Long-distance bus trips open France
Coach companies get on the road with cheap offers for travel across country
THE FIRST coach company to use France’s newly relaxed transport market was the government-owned Isilines, which was given special permission to start ahead of the competition.
Isilines (pronounced ‘easy lines’), is a subsidiary of Eurolines owner Transdev (60% owned by the French government) and opened 17 routes between French cities while the Loi Macron bill was still being examined by the Conseil Constitutionnel.
Other companies such as the SNCF idBus (now renamed OuiBus), British firm Megabus and Flixbus from Germany had been hoping to see the market officially opened in time to capture summer travellers. They managed, just, starting operations towards the end of summer.
Isilines spokeswoman Isabelle Pons said: “We’ve managed to get in there first. We obtained permission on the understanding that at present we are doing ‘occasional’ trips and more regular services will be launched once the law is officially in force.
“We’re hoping that people in France will now get into the habit of having a look at coach prices when they are looking at a long-distance trip.”
In its first month of operation Isilines took 100,000 bookings with 99% saying they had booked for the cheap price – Paris to Lyon for €33 and Paris-Bordeaux or Marseille for €39. This is despite the six and a half hour journey to Lyon or the 10 hours to Marseille.
Previously few long-distance coach services ran in France – with the aim of protecting SNCF’s rail services but some companies managed to work within strict rules that said start and finish points of the service must be in different regions and they must be along part of a international line with the final destination being outside France (usually in Italy or Spain).
The Loi Macron eased the restrictions, saying the government wanted to save travellers money and give them more options, and once it was in force SNCF reacted by rebranding its idBus service as OuiGo and using it to serve areas that do not have good train services and which are much used by car-sharing travellers. Mr Pepy said they would not be launching coaches as rivals to its own trains.
In the first month after the law long-distance coaches carried 250,000 passengers, with 62% saying it was their first coach trip and 63% being aged between 20 and 40.
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