ADVERTISEMENTTrain commuters in Italy are facing a nightmare day after Rome's two largest train stations came to a standstill.
No trains were able to depart from Rome's Termini and Tiburtina stations, the two biggest railway hubs of the Italian capital, causing huge delays and cancellations across much of the country's network.
The chaos began at around 6.30am local time when an unspecified "failure" hit the section between the two stations.
To make matters worse, departure boards at the stations went completely black, leaving hundreds of passengers clueless and raising fears of a cyberattack.
"Simply put, you don't know from which platform your train is leaving," one traveller posted on X. "But you can always board a random one, you might be lucky."
Another said he had been stuck on a platform for an hour and a half.
"The staff doesn't know anymore what to tell us," he wrote. "They've cancelled dozens of trains. It will take hours, if not days to go back to normal. It's a collapse!"
National operator Trenitalia said train traffic remains "heavily disrupted" and is advising travellers to reschedule their trips.
At least 22 high-speed and intercity routes have been shut down, and 14 have been partially cancelled. The disruption is affecting major corridors including Naples-Milan, Rome-Naples, Rome-Milan, Milan-Salerno, Florence-Rome and Rome-Turin.
Other trains are facing delays of between 60 and 180 minutes.
Trenitalia has published the list of cancelled or partially cancelled trains here.
Since June, Rome has already been hit with at least five days of severe travel chaos.
Although the incidents are unrelated, it is the second consecutive day of disruption for travellers in Italy. On Tuesday, all flights in and out of Milan Bergamo airport were cancelled after a Ryanair plane got stuck on a runway after a tyre exploded upon landing.