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New iDBUS route: London to Lyon

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radamfi

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iDBUS, the coach arm of SNCF, is starting a route from London to Lyon once a day from 15 June. Special introductory offer of £14 each way.
 
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HowardGWR

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iDBUS, the coach arm of SNCF, is starting a route from London to Lyon once a day from 15 June. Special introductory offer of £14 each way.

I wonder where the pax will all have to troop off it and on again with that one (see other thread on ES from Lyon at Lille)?
 

radamfi

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I wonder where the pax will all have to troop off it and on again with that one (see other thread on ES from Lyon at Lille)?

At Coquelles Channel Tunnel terminal all coach passengers have to disembark and go through the UK and France passport control.
 

RT4038

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At Coquelles Channel Tunnel terminal all coach passengers have to disembark and go through the UK and France passport control.

Taking all of their luggage with them, to be put through scanning machines. Oh, and if there are a number of coaches at the same time, this process takes a long time.
 

Groningen

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So SNCF iDBUS is fighting with SNCF TGV/Eurostar for customers. With the train the fastest 1 i can find from London to Lyon is 5 hours traveltime. With the bus it is 15,5 hours, but only € 14. 1 must not be in a hurry.
 

radamfi

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So SNCF iDBUS is fighting with SNCF TGV/Eurostar for customers. With the train the fastest 1 i can find from London to Lyon is 5 hours traveltime. With the bus it is 15,5 hours, but only € 14. 1 must not be in a hurry.

SNCF is worried that they will lose business to long distance buses in the future. So their iDBUS project is designed to deter competition from private companies before it even starts. It may seem wasteful to compete against yourself but it is widely used tactic in business. In the UK, competition on local bus routes is allowed and Stagecoach compete against themselves on very profitable local bus routes in Manchester using older buses with cheaper fares branded 'Magicbus'. They have used Magicbus elsewhere in the UK over the years.

At the moment, it is only allowed to travel totally within France on a long distance bus service on international services, so for example iDBUS is not allowed to run a service between Lille and Paris only. It must continue outside of France, for example to London or Amsterdam. The main competition at the moment is from Eurolines as they now carry domestic passengers on their many international routes in France.

Full deregulation like Germany is expected soon.
 

radamfi

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A closer look at the timetable shows this service calling at Paris, so it is a way of setting up a domestic service between Paris and Lyon which wouldn't be allowed if it didn't also run internationally. They probably don't expect many people to do the whole trip and primarily advertise it for legal reasons. They hope that they can fill the coach for both the London to Paris and Paris to Lyon sections independently.
 

anme

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Taking all of their luggage with them, to be put through scanning machines. Oh, and if there are a number of coaches at the same time, this process takes a long time.

Do they really scan coach passengers' luggage? They don't care very much what you take in your car!
 
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