Cotrap (Consorzi Trasporti Aziendi Pugliesi) is a consortium of travel organisations in Puglia. In particular it offers a common booking and enquiry facility.
In principle this seems a great idea. In practice it has severe limitations. The website is very hard for a casual user to operate. We advise against using it to get information on journeys if it is possible to avoid it; unfortunately increasing numbers of operators are automatically linking anyone who makes timetable enquiries straight to the Cotrap website.
If you want to travel somewhere where you are pretty sure that no train travle will be involved (by any of the operators mentioned), you may find Cotrap is the best source of information available.
The main limitations are as follows:
the only routes offered are those operated by consortium members, which reduces or eliminates many travel options, even very obvious ones; in particular none of the railway operators are involved other than Ferrovia del Gargano (which is mainly a bus operator anyway) - so if you look up a trip south from Lecce, the myriad of Ferrovia del Sud Est routes will not feature; if you look up Foggia to Peschici, you will be told about the FdelG train from San Severo, but Foggia to San Severo will not mention the mainline train service from Foggia, you will be advised to get a bus
you are not shown a timetable for a service, route etc to get an overall picture of what is available; you have to specifiy a starting point, finish point, date and time; the starting and finishing points are specied in terms of communes (towns or districts) and stops within them which is awkward
quite frequently the result is shown as not found or suggests you have filled in the wrong information; if you fill in alternative dates and/or times this obstacle disappears and you are presented with some options
when given, the timetable options are clear enough, but the route details are confusing, especially if changes are involved
However, it is sometimes unavoidable to use the Cotrap website, so here are some instructions/suggestions which hopefully will help:
this link takes you to the “book now” page; you can search for traveol options here, we would suggest booking tickets in some other way https://biglietteria.cotrap.it/#/ricerca/itinerari;idLocalitaPartenza=388;idLocalitaArrivo=330;idPoloPartenza=6297;idPoloArrivo=657;dataPartenza=21%2F12%2F2022;oraPartenza=11:00;numeroCambi=2;idAziende=;pagina=1
make sure you are using “linea extraurbana”, this is what you will normally need for visits between places
you can specify you are looking for options with or without changes, and if the former whether you just want 1 change; check “yes” or “si”, and then check 2, so that all options will be considered whether or not they involve changes
you can specificy which of the consortium members you wish to use, this is normally not necessary or helpful, so make sure the box says “all operators” or “tutte le aziende”
fill in the departure and arival communes – you wilol usually get a drop down list here to select from; fill in both places before you decide on specific stops in each place, the next step
as well as the commune, you have to enter a specific stop within the commune for departure and arrival; sometimes there is a single stop (“fermata”) which comes up, but more often a drop down list from which you select, in many cases indicating which is the “principal” stop, usually a good bet unless you know otherwise
where there are several stops available, and you don’t know which one to use, you can open a map which shows where they are – this is a useful facility
entering date and time is straightforward; then press “cerca corso” which means find the route (English translations may say “race search”)
scroll down and all the options will be shown for the day in question; there is also an option of checking days before and after the one selected
you can check out a return if you want easily by using the arrows to swap departure and arrival communes you specified, but you will have to re-enter the stops
if your search does not yield results, try entering an earlier time, or a different day; this sometimes works
you can add (“aggiungi”) your selected route if you want to buy a ticket online; do this if you want, but we would suggest just noting details and getting a ticket at a bar or sales point near the departure point or on the bus/train.
