France's national rail operator SNCF and Belgium's inter-city ride-sharing company Blablacar have done a deal that will see Blablacar take over SNCF's bus operation, Ouibus, and partner with SNCF for mixed-mode transportation.
Once the deal is completed, SNCF will be a significant investor in Blablacar, and it will be possible to book tickets on SNCF's websites that might include almost any combination of car, bus and train as part of a trip, eliminating the need to separately schedule trips and luggage handling. For instance, a trip might include a bus from a passenger's town to a TGV station for a train to Marseille, where a Blablacar vehicle would complete the trip to a nearby village.
It's potentially a big gamble for all parties, since it unites transport modes that have most often competed with each other, and since SNCF's previous attempts at operating its own multimode service haven't succeeded. Ouibus has lost money for years.
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