Italy braces for nationwide rail strike in final weekend of February

Italy is bracing for a 24-hour national rail strike from Friday night into Saturday, capping a week of transport disruption that begins with an aviation walkout on Thursday.

Italy’s rail network is set for a full day of disruption at the end of February, with a 24-hour national strike planned from 21:00 on Friday 27 February to 20:59 on Saturday 28 February. The stoppage follows a separate 24-hour strike in the aviation sector on Thursday 26 February, originally scheduled for mid-month but was postponed after Transport Minister Matteo Salvini requested a delay so it would not coincide with the Milan–Cortina Winter Olympics.

Union messaging around the action points to a broad mix of grievances, including working conditions and safety, with particular attention to rostering and on-call regimes for crews, pay and contract issues, and calls for stronger protection for frontline staff amid concerns about assaults and security risks.

The strike is set to affect services run by the FS Italiane Group, including Trenitalia and infrastructure manager RFI, as well as Trenord, with Italo also flagged as potentially impacted. With multiple staff groups involved, disruption risk spans the high-speed, Intercity, regional and freight networks. Operators have also warned that changes can extend beyond the official start and end times, as diagrams are reworked and services are adjusted around the stoppage.

What services can passengers expect in Italy?

For passengers, the practical reality is that cancellations and timetable changes are likely, particularly on Saturday, and that only guaranteed services should be treated as certain. Under Italy’s strike rules, operators must still provide minimum services. For Trenitalia and Trenitalia Tper regional transport, essential trains are protected on weekdays in two windows, 06:00–09:00 and 18:00–21:00, with region-by-region lists published online. For medium- and long-distance services, operators publish dedicated lists of guaranteed trains in advance; in the long-distance guaranteed table, only 115 train numbers are explicitly protected. 

There are also specific rules for trains already in motion when the strike begins. Services underway may continue to their final destination if it can be reached within one hour of the strike start; otherwise, trains may terminate early at an intermediate station.

Trenord publishes its own guaranteed service information and has also flagged contingency measures for airport links, including replacement buses if rail services are suspended. Passengers are being advised to check operator websites and apps before travelling, especially for late Friday departures and early Saturday journeys, and to allow for knock-on disruption either side of the strike window.