Uber has long dreamt to be the ‘Amazon of tranaport industry’. In a new initiative by the transport giant, UK users of the service will now be able to book international train tickets to cities like Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels. The longer-distance travel feature has been added courtesy of Omio, the Berlin-based multimodal travel platform known primarily for making its own apps for the booking of intercity and international travel. However, for the last few years, Omio has been making APIs for business -to-business lines, where it provides its inventory to partners. Uber Travel, in this partnership, will be integrating train and coach travel. UK users can expect to find Eurostar trains while looking for easy and stress-free modes to travel across the continent using the app.
Britain is the second largest customer base for the transport giant, right next to its home, the US. This strengthens the possibility of the country to be the best guinea pig in this new venture. If all goes well, we may even expect the same service to launch in the USA.
While train travel in Europe has been wobbly for some time, first because of the lockdowns and then for the strukes, the travel industry seems to be heading back to its pre-pandemic glory; only, we may expect a surge in booking, owing to the two years in confinement.
For users of Uber, these new rails don’t come as a surprise, only as delight. The company has been trying to integrate Korea and more transportation options, and even dinner bookings. Long-distance travel, then, was only the obvious next step. Uber Travel is not only going to help the service get a new set of customers, it might also help it retain and reclaim the ones who have switched to greener options of travel, thanks to climate change.
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