For hundreds of Sicilians away from home, the click day for the Sicilia Express was supposed to represent a rare opportunity to return at Christmas without being faced with the choice between affection and crazy prices. Everything was ready: computers turned on and waiting for midday on December 13th, the moment set for the opening of sales. There were just over 1,100 low-cost tickets up for grabs, with prices between 24.90 and 29.90 euros, for departures on 20 and 27 December.
Instead, suddenly, the postponement arrived, announced a few hours before the opening of sales which never happened: no tickets, no reservations, just frustration. A postponement that transformed an already insufficient initiative into a genuine institutional failure. The official explanation came via an online notice that spoke of technical problems and a misalignment of the sales systems. The new date set is Tuesday 16 December at 10 am. But here, more than a technical error, it is yet another management that deliberately ignores people’s real lives.
Calling it a disservice is an understatement. We’re talking about humiliation here. Hundreds of students and workers who were competing for just over 1,100 places, a ridiculous figure compared to the real demand, received in exchange a cold, impersonal message, which postponed everything to four days before departure. A timing that makes any planning impossible, forcing many to give up or turn to flights at out-of-control prices.
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A buffer train that doesn’t save anyone, on the contrary
In a normal country, an extraordinary train would be an integration. In Sicily it has become a punctured dinghy. Flights from Turin, Milan or Bologna easily exceed 400 euros, often without luggage. Those who are unable to get on the Sicilia Express – the majority – remain hostages of the market. Talking about success while forcing citizens to choose between going into debt or staying away from their family is absurd to say the least.
Rebounds of responsibility and deafening silences
In the meantime, the Sicilian Region has opted out, placing the responsibility on Fs Treni Turistici Italiani. The objective of the initiative, they explain, was ambitious: to double the races compared to the previous year. However, authorization delays and organizational problems have produced the opposite effect, generating confusion and anger among users.
A classic Italian-style rebound of responsibility, in short. The result does not change: no one is responsible for the inconvenience, no one pays the price for this disgrace. Meanwhile, public investments are being celebrated to make travel “pleasant”, when the problem is not entertainment, but access to the right to move itself.
The Codacons complaint and the reality ignored
Codacons says it clearly: there is nothing to celebrate. Forcing thousands of people to travel 20 hours in 2025 is not territorial continuity, it is surrender. Sicilia Express does not solve the problem, it certifies it. It is proof that Sicily has stopped demanding structural policies, settling for stopgap solutions described as conquests. For many, this Christmas will mean absence, debt or both. A total failure.
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