Geek-ready express bus tries to compete with airlines

Aleks Tapinsh

Riga - A slick, black and red bus rumbles along a motorway trying to do the impossible - to win a competition with a plane in a race to its destination. Thronged with passengers, the bus trundles through the woodlands of northern Latvia, carrying its passengers from one small Baltic country to the next.

Passengers can take the four-hour bus journey from Riga to the Estonian capital, Tallinn, in comfort and that is perhaps unique among EU bus lines connecting major cities in the 27-nation bloc. On the 310-kilometre journey, two Baltic bus lines offer an upgraded service which includes video programmes, free hot drinks, and for those who want to use their time wisely - free, wireless internet access on board.

A brochure advertising Eurolines services suggests that riding a bus between the two capitals is better than than boarding a flight. Business people can use their time productively as buses do not limit phone and internet usage.

"The bus is rather luxurious. They have coffee here and everything. Four hours of travel without any hassle at the airport with delays and waiting," a passenger named Vladimir told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa during his recent trip to Tallinn.

The Baltic bus line, Eurolines, and its main rival, Estonia's Hansabuss, offer a little extra in a bid to lure customers who normally would not travel by bus.

Eurolines offers deluxe services aboard buses from Tallinn to St. Petersburg and starting this month, it is expanding the service to another route - from Riga to Klaipeda, Lithuania, a town on the shores of the Baltic Sea.

In the Soviet era of poor customer service, travelling in comfort was considered a luxury reserved for the chosen few. Since then, the two tiny Baltic nations that broke away from the Soviet Union in 1991 and joined the European Union in 2004, are continuing to break the remainder of Soviet-style stereotypes.

Buses used to be bad, old, and extremely uncomfortable. The former Soviet way and Western way of travelling to this day collide at the central bus station in the Latvian capital, perhaps as a testament to the Baltics proximity to Russia on the outskirts of the EU.

Nowadays, you can still spend a three-hour bus journey standing and is no laughing matter when passengers literally "fry" in the heat of summer aboard a bus without air conditioning.

However, Eurolines wanted to prompt travellers to reconsider taking a bus for their next journey.

"So we offered them free use of the internet, hot coffee, an entertainment programme and more space between their seats," said the a spokeswoman Unda Bujane.

The new concept appears to be going down well among passengers.