Monday, February 6, 2017

France - at last! - has long distance coach service, sort-of..................

It may surprise you to learn that it is just over one year ago that France introduced long-distance coach services between cities, similar to the old established National Express network in Britain.

The idea was the brainchild of Emmanuel Macron, former socialist minister of economics (briefly) now leader of his own party in a bid to become the next president of France in next May's elections.

The only mystery is why it took so long when the figures for the 12 month period to September 2016 show that 5.2 million passengers took to the coaches against TGV rail (an estimated 1.3 million travellers), car sharing or driving their own vehicle.

Principal attraction is the low cost compared to alternatives but the network suffers from a lack of city centre bus stations and general publicity about the network, services and tarifs. In my local town I have no idea where or how to find a long-distance coach service.......

Posted by peterdanton@orange.fr