone of communication on train operations, and RFI is increasingly investing in resources and professional solutions, both in terms of technology and tools, and in terms of organisation and communication methods.

On the technological front, RFI is gradually implementing throughout the network the new IeC (Information and Communication) system (already present in 435 stations) which, borrowing from traffic management systems, provides for all information concerning the same train to be distributed at the same time from a ‘central post’ to all stations connected to it. The aim is to switch to an integrated system not limited to providing punctual information related to individual trains, but rather concerning the railway service in its entirety, which can guarantee the dissemination of increasingly timely, complete and consistent news, especially in the case of critical traffic issues.

Alongside technological development, the Company is committed to improving the tools and methods of presentation of sound and visual messages to make them more clear, effective and usable. Last year, the Loudspeaker Announcement Manual (Manuale degli annunci sonori - MAS) was updated, with the aim of making information on critical traffic situations more effective, simple and dynamic in the face of a significant reduction in 'ordinary' sound messages. With regard to visual information at the station, there is a programme underway to renovate the monitors and other peripherals, and the way in which the 'train list' is presented. Precisely to improve the quality and timeliness of the audio and visual information to be provided in critical traffic conditions, a new information system is already active at the Roma Termini, Milano Centrale and Venezia Santa Lucia stations. In the event of heavily slowed traffic and consequent activation of the 'IaP Crisis' mode, some station devices will display, with new graphics, a list of departures that highlights only those trains departing in the next 15 minutes.

In 2024, various initiatives will be carried out to inform travellers in good time about any changes to traffic, both at the station and via the institutional website and other digital channels. On the institutional website, www.rfi.it, after having made the information conveyed at the station available online, with the Live Arrivals and Departures Monitors, the information services on real-time traffic conditions dedicated to Infomobility have been further developed.

In parallel, online information on the station’s accessibility for People with Disabilities and Persons with Reduced Mobility is constantly evolving, by publishing all information on accessibility services/equipment, as well as on the unavailability and restoration times of lifts and ramps to the platforms, on a station-by-station basis.