Bus and Coach Travel
Although autobus is the commonplace term, the language and vehicle regulations distinguish between two varieties of bus:
autobus: a bus primarily for urban and suburban transport involving frequent stops and journeys of varying duration by many passengers in the course of a day. The doors are wide and arranged for rapid entry and exit, and newer buses are arranged to accommodate handicapped vehicles. Articulated buses up to 18 metres long may carry as many as 160 passengers.
autocar, a bus (coach) primarily for inter-urban and tourist travel involving few stops and journeys of longer duration by as many passengers as can be accommodated by its seats. The buses usually have underfloor compartments for stowing baggage, newer buses are fitted with reclining seats and those for longdistance travel have onboard toilets.
In the Yellow Pages you can find bus services listed under Transports routiers for the urban and suburban transport variety, and under Autocars for the inter-urban and distance travel variety. Most autobus services are operated by the larger municipalities, and most autocar services operate within the Departements , but there are many exceptions, as in semi-rural districts where an autocar service will serve both towns and the roads between them. The few national bus services belong to international operations; the leader is Eurolines, with a head office at 22 rue Malmaison, 93170 Bagnolet,Tel: 08 92899091, www.eurolines.fr with an interactive services locator map of Europe.
Trans'Bus, a comprehensive online encyclopaedia of the country's bus and urban transport services compiled by Olivier Meyer, offers all you might want to know about buses, from their routes and services to their builders and technologies, at www.transbus.org with an interactive bus service locator map.
