Italy's rail company Trenitalia is in bug trouble again after three women were attacked by lice on an overnight train.
The three young graduates, who are shuttling between their southern Italian homes and a master's course in Rome, sued the company after being attacked by lice on the night of September 28, Italy's Citizens' Defence Movement (MDC) said on Thursday.
"It's high time Trenitalia was made to pay hefty compensation for these incidents to force it to clean up its act," MDC said.
The women "closed their couchette compartment to avoid unpleasant encounters only to find something bad in there already: it was hopping with pests", MDC said.
"This isn't the first time such things have happened on Italian trains. It's absurd".
Trenitalia vowed to clean up its trains in November 2005 after a series of embarrassing incidents.
The company mothballed more than 500 old carriages, fired its old cleaners and hired new contractors after an international tender that drew 365 bids.
Trenitalia CEO Roberto Testore said new internal watchdogs would monitor the fresh clean-up force.
He admitted that "until recently" Italian train hygiene "was in the Middle Ages."
There have been several cases of bug invasions in recent years.
A low came in October 2005 when a rat was spotted scurrying along an Intercity train travelling from Naples to Rome.
The other incidents - the majority in northern Italy - involved insects.
In one case passengers stormed off an international train from France to Italy after finding bugs crawling all over their skin.
Passengers, consumer associations and politicians have demanded improvement in train hygiene.
