There is little competition in the European long-distance bus market due to the dominance of Flixbus. A few remaining competitors such as Regiojet are trying to stand up to the industry giant. But how is the Bulgarian company Union Ivkoni doing, which offers its services between Austria and Germany, for example?
Starting in Germany, Europe has been experiencing a real long-distance bus boom for a good ten years. What was previously spurned as "guest worker buses" - apart from countries with barely any railway infrastructure - has now become an indispensable part of the intermodal transport system. Step by step, Flixbus has blossomed into a quasi-monopolist. There are only a few providers left, such as Blablacar Bus, Regiojet and Union Ivkoni, that are trying to stand up to the industry giant. While the French and Czechs are making a positive impression, a test drive on the Vienna (Erdberg)-Munich (ZOB) route left a completely opposite impression.
Multi-day long-distance bus trip: From Sofia to London
According to the Austrian Ministry of Transport, Union Ivkoni holds, among other things, the concession for a long-distance bus service from Sofia to Liverpool and back, which is offered several times a week. This is an extremely long route, with passengers spending several days on the bus. In practice, most of the services are "short" and end or start in London, which is still an extremely long distance. However, only partial routes can be used, for example Vienna-Munich. Due to the complete liberalization in Germany, domestic transport also takes place there. This is not the case in Austria, as Union Ivkoni operates on an international concession and is therefore not allowed to transport passengers within Austria, but can do so internationally.
The price of the booked test trip was roughly the same as that of competitor Flixbus. What seemed a little unusual, however, was that the prices for the Vienna-Munich connection were quoted and collected in Bulgarian leva. The language is also not consistent, as some of the documents are in both Bulgarian (Cyrillic script) and English. But only partially, as the "international" translation is occasionally forgotten. The booking process itself is quite simple, although not as convenient as with airlines or competitor Flixbus. You are automatically assigned a seat, but this is rather pointless, as the test trip showed.
There are very different reviews of Union Ivkoni on popular review portals on the Internet. Some of these are exceptionally positive, but some are also almost unbelievably negative. Unfortunately, it turns out that the reviews are not quite as far-fetched as they seem at first glance.
Not found on the VIB scoreboard
The bus was supposed to leave at 1:30 a.m. local time from the so-called "Vienna International Bus Terminal", which is located under a motorway bridge and offers travelers pretty much everything but no comfort or even heated waiting rooms and/or toilets at night. The emphasis is on "should", because shortly before that Union Ivkoni sent an email saying that the bus was about half an hour late. Well, anyone who has ever traveled with Deutsche Bahn will take this in their stride, but will have a twinge in their stomach that "there's more to come". But just finding the right stop was not exactly easy, because the bus connection to London from Union Ivkoni was not listed on the screens, the homepage or the VIB timetables. Inexperienced travelers would have become nervous at this point at the latest, because there is no staff at the VIB at this time of night.
There was no sign of the Union Ivoni bus at 2:00 a.m. local time. So I contacted the company. There was no way to contact them by phone because a recorded message directed them to a number that they had to contact via WhatsApp. At least - and this is the only positive aspect of this bus journey - I received a competent reply within a minute saying that the bus was already in Vienna and would be there shortly. And it was, at 2:45 a.m., not in the bus station, but right in front of it, where passengers were supposed to get on and off.
Bus drivers transform passenger compartment into a “smoking cave”
The reception by the two bus drivers was absolutely unusual. No one wanted to see or scan the tickets, but was busy gossiping and smoking one cigarette after another on the bus. Accordingly, the vehicle stank like a smoking compartment or a pub in the old days. Until these two drivers were replaced, they would continue to chain smoke on the bus during the journey.
If you think that you have to expect this when you travel with a Bulgarian company, no, you don't have to. Many Flixbus trips are operated by subs from this country and this kind of behavior is not seen there. What does the Austrian Ministry of Transport actually say about the legal situation, since there is an absolute ban on smoking on public transport throughout the EU?
"In scheduled vehicles, a smoking ban applies to passengers and drivers both in Austria and across borders, with no exceptions (including for foreign companies). According to Section 8 Z 4 of the General Conditions of Carriage for Motor Line Services, Federal Law Gazette II No. 47/2001 as amended by Federal Law Gazette II No. 129/2018, passengers are prohibited from smoking in scheduled vehicles. This applies to all types of scheduled services, including cross-border scheduled services (Section 1 leg. cit.) or foreign companies. The smoking ban for drivers is standardized in Section 3 Z 4 of the Motor Lines Act Implementation Ordinance, Federal Law Gazette II No. 45/2001, and also applies to all scheduled services. There are no exceptions to these two provisions," said a spokeswoman.
From Sofia to London without a toilet
Incidentally, the vehicle used did not have a toilet, contrary to industry standards, and this was precisely what would become a major annoyance for some passengers. It is very unusual to use a coach without an on-board toilet between Sofia and London or even Liverpool. So you just have toilet breaks for the passengers. Of course, you would think. If you made the stops in places where there are toilets. That is not the case at a closed gas station somewhere in a village just outside Linz. So it happened as it had to happen: the passengers were forced to relieve themselves behind an Amazon locker.
The bus repeatedly drove off the highway for inexplicable reasons until it reached the German border and stopped in the middle of nowhere, with people getting on and off. According to the Ministry of Transport, only two stops are licensed on this route. One in Linz and the other in Salzburg. Clearly marked, because even for this there are precise regulations. But the bus did not go there at all, but stopped at completely different points. Passengers were not given any information about how long they would be standing there and whether, for example, there was a toilet nearby.
Everything is regulated – even what a bus stop should look like
"The Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology, namely the Supreme Motor Vehicle Authority (Department IV/St4), is responsible for granting authorizations/concessions to operate a specific motor vehicle route in cross-border traffic. When it comes to motor vehicles within the EU/EEA area, the legal basis for granting authorization to operate a route is Regulation (EC) No. 1073/2009: the approving authority is the authority of the route's departure or destination country, whereby agreement must be reached with transit countries with stops. With regard to the Sofia – London motor vehicle route, it should be noted that there is no internal Sofia-London line operated by Union Ivkoni ood. However, 4 international routes between Varna and Liverpool are operated by Union Ivkoni ood: Varna-Liverpool BG-Gen. No. 000479/1[1] from October 21.10.2020, 21.10.2025 to October 000559, 1, Varna-Liverpool BG-Gen. No. 26.04.2023/26.04.2028 from April 000487, 1 to April 11.11.2020, 11.11.2025, Varna-Liverpool BG-Gen. No. 000492/1 from November 25.11.2020, 25.11.2025 to November 3, XNUMX and Varna-Liverpool BG-Gen. No. XNUMX/XNUMX from November XNUMX, XNUMX to November XNUMX, XNUMX," said a spokeswoman for the Austrian Ministry of Transport. "Each of these lines serves the following XNUMX stops in Austria at different travel times: Vienna, VIB Erdberg, Linz, Industriezeile, Salzburg, P&R Süd Fernbusse. For each of these lines, the prescribed investigation procedure was carried out in Austria and since no objections were raised during the procedure, approval was granted in accordance with the procedural provisions of the above-mentioned EU regulation. The concessions were also granted by the Bulgarian approval authority in accordance with these procedural provisions."
But how should a long-distance bus stop actually be marked? What infrastructure must be in place? The second question is quite simple: none at all. The spokeswoman for the Ministry of Transport explains in detail: “The marking of bus stops in Austria is mandatory and specified in detail. Bus stops in Austria are generally subject to approval. Picking up/dropping off passengers is only permitted at approved bus stops. The marking of bus stops in Austria is regulated on the one hand by Section 34 of the Motor Vehicle Lines Act, Federal Law Gazette I No. 203/1999 as amended by Federal Law Gazette I No. 203/2023 (marking requirement, visibility, responsibility of the operator) and on the other hand by the Motor Vehicle Lines Act Implementation Ordinance, Federal Law Gazette II No. 45/2001, (including a yellow circle with a green border and a green “H” in the middle, visible placement, name of the bus stop). Furthermore, bus stops in Austria are subject to approval in accordance with Section 33 of the Motor Vehicle Lines Act. The respective state governor is responsible for this authorization. A concession or authorization to operate motor transport routes is only valid for the route defined in the concession/authorization, including the stops included/approved therein. Deviating from this route or picking up/dropping off at non-approved stops would be a breach of duty by the authorization holder."
Break – but how long?
The two chain-smoking bus drivers were replaced at the closed bus stop by a female driver who, to her credit, had a much more pleasant driving style than that of her two colleagues and drove the Mercedes bus so skillfully and professionally that – apart from the noise of the engine – you almost didn't notice you were driving. As a driver, she was an absolute top performer.
However, it was complicated from a human perspective, because a break was taken at a petrol station - which was open this time - and she used this to refuel the bus. The passengers only found out how long the bus would be standing there when they asked, and they did so in a barracks-like tone. And so it continued, because during the "head count", which she conscientiously carried out and compared the number of people counted with the passenger list, she was not one bit friendlier. This continued after the obligatory police check near Walserberg. The German federal police found something and "caught" a passenger without travel documents, in other words his journey ended.
Federal police removed passenger without passport/identity card
The German Federal Police's approach seemed a little odd in another respect. People who could show a German passport or identity card were asked to stand on one side of the bus, and those with foreign documents, including Austrian ones, were allowed to line up on the other side. Their documents were examined more closely in the guard room, and the German citizens were allowed back into the warm bus, which, thanks to the efforts of the bus driver, no longer smelled so strongly of cigarette smoke.
With one passenger less on board, because they had been temporarily arrested by the German federal police, we continued on to Munich central bus station. Of course, the driver did not announce that we were in Munich. There was also no toilet stop, so that after arriving, some passengers ran like greased lightning to the paid toilet in the bus station. Even that annoyed the driver, so she yelled at them to wait until their suitcases were unloaded. But if you didn't have any with you anyway, you were just glad to be off the bus. Incidentally, thanks to the inexplicable wanderings in Austria, the delay ended up being well over two hours. So they managed to "inflate" the journey time so much without any traffic jams and nobody knows why.
The operator Union Ivkoni was given the opportunity to comment. The company did not respond to a corresponding request from Aviation.Direct within the set deadline. Therefore, it is unfortunately not possible to present the Bulgarian company's point of view or statements in this article.
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