BlaBlaCar Bus, formerly BlaBlaBus, Ouibus or iDBUS, operates coach services in Europe. Currently, BlaBlaCar Bus serves

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence (, , ; oc, label=Provençal, Ais de Provença in classical norm, or in Mistralian norm, ; la, Aquae Sextiae), or simply Aix ( medieval Occitan: ''Aics''), is a city and commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of t ...

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the Nord ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fran ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard language, Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the List of cities in Italy, second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 ...

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (french: Aéroport de Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle, ), also known as Roissy Airport or simply Paris CDG, is the principal airport serving the French capital, Paris ( and its metropolitan area), and the largest intern ...

, San Sebastián, and

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. Th ...

. The route network is expanding progressively. BlaBlaCar Bus has three major hubs; Paris-Bercy,

Lyon-Perrache Lyon-Perrache (french: gare de Lyon-Perrache) is a large railway station located in the Perrache district, in the 2nd arrondissement of Lyon, France. The station was opened in 1857 and is located on the Paris–Marseille railway, Lyon–Geneva r ...

, and

Lille-Europe Lille-Europe station (French: ''Gare de Lille-Europe'') is a SNCF railway station in Lille, France, on the LGV Nord high-speed railway. The station is primarily used for international Eurostar and long-distance SNCF TGV services, although som ...

. Founded in 2012 by SNCF, in November 2018 it was announced that it would be purchased by BlaBlaCar and rebranded as BlaBlaBus.

History

iDBUS was launched on 23 July 2012 with services to

, and

from the original hub at Paris-Bercy. A domestic service between Paris and

was launched on 29 August 2012. A second hub was created at

on 17 December 2012 to launch

and

destinations. On 23 May 2013, iDBUS began operating services between

and

. On 28 April 2014 iDBUS launched a service from Brussels to Amsterdam, London and

Charles de Gaulle Airport Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (french: Aéroport de Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle, ), also known as Roissy Airport or simply Paris CDG, is the principal airport serving the French capital, Paris ( and its metropolitan area), and the largest intern ...

. On 1 December 2014, iDBUS started operating into Germany, with a service from Paris to Brussels, Aachen and

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

. From 15 June 2015 iDBUS expanded further in the

Benelux The Benelux Union ( nl, Benelux Unie; french: Union Benelux; lb, Benelux-Unioun), also known as simply Benelux, is a Political union, politico-economic union and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighboring states in ...

region, with

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

and Antwerp added to the network. On the same date, a London to

route started. On 3 September 2015, iDBUS was rebranded Ouibus. In July 2016, the Starshipper business was purchased. In February 2018, Ouibus entered a partnership with ALSA and

National Express National Express Group is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Birmingham, England. It operates bus, coach, train and tram services in the United Kingdom, Ireland (National Express operates Eurolines in conjunction ...

. In November 2018, it was announced the business would be purchased by BlaBlaCar. Entering the German market in 2020, BlaBlaBus became the first major competitor of Flixbus since that company had achieved a nigh-monopoly in the German long distance bus market through

market consolidation Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market Geography * Märket, an ...

, mergers and acquisition of competitors.

Deadly accident

On 10 April 2022, an accident happened close to Antwerp, Belgium. Two occupants of the bus were instantly killed, whilst several others were left in a life-threatening condition. Blame is initially given to the driver of the bus, whom tested positively for drugs just after the accident. Police also stated that driver of the bus was known for drug offences in the past.

Fleet

BlaBlaCar Bus has a fleet of 46

Setra Setra is a German bus brand of EvoBus GmbH, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Daimler Truck AG. The name "Setra" comes from "selbsttragend" (self-supporting). This refers to the integral nature of the construction of the vehicles back in th ...

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquarter ...

and

Iveco IVECO, an acronym for Industrial Vehicles Corporation, is an Italian multinational transport vehicle manufacturing company. It designs and builds light, medium, and heavy commercial vehicles. The name IVECO first appeared in 1975 after a merger ...

coaches that meet the Euro 5 emission standard. The whole fleet is fitted with

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio w ...

, plug sockets and spaces for disabled passengers. On a number of the services to/from Spain, a fleet of Irizar i6 coaches operated by Sarfa are used. These operate in the Ouibus livery. The fleet is equipped with toilets and free WiFi, and offers power outlets at every seat.iDBUS Services
/ref>

References

External links

Official website
{{SNCF Group, state=collapsed International bus transport in Europe SNCF companies and subsidiaries Transport companies established in 2012 2012 establishments in France 2018 mergers and acquisitions