Public transportation in Rome, Italy

[james84]

Hello all,
I am quite angry tonigh. I was going to work today. I usually take the underground and it takes me some 30 minutes to get to my office.
Recently the city council approved an increase in the prices of tickets, definitely due to an inefficient management, and to cover the costs of three new stations which took 7 years (!) to be built.
One would expect an improvement in the services, but this didn't happen. Moreover, they have no personnel to check the tickets and people board buses without printing them.
Well, I got to my station, got off the train, then off the station and started to walk on a small bridge to cross the tracks. The marble was slippery because it was raining. When I got to the other side I took the stairs down and slipped on the very last step, hitting its very edge with my back. There were NO anti-slip strips on the steps!
I managed to get to my office but had to quit after a couple of hours and call my father to take me to the hospital to get some medical attention. Luckily no broken bones, but I ended up with a huge blunt trauma on the left side of my back. I was lucky not to have any backbone trauma too, that's what frightened me the most.
So here is what my town offers in terms of public transportation. Please comment






Sorry for this (righteous, I reckon) outburst, but I cannot stand how this city works.

[bismarck]

...and.... how many time did you wait at the hospital?....

[james84]

Not much, luckily... I was at home for lunch!

[Stewart Pearson]

Sue them Giacomo!

[james84]

Sue them Giacomo!

I would like to, but nobody witnessed the accident, I was alone! If I do, they could as well tell me it occurred underneath my house! I decided I will take some photos in the next few days and mail them to the public transportation agency and suggest some intervention (and some newspapers too).
Today I went to work with no problem (BY CAR!!!), but if I think that the impact could damage my backbone if I just hit the step slightly differently, and given the fact that I didn't fell on my head... I think some kind of miracle happened!

[james84]

Here is where I fell

[sprocky]

It does not really look different than public transportation in Germany. Well, there are exceptions. But especially in bigger cities the stations not frequented by tourists look horrible and also have a strong smell.

Here is a pic I took on a central station on a Sunday 2:30 a.m. Its not Germany but you may guess where I took it

[james84]

It does not really look different than public transportation in Germany. Well, there are exceptions. But especially in bigger cities the stations not frequented by tourists look horrible and also have a strong smell.

Here is a pic I took on a central station on a Sunday 2:30 a.m. Its not Germany but you may guess where I took it

I think it's a typical feature of the stations in the whole world: if you go far from the places where the tourist go the stations are much worse.
I travelled a lot in Europe and had the chance to take the underground and S-Bahn both in Berlin and in Munich.
A 7 days ticket for Berlin's U and S-Banh costs €25, but you can take several different line to go everywhere, the trains are on time, personnel is available to help you... and even if some stations are quite old and dirty (and not only the ones in the outskirts, the stations on the U2 line in Berlin Mitte are filthy, for example), at least they are safe. In other words, if you pay more, you'll get a better service!
Rome is quite peculiar, because fellow Romans don't like respecting any basic rule in order to make a profit for themselves, so they fix the problems only after they happen, not before.
I just managed to send the photos in the post above to the public transportation company with an official complaint. Let's see if they understand they have to add those ****** strips to the steps in order to avoid damage to other users. We'll see...