We coordinate our assistance services for persons with disability and reduced mobility from 16 SALA BLU offices

16 SALA BLU offices: central hubs of a reception and organisation system for a circuit of over 360 stations.

Local Sala Blu offices of RFI are found in 15 main stations, in addition to a National Sala Blu office, but it operates only by telephone and the web.

Sala Blu offices are open every day, including weekends and public holidays, from 6:45 am to 9:30 pm and provide information and bookings for assistance services, which can be provided round the clock at all stations in the network.

ASSISTANCE SERVICES ARE ADDRESSED TO:

1. Persons with limb issues, even temporary, and impaired mobility;
2. Wheelchair users;
3. Persons with visual impairments;
4. Persons with hearing impairments and/or communication issues;
5. Elderly people;
6. Pregnant women;
7. Persons with mental and/or intellectual disabilities.

For non-self-sufficient travellers, fruition of the journey and the provision of services may be conditional on the presence of a care giver or a personal assistant at the station.

Visually impaired travellers travelling with a guide dog may request, when booking, appropriate accommodation on board the train.

THE ASSISTANCE SERVICES CONSIST OF:

1. Reception at the station at the agreed meeting point or, for arriving travellers, at the occupied seat on board the train;
2. Accompanying the traveller  in the station, if requested, to collect the ticket;
3. Accompanying the traveller on board the departing train to their assigned seat, or from the arriving train to the station exit, or to the next train for those continuing the journey;
4. Availability, upon request, of a wheelchair for travelling to/from the train within the station;
5. For wheelchair users, assistance for boarding and alighting from the train by means of a platform lift or a platform ramp;
6. Transport service for one piece of hand luggage (1 item), on request.

BOOK BY PHONE OR IN PERSON

Reservations can be made, during the Sale Blu opening hours (from 6:45 am to 9:30 pm daily, even on public holidays), by contacting the company you have chosen to travel with, or by going to one of the Sale Blu offices in person, or by calling:

1. the toll-free number reachable from a landline in Italy: 800 90 60 60
2. or the national standard-rate number reachable from fixed and mobile phones and from abroad +39 02 32 32 32

Booking times:

For 'Fast' stations

• Reservation up to 1 hour before train departure/arrival, for services between 07:45 and 22:30

• Reservation at least 12 hours before train departure/arrival for services between 22:31 and 07:44

• FAST stations: Bologna Centrale AV, Civitavecchia, Fiumicino Aeroporto, Genova Brignole, Genova Piazza Principe Sotterranea, Milano Porta Garibaldi, Milano Porta Garibaldi Sotterranea, Napoli Afragola, Napoli Piazza Garibaldi, Padova, Palermo Centrale, Pisa Centrale, Roma Tiburtina, Salerno, Torino Porta Susa, Villa San Giovanni and Venezia Mestre, and all stations where Sala Blu offices are located 

For 'Standard' stations

• Reservation at least 12 working hours before train departure/arrival time; working hours are the opening hours of Sala Blu offices.

When travelling between a fast station and a standard station, reservations by phone must be booked at least 12 working hours before the train departure/arrival at the standard station. 

BOOK BY E-MAIL

Reservations can be made by e-mail, by writing to one of the 15 Sale Blu - preferably the one responsible for the departing station - or to the National Sala Blu.

The request must state:

1. All departure, arrival and/or possible interchange stations;
2. The date of the journey details;
3. The train and/or train combination selected;
4. The type of assistance required (specifying whether you need a platform lift, whether you use your own wheelchair or require one provided by RFI, whether you have a companion with you, and any other useful information);
5. The telephone number at which you can be contacted in good time for travel arrangements, if necessary. 

Requests can be sent 24/7/365, up to 6 hours before the train departure. All requests will be dealt with during the Sale Blu opening hours.

Confirmation of the booking is subject to compliance with the minimum advance notification required for organizing the service (which differ between Fast Stations and Other Stations).

The Sale Blu offices guarantee feedback in good time to enable travel, if the service is confirmed.

BOOK WITH SALABLU ONLINE

SalaBlu online is Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI) web service that allows you, after registering on the www.salabluonline.rfi.it portal, to request a train journey planning, with or without RFI assistance, by filling in a simple web form.

Requests can be sent 24/7/365, up to 3 working hours before the train departure. Working hours are the opening hours of Sala Blu offices.

Confirmation of the booking is subject to compliance with the minimum advance notification required for organizing the service (which differ between Fast Stations and Other Stations).

The Sala Blu offices guarantee feedback in good time to enable travel, if the service is confirmed.

Registration on the Sala Blu Online portal allows the traveller's data to be recognised and pre-filled even when using other request channels for subsequent trips, e.g. by providing only an email address or telephone number, and to consult the requests’ status.

SalaBlu Online complies with the accessibility guidelines published by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), as certified by the ASPHI Onlus Foundation.

BOOK WITH SALABLU+ APP

SalaBlu+ is the Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI) app, downloadable on smartphones and tablets, which allows persons with disabilities and reduced mobility to:

• Request a train journey planning, with or without RFI assistance

• Consult any requested journeys from the app or other contact channels

• Book a journey independently (unassisted and unreported to a Sala Blu office), with the option of receiving notifications and real-time updates on train status

• Consult the departure/arrival boards of any station

• Request to be called back during the journey by telephone call or web chat.

Requests can be sent 24/7/365, up to 3 working hours before the train departure. Working hours are the opening hours of Sala Blu offices.

Confirmation of the booking is subject to compliance with the minimum advance notification required for organizing the service (which differ between Fast Stations and Other Stations).

The Sala Blu offices guarantee feedback in good time to enable travel, if the service is confirmed.

SalaBlu+ is an application that complies with the accessibility guidelines published by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), as certified by the ASPHI Onlus Foundation.

FOR PERSONS WITH HEARING DISABILITIES

A web chat is available to dialogue directly with the Sale Blu and request assistance or service information.

The Service follows the same opening hours as the Sale Blu offices (06:45  to 21:30, daily).

The service can be activated by registering at SalaBlu online.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Confirmation of reservation: Requests for assistance, regardless of the method of contact, are subject to compliance with the minimum advance notification required for the stations involved in the journey, and with the Sala Blu offices opening hours.

Interchange timing in case of multi-legs journey: in case your journey requires one or more interchanges, 30 minutes are necessary to manage the different boarding and alighting phases. Exceptions to this timing can be authorised by Sala Blu offices only exceptionally.

Meeting at the station: Report to the meeting point at least 30 minutes before the train departure. You will spot RFI’s personnel easily, as they wear an orange vest with the PRM service logo.

Cancellationn: In the event of cancellation of the trip, notify the Sala Blu office at least 4 hours in advance, by telephone, e-mail or web chat (if you have requested the assistance service).

Modifications to the reservation: If you modify your journey plans, with a consequent change of stations or trains, you must contact the Sala Blu office with the same advance notification as for new requests.

Notifying the cancellation or change of a reservation in good time is essential to enable RFI to offer the service to other travellers and to optimise resources.

Personal data are processed in accordance with European Regulation No. 679/2016 (GDPR): read the privacy policy.

REGION BY REGION

Discover the stations where the assistance service is present. Visit the page and check if there are any changes lasting to the accessibility in your station of interest.

For the international journeys

The requests for assistance should be sent preferably by e-mail to the Sala Blu offices for the stations where the chosen trains stop, or to the National Sala Blu office (salablu.nazionale@rfi.it) at least 24 hours before the journey, considering that this notice could be extended to 48 hours for travelling to or from stations of foreign countries that apply different notice periods.

For groups of passengers with disability or reduced mobility

For group of 3 or more persons, the assistance reservation must be made at least 24 hours in advance of the train's departure time. This is required to allow Railway Undertaking to verify the availabilty of seats onboard of the train.

Crossing the Strait of Messina

For travels crossing the Strait of Messina with Blu Jet fast ships, it is possible to request the assistance service, from the arrival time at the railway station to the boarding point, and vice versa, with an intermodal transfer between train and ship. The service should preferably be requested by sending an e-mail to the Sala Blu in Messina (salablu.messina@rfi.it) or to the Sala Blu in Reggio Calabria (salablu.reggiocalabria@rfi.it) at least 24 hours before the scheduled arrival time at the interchange station, or with the standard times foreseen by the different procedures for requesting the service and/or by the type of station. 

Integrated train/air assistance service at Torino Aeroporto

An integrated assistance service is active at Torino Aeroporto, completely free of charge, for passengers with disabilities and reduced mobility.

The initiative was born from a collaboration agreement signed between SAGAT, the company that manages Torino Aeroporto and RFI with the aim of providing continuity in assistance to PRMs in transit from train to plane and vice versa.

Passengers arriving by train and departing by plane will be welcomed by RFI assistance staff directly at the Torino Aeroporto station and accompanied to the meeting point with SAGAT staff who will complete the assistance at the airport.

Passengers arriving by plane and departing by train, from their disembarkation, will be accompanied to baggage claim and finally to the meeting point with RFI assistance staff, who, based on the traveler's needs, will support him/her in the climb. and in the accommodation on board the train.

The booking of the integrated train-air assistance service, carried out through RFI's Sala Blu, does not however replace the request to the airline, to be made at the time of purchasing the plane ticket.

For all information on the assistance services offered by SAGAT, please refer to the official section of their website -> Passengers with reduced mobility (PRM) | SAGAT (aeroportoditorino.it)

To book the PRM TRAIN/AIRLINE service

The assistance service at the Torino Aeroporto station can be requested with a minimum notice of 12 hours and can be carried out through all the contact channels made available by RFI:

1. directly at one of our Sale Blu, open every day, including holidays, from 06.45 to 21.30;
2. by e-mail writing to salablu.torino@rfi.it;
3. by telephone: 800 90 60 60, toll-free number reachable from a landline in Italy; +39 02 32 32 32, ordinary toll number reachable from mobile phones and from abroad;
4. through the Sala Blu Online – https://salabluonline.rfi.it;
5. through the official Sala Blu+ app available for iOS e Android.

At the time of the request, passengers must specify that he wishes to use the integrated train-air assistance service, so as to identify the meeting point with SAGAT and must communicate the alphanumeric code of the flight with which he arrives/departs, indicated on the flight booking ( e.g. flight departing to Nice at 16:30 AZ354; flight arriving from Bristol at 17:00 EZY6186).

In consideration of the times necessary for the execution of the assistance services and for the check-in phases, it is necessary to arrive at the Torino Aeroporto station at least two hours (three hours in the case of international travel) before the scheduled departure time of the flight.

To encourage mobility and the use of station services by all passengers we are committed every day to making the routes in the station increasingly usable and to offering dedicated assistance services

For passengers in wheelchairs, or in any case unable to use stairs, independent access to trains along the station platforms presupposes that they can be reached via a barrier-free route (on level ground / with a lift / with a ramp) and that there is no inhomogeneity between the height of the platform platform and the train carriage level.

Before traveling it is therefore advisable to obtain information:

1. relating to the height of the carriage level of the chosen train, by contacting the railway company,
2. relating to the scheduled track, by consulting the "Online Timetables" service on which it is also possible to check whether the chosen train is equipped with a carriage equipped for the transport of passengers in wheelchairs

Any temporary out-of-service of the lifts could cause changes to the level of accessibility of the station. The unavailability of lifts and ramps are communicated online as soon as possible.

Compensation according to TRA Resolution 106/2018 in the event of failure to comply with the deadlines communicated for repairing faulty lifts

In accordance with Italian Transport Authority Resolution no. 106 of 25 October 2018, RFI undertakes to pay compensation to disabled and reduced mobility passengers using transport services subject to public service obligations (PSO) if, in the event of lifts not working for a period longer than 24 hours at the stations managed by RFI, the deadlines for their repair communicated or amended by the station manager are not met.

To request compensation, the passenger with disabilities or reduced mobility must submit a claim, indicating the identification references of the journey (date, time of departure, origin, destination, train number and PNR or ticket/season ticket code which will subsequently be requested) and providing all the information useful for the evaluation of the request for compensation, through the following methods:

1. the "RFI responds" channel, accessible from the www.rfi.it homepage 

 or, alternatively

2. registered mail, by filling in the specific form available on the Claims and Reports page, to be sent to the following address: RFI. S.p.A., c.a. Regulatory Affairs and Antitrust Infrastructure Hub - Passenger Rights, Piazza della Croce Rossa no. 1, 00161, Rome.

If the passenger has purchased an integrated ticket that also includes the use of transport services not subject to public service obligations, the compensation will be calculated by taking as a reference the cost of the ticket limited to the route covered by the PSO services.

Within 30 calendar days from the day the claim is sent via the RFI responds digital channel or from the day of receipt of the registered letter, the passenger will be notified of the outcome of the request and, if accepted, of the methods and time of payment of the indemnity (in any case no later than 60 calendar days from acceptance of the request).

Passenger rights related to claim management are indicted on the Claims and Reports page as well as in the specific section called Claims and Reports of the RFI Service Charter.

The compensation is calculated according to the criteria shown in the table below, which are based on the parameters indicated by the Italian Transport Authority.

The Services Charter is the document with which we officially declare each year the performance and quality commitments of our services of major importance to the public.

Grouped into 6 macro-areas, our services are presented in these pages together with the results achieved and the objectives set in relation to the quality factors indicated by the regulations on the service charters of the transport sector, broken down according to the specific responsibilities of the company and assessed by means of indicators of the quality offered and perceived, which are constantly monitored through customer satisfaction surveys and monitoring carried out both internally and by third parties. The complete document, in a printable version, also offers a brief presentation of our Company, our processes and channels for dialogue with the public, and the customer satisfaction monitoring methodology.

The complete document, in a printable version, also offers a concise presentation of our Company, our processes and channels of dialogue with the public, and the methodology for monitoring customer satisfaction.