L'Aquila: no fast train, a coach from Rome in 1h25

L'Aquila has no high speed rail: the fastest link with Rome is the TUA coach from the Collemaggio terminal to Roma Tiburtina, about 1 hour 25 minutes for €13.00 one way, ten times a day on weekdays.

The coach: 1h25, ten times a day, €13.00

TUA runs the service from the Collemaggio terminal in L'Aquila to the TIBUS terminal beside Roma Tiburtina, bay 8, with the ticket desk operated by SAIS Trasporti. Typical journey times are 1 hour 25 minutes, for example 4:45 am to 6:10 am, or 7:30 am to 8:55 am.

On weekdays there are 10 runs each way, dropping to 4 on public holidays, with the first departure from L'Aquila at 4:45 am and the last from Rome at 9:45 pm. On Saturdays the count from L'Aquila falls to 5.

Fares for 2026: €13.00 single, €20.00 return, €90.00 for a carnet of ten trips and €160.00¹ for a monthly pass, with promotional fares at €8, €9 and €10. The fares page was last updated on January 21, 2026.

TIBUS is a coach station, not a railway station

The Roman end of the journey is the TIBUS coach terminal, adjacent to Roma Tiburtina but not inside it. It is a short walk between the two, and it is the step that trips up people who have booked a Frecciarossa connection to the minute.

Give yourself the margin. A coach in traffic on the A24 has a variance a train does not, and the connection you can afford to miss is not the one at the end of a nine hour flight.

Fonte Cerreto is not a different town

L'Aquila covers 473.9³ square kilometers, one of the largest municipal areas in Italy, with dozens of scattered hamlets including Assergi and Fonte Cerreto at the foot of the Gran Sasso.

That size changes how you read a map here. The cable car station that looks like a separate mountain resort is administratively the same town you are staying in, and Paganica and Camarda sit in the same comune.

The Gran Sasso cable car: 3,173 meters of line

The Gran Sasso cable car climbs from Fonte Cerreto to Campo Imperatore on a bicable installation 3,173² meters long, carrying 760² people an hour. In summer 2026 a return ticket costs €16.50², €14.00 on the partner rate, €8.00 for L'Aquila residents and €11.00 one way, with bicycles at €6.00 per trip.

Cars run every 30 minutes from 8:00 am, with no 1:30 pm departure, and the last car up and down goes at 5:00 pm, every day. Children up to their sixth birthday travel free.

The resident fare has a condition attached, valid only for purchase and use before 9:30 am. The operator also warns that the hostel and its parking area stay closed through summer 2026 for works, and the altitudes of the two stations are not published, so they are not given here.

Winter changes the arithmetic: a day skipass costs €25.00 on weekdays and €35.00 on holidays for the 2025/2026 season, plus €3.00 for the compulsory key card, across 3 lifts and 13 km of piste. More in L'Aquila, things to do and Gran Sasso.

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