New European Bus Service Scheduled To Start Next Week

A new European bus service, Cityzap, is entering the market for budget travelers, joining Eurobus, which started a year ago and is doing well, according to its founder.

Cityzap, with headquarters in Hoofddorp, the Netherlands, is scheduled to start service next Sunday, linking London, Paris and Amsterdam with service twice a day. The fare will be $49 one way between any two cities, $86 round trip. A circuit ticket will be $135, or $100 each for two people traveling together who buy at the same time.

The impetus came in 1992, when European Union rules opened borders to buses picking up and leaving off passengers, according to Jil van Eyle, managing director of European Bus, which operates Cityzap. The opening of the Channel Tunnel, he said, also prompted interest among investors because it speeds channel traffic greatly, requiring neither plane nor ferry transfers. The channel crossing is expected to be made mainly through the tunnel, but ferries may be used if, for example, the shuttle trains get behind schedule. Van Eyle said that 25,000 tickets had been sold in Europe by Feb. 22.

The buses will use the Victoria bus station, 163 Buckingham Palace Road in the Victoria Station area of London. The Paris depot is the Gallieni Bus Station, 28 Avenue du General de Gaulle in Bagnolet, on the eastern edge of the city. In downtown Amsterdam, the Amstel Station, 1 Julianaplein, will be used. The morning bus from each city will leave at 9, the evening bus at 3 or 5. The schedule of nonstop trips between Amsterdam and Paris or Paris and London allows six hours for either trip, and seven hours between London and Amsterdam.

For comparison purposes, Rail Europe takes the same 6 hours for the Paris-Amsterdam trip, charging $80 for a second-class one-way fare; and 6 hours 15 minutes, or 45 minutes less, not counting the change of trains in Brussels, for Amsterdam-London, at a cost of $170 second class, and just 3 hours, as opposed to 6, for London-Paris using the Euro-star train through the Channel Tunnel, at a cost of $129 second-class. All these fares are in contrast with the $49-per-leg fare on Cityzap.

The American agent for Cityzap is Thomas McFerran, a travel marketing company at 118 South Bellevue Avenue, Langhorne, Pa. 19047; (800) 430-9070.

Meanwhile Eurobus, a year-old company that allows travelers to get on and off in 23 cities in 12 countries on the Continent, has been expanding. In September Eurobus added a London spur: A shuttle bus links London and Dover, where passengers take a P&O ferry to Calais, where they can pick up the Eurobus to Amsterdam or Paris. The process is reversed on the homebound trip; the ferry ride is included in the cost of the bus pass.

On April 1, Eurobus will sell a Britain pass for a loop that includes London, Windsor, Bath, Cardiff, the Lake District, Loch Lomond, Stirling, Edinburgh, York, Cambridge and London. A bus will serve each place every two days. As on the Continent, passengers will get on and off where they wish.