Intercity travel set to become cheaper as €1 Superbus arrives in Estonia
New low cost bus services offering one euro fares will launch this summer in Estonia travelling between Tallinn, Pärnu, Narva and Tartu.
Superbus, owned by Scottish businessman Sir Brian Souter, plans to run around 15 services each day between Estonia's largest cities, with fares starting at one euro (plus one euro booking fee).
Sir Brian also owns Megabus.com which operates in the UK, France, Germany, Ireland, Spain and The Netherlands, as well as ManaBus in New Zealand, Finland’s OnniBus and PolskiBus in Poland.
Souter's companies are operating on a double-decker concept, which he said is more efficient and economical.
"Because we have 89 seats, we can sell 20 or 30 of these seats at very low prices and still have a single decker enough seats to sell at more regular prices," Souter told ETV.
Although Superbus has already started selling tickets to routes it hopes to lauch in the end of July, it is yet to apply for and receive service permissions from the Estonian Road Administration.
The new arrival has already led to announcements from several other intercity bus companies that they will also launch low price coaches. Hannes Saarepuu of Lux Express, which is set to put into operation cheap Simple Express service, said it will be interesting to see which company can offer more added value and win over the customers in the low-budget segment. Taisto Bussid has also revealed plans to offer up one-euro tickets.
Editor: H. Wright, M. Oll