A 10-year-old venture centred on one of the Baltic states has shown the potential for express coach travel to appeal to a more affluent market looking for much more than simply the cheapest seats
An Irizar i8-bodied tri-axle Scania on a service within Estonia, linking the capital Tallin with the city of Tartu, a distance of around 180km (112miles) that takes around 2hr 30min. This is comparable to a journey between London and Birmingham.
The individual lounge seats attract people whose quest for personal space might otherwise persuade them to drive by car.
All seats have 10in multimedia screens similar to those on long-haul airliners.
If the title of this article looks familiar, that may well be because it was the question raised in the editor’s comment in September Buses.
The launch of RoadJet, a two-vehicle scheduled inter-city coach operator in Germany, led us to ask whether its focus on luxury, using tri-axle double-deckers with 44 seats in 2+1 configuration, was a better way ahead than trying to cram as many passengers aboard as possible by selling tickets at rock bottom prices.
