Public & Private Transport

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ATM – PUBLIC TRANSPORT

ATM ‘Azienda Trasporti Milanesi‘  is the public transportation company of Milan. The services provided by ATM include the main types of transport in town such as: underground (‘metro‘), bus, tram  and trolley bus.

Milan city center is the area with the best public transport system in Italy thanks to its:

• 15 bus routes: 37, 43, 50, 54, 57, 58, 60, 61, 67, 70, 73, 74, 77, 84, 94;
• 11 street-car lines: 1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14, 15, 16, 23, 24, 27;
• 4 underground lines: M1-red, M2-green, M3-yellow and M5-lilac (the line M4-blue is still under construction, it will connect the city with the Airport of Linate and it should be ready in 2015… finger crossed!). The underground network: RETE METRO_march_2013

For more detailed information check the official website of ATM, some of its pages are in English too.

TICKETS & FARES

Since last summer (2012 ndR), the ticket must be validate also at the exit of the metro. So, do not throw your ticket away before to leave the station… or you will have to buy another one to exit! The most used fares are the followings:

• urban ticket € 1.50 ticket valid 90 minutes. Within this period, it can be used as many times as you want in buses and trams, but only 1 time in the metro and 1 time in the urban railway network.
• 1 day ticket € 4.5o ticket valid 24 hours. It covers the whole urban network with no restriction.
• 2 days ticket € 8.25 ticket valid 48 hours .It covers the whole urban network with no restriction. The best solution for your weekend!
• evening ticket € 3 ticket valid from 8pm till the end of the service. It covers the urban and the extra-urban network with no restriction.
• luggage ticket € 1.50 ticket valid 90 minutes. To be used if you carry a very big luggage.
• children fare children must travel with an adult with regular ticket, able to proof the age of the child: up to 5 years the trip is for free, prams and pushchairs included; between 6 and 10 years old, max 2 children can travel for free with an adult. These rules are not valid for groups or school trips. +infos HERE

SPECIAL SERVICES

ATM also provides special services such as:

Radiobus_ is the on-call bus service. More infos in the Italian webpage HERE.
GuidaMI_ is the car sharing service of Milan. At the moment the official website of this self-service car  is just in Italian, but you can get some extra infos in English HERE.
BikeMI _is the bike sharing service. About 1900 bikes ready to be used at the pick up points. Official website also available in English: to read more about it and activate the membership card have a look HERE.
ATMosfera_there are 2 old fashion trams, turned into a classy restaurant. You can see it running around in the night …a real tour in town for special occasion! Price per person 65/68 euro. To know more about it in English read HERE.
Car Parks_ 20 parking lots connected with the public transportation as underground and bus lines. Fares are extremely convenient (eg. in ‘Famagosta parking’ you will pay just 1 euro for the first 4 hours). To see the full map of the public car parks have a look HERE.

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TRENORD – RAILWAY NETWORK

 TreNord is the public train system of north Italy and it is integrated with the transport system of Milan! If you need to know more the routes check the official website HERE. A very useful tool is this link which gives you the possibility to follow the route of the train in real time HERE.

Ticket validation It is important that you validate always the ticket before to step into the train. The reason is simple: in most of the cases the ticket you buy is not referred to any specific day or hour. In this way you are free to use the ticket within a certain period (yes, after some months it expires!). So, do not forget to validate it when you take the train as the date is printed on the ticket only when it is stamped!

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TAXI – PUBLIC CABS

Taxis in Milan are WHITE.

This is the only official color of Italian taxis, do not trust any other… unless you rent a private taxi service! More: at the sides there are the emblems/writings of the company that operates the taxi service and the municipality of belonging and at the top it is visible the ‘taxi’ plaque.

Electronic payment in most of the taxis is possible to pay with credit card. Anyway, it is recommended to have always some cash or ask to the taxi driver before to board (you never know…).

Night service if you know you will need a cab late in the night, it is better to call for a reservation. The reservation is free of charge. Obviously, the night starting fare is higher, about 6 euro.

Official fares If you want to check the right fairs, have a look on this PDF of the Italian portal of taxis, 2nd page is in English (update 2011).

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CAR – DRIVING A CAR IN TOWN

Here a list of useful tips and advise about driving your car in Milan (and not only!)

TANGENZIALE

To enter in Milan you have to pass the city ring known as ‘Tangenziale‘. This road is divided in 3 branches:

• Tangenziale OVEST West direction to Malpensa Airport
• Tangenziale EST East direction to Linate Airport
• Tangenziale NORD North direction, in reality this is the branch of the highway A4 Torino-Venezia passing next to Milan.

‘AREA C’

Since 2012 to enter and/or transit in Milan city center you have to pay the “congestion charge“… Until March 2013 this ‘Area C‘ will be active “on an experimental basis”.

There are 43 access points, all monitored by cameras…

Entrance ticket

Private and commercial vehicles must get a daily admission ticket of 5 euro to access. You can buy it at the parking meters, newsagents, tobacconists, ATM points and garages.

Days & hours

° Mondays-Tuesday-Wednesday-Friday: from 7:30 am to 7:30 pm

° Thursdays: from 7:30 am to 6 pm (do not know why 1 hour and half less…!?)

° Saturdays-Sundays no charge, it is free access (yeah!)

Restrictions and Exemptions

• Forbidden to:  vehicles longer than 7.5 meters, on weekdays from 7:30 am to 7:30 pm.
• Exemption for: motorcycles, scooters, electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, natural gas vehicles, LPG vehicles, bi-fuel vehicles; vehicles transporting people with disabilities, subjected to life-saving treatments or the ones going the first aid.

For extra information check the official web page about ‘Area C‘  (Italian, English, French, Spanish, Chinese,Arabic, Filipino) HERE

STREET PARKING

If you want to leave your car in the street, at first check if there are some restrictions in the closest road sign (fresh market, cleaning of the road in a specific hour/day and so on…) then pay attention to the color of the stripes on the asphalt:

• WHITE The white line identifies a free parking area, sometimes it is required that you show the hour of arrival, as it is allowed to leave the car for a limited time. Anyway, pay always attention to the road sign next to you!
• BLUE Here you are allowed to park but you have to buy the parking ticket ‘Sosta Milano‘. The ticket can be purchased from one of the automatic dispensers at the side of the road. Another way is to buy it in a Tobacco shop or from a parking attendant. You have to scratch year-day-hour and display it.
• YELLOW I can only suggest you to avoid always those parking areas. They are reserved ONLY to the inhabitants of THAT district, as shown in the sticker on their windshield. Watch out…!

GENERAL INFORMATION

Garages & Parkings If your hotel has no parking area and you desperately need to leave your car somewhere, you can find many garages in town.  The best solution, according to me, are the Public Parking Lots: fares are very convenient and always located near the public transport network (subway&co.) Discover where they are located HERE.

Security on the road Milan does not has the reputation of being a dangerous town but – as every big city – there can be some risks… Once you park your vehicle, make sure that bags, luggage, wallets and other properties of value are not in, or at least that your belongings are not visible.

Gas stations There are just a few pomp in town. If needed you will find 24H stations in the ‘Tangenziale‘. If you cannot reach it, check this map to find the closest gas station in town HERE.