Venice's train station is Venezia Santa Lucia, the only station on the islands. Trains cross the lagoon causeway and stop with the platforms pointing at the Grand Canal, so the exit doors open onto a forecourt with the water bus landing stages directly opposite. The mainland station, Venezia Mestre, is a different stop a few minutes earlier on the same tracks.
Santa Lucia has 23 platforms in passenger use. Since 15 December 2024 they sit behind four access gates, three in the covered hall serving tracks 1 Nord to 14 and one in the open area serving tracks 15 to 22, and only travellers holding a valid ticket are allowed through (RFI, 2024). The station opens and closes with the first and last train of the day, and the Sala Blu assistance desk for passengers with reduced mobility works from 07:45 to 22:30, with requests taken up to one hour before a train (RFI, 2026).
What you do next is the part worth planning before you arrive. A single water bus ticket costs 9.50 EUR and lasts 75 minutes, line 2 reaches Rialto in 12 minutes, the left luggage office on platform 1 starts at 6 EUR a bag, and the only direct airport service from the station itself is the Alilaguna Blue Line at 18 EUR (ACTV, 2026; Kibag, 2026; Alilaguna, 2026).
Is Venice train station Santa Lucia or Mestre?
Venezia Santa Lucia is the station in the historic centre. Venezia Mestre is on the mainland, and the two are separate stations on the same line, with Mestre coming first for anyone arriving from Milan, Verona, Bologna or Rome. If your ticket ends at Mestre you are not in Venice yet.
Both stations count as Venice for ticketing purposes, which is where the confusion starts. Trenitalia lists 44 Frecciarossa connections a day between Milan and Venice, calling at Brescia, Verona, Vicenza and Padua, and 32 between Rome and Venice via Florence, Bologna and Padua (Trenitalia, 2026). Some of those services terminate at Santa Lucia and some stop short at Mestre, and the difference is printed on the ticket rather than announced, so check the arrival station before you book.
Getting from Mestre to Santa Lucia is easy once you know it is needed. Regional and fast regional trains run the causeway constantly, and the leg is covered by the ACTV Venezia Daily Pass at 25 EUR and by the app-only Mestre Daily Pass at 5 EUR, both valid for 24 hours (ACTV, 2026). Staying in Mestre and commuting in on a 5 EUR pass is the cheapest way to sleep near Venice.
What is outside Venezia Santa Lucia station
Turn left out of the doors and you are on the steps down to the Grand Canal. The forecourt holds the ACTV landing stages, the Venezia Unica ticket windows, the automatic ticket machines and the water taxi jetty, all within sight of the exit. The Ponte degli Scalzi crosses the canal to Santa Croce on your right, and the Ponte della Costituzione crosses towards Piazzale Roma further along the fondamenta.
The vaporetto stop is called Ferrovia, and it is a row of separate lettered berths rather than a single pontoon. The printed timetable gives the letter for each line and direction, so read the letter as well as the number. Line 2 towards Rialto and San Marco leaves from Ferrovia B, and line 3 for Murano leaves from Ferrovia D (ACTV, 2026).
Nine ACTV services call at Ferrovia. Line 1 works down every stop on the Grand Canal to the Lido, line 2 runs the fast version of the same water and carries on round to Giudecca and Tronchetto, line 2/ is a short shuttle that runs only Piazzale Roma to Ferrovia to Rialto and back, line 3 is the weekday direct boat to Murano, lines 4.1 and 4.2 run the circular route through Murano, Fondamente Nove and Giudecca in opposite directions, lines 5.1 and 5.2 circle past Fondamente Nove, the Ospedale and San Zaccaria, and the night line N calls at Ferrovia A and B after the day network stops (ACTV, 2026).
Venice train station to St Mark's Square and Rialto
Line 2 is the quick way. From Ferrovia it reaches Rialto in 12 minutes and San Marco Giardinetti in 29, calling only at San Marcuola Casinò, Rialto, San Tomà, San Samuele and Accademia on the daytime pattern (ACTV, 2026). For St Mark's Square, Giardinetti puts you at the far end of the Piazzetta.
Line 1 takes the same water and stops at everything: Riva de Biasio, San Marcuola Casinò, San Stae, Ca' d'Oro, Rialto Mercato, Rialto, San Silvestro, Sant'Angelo, San Tomà, Ca' Rezzonico, Accademia, Santa Maria del Giglio and Salute before San Marco Vallaresso. Ferrovia to Rialto takes 16 minutes and Ferrovia to San Marco Vallaresso takes 36 (ACTV, 2026). Those extra 20 minutes buy you the whole palace frontage of the Grand Canal at eye level, which is why line 1 is worth taking on the way in rather than the way out.
Walking is the third option and needs no ticket. The signed route runs over the Ponte degli Scalzi, along the Lista di Spagna and the Strada Nova through Cannaregio to Rialto, then on to San Marco, and the painted wall signs read Per Rialto and Per San Marco outbound and Alla Ferrovia coming back. Pulling a suitcase over the bridges is the reason most people take the boat instead.
Venice train station luggage storage
There is one left luggage office at Santa Lucia and it is inside the station, on the platform level along platform 1, signed in blue as Luggage Storage. It is run by KiPoint, which describes itself as the official and only luggage storage at the station, and prices start at 6 EUR a bag, with access to the station toilets included in that (Kibag, 2026).
The hours are worth checking against your train. The operator publishes 07:00 to 23:00, seven days a week, while the station's own service directory lists the same desk as 07:00 to 21:00 (Kibag, 2026; Grandi Stazioni Retail, 2026). Take the earlier closing time as your planning figure if you are collecting a bag late, because a locked office on the wrong side of a gate costs you a train.
This matters more in Venice than in most cities. Hotel check-in is usually mid-afternoon, the station is at the western edge of the centre, and carrying luggage back across the bridges to retrieve it wastes an hour. Dropping bags on arrival and coming back to Ferrovia by water bus at the end of the day is normally the cheapest use of a 75-minute ticket.
Venice train station to the airport
One service runs from the station itself. The Alilaguna Blue Line calls at Railway Station (S. Lucia) on its way between Marco Polo airport, Murano, Fondamente Nove, the Ospedale, the Lido, San Zaccaria, San Marco, Zattere, Giudecca Stucky and Tronchetto (Alilaguna, 2026). Airport to Venice costs 18 EUR one way and 32 EUR return, and the fare includes one hold bag and one piece of hand luggage, with each extra piece at 4 EUR and under-sixes free (Alilaguna, 2026). The Orange Line also serves Cannaregio, though it calls at Guglie rather than at the station.
Everything else leaves from Piazzale Roma, a few minutes on foot from the station. ACTV runs the airport buses as routes 5 Aerobus, 15 and 45: a 75-minute airport ticket costs 10 EUR one way and 18 EUR return (ACTV, 2026). If you already hold a 1, 2, 3 or 7-day travel card, do not buy a separate bus ticket, because the aerobus supplement adds the airport legs for 7 EUR one way or 13 EUR return, and it has to be bought at the same time as the pass (ACTV, 2026).
From Mestre the equivalent is the ATVO shuttle, which the operator times at 20 minutes between Mestre FS and the airport (ATVO, 2026).
Which ticket to buy at the station, and what it costs
The Venezia Unica windows and machines on the forecourt sell everything, and the choice comes down to how many boat trips you will actually make. A standard 75-minute Rete Unica ticket is 9.50 EUR and covers the water buses, the mainland buses, the tram and the People Mover, with airport journeys excluded (ACTV, 2026). It runs from first validation, not from purchase, and has to be tapped again at every change of vessel.
Passes cost 25 EUR for 24 hours, 35 EUR for 48, 45 EUR for 72 and 65 EUR for 168 (ACTV, 2026). At 9.50 EUR a trip, the 24-hour pass pays for itself on the third journey. Travellers aged 6 to 29 should buy the Rolling Venice card at 6 EUR first, which unlocks a 72-hour pass at 27 EUR instead of 45 (ACTV, 2026).
Two details catch people out at this station in particular. The 24-hour Venezia Daily Pass also covers Trenitalia regional and fast regional trains inside the municipality, which is what makes the Mestre commute free on the pass. ACTV lists that as five stations and Trenitalia lists seven, adding Venezia Mestre Gazzera and Venezia Mestre Olimpia, so treat the Trenitalia list as the wider one (ACTV, 2026; Trenitalia, 2026).
People Mover, water taxis and land taxis
The People Mover is the automatic shuttle from Piazzale Roma to Tronchetto with an intermediate stop at the Marittima cruise area. A single one-way ticket is 1.50 EUR, and any Rete Unica ticket or pass already covers it with no supplement, so nobody holding a day pass needs to queue at the machines (AVM, 2026). Hours are shorter on Sundays and public holidays and shorter again in winter, which is worth checking if you are heading for an early sailing or a late car collection.
Water taxis wait at the jetty outside the station. The consortium boats take up to ten people and ten suitcases and serve Piazzale Roma, Tronchetto, San Marco, Rialto, the Lido and the airport, and the fare is quoted per boat rather than per head (Consorzio Motoscafi Venezia, 2026). For a group of four with luggage, one taxi to a hotel landing stage can undercut four separate day passes.
Land taxis cannot reach the station and stop at Piazzale Roma. The regulated fares start at a minimum of 8.00 EUR by day and 11.00 EUR at night or on holidays, with 1.20 EUR per item of luggage, 4.80 EUR for airport or port trips and 3.20 EUR between 22:00 and 06:00. The fixed fare between the airport and Piazzale Roma is 40.00 EUR (Cooperativa Artigiana Radiotaxi, 2026).
