French IDBus morphs into Ouibus

摘要

French state railway SNCF has changed the name of its three-year-old IDBus express coach operation to Ouibus in an expansion plan aimed at establishing the brand as the benchmark coach operator in France. The move comes as SNCF gets to grips with growing competition from foreign and domestic long-haul coach lines and from car-sharing company BlaBlaCar. Ouibus aims to triple its fleet to 127 vehicles and 'offer 4million journeys on 130 services to 46 destinations' by January 2016, including some trial overnight routes to gauge demand. Fares will start at €5 (£3.70). It will offer 16 journeys a day between Paris and Lille, with Lyon served 14 times daily.