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I'm not sure I understand. - both uberx and uber pool are legal in France - uber black elsewhere is a luxury service, which French uberx is not - maybe we don'

I'm not sure I understand. - both uberx and uber pool are legal in France - uber black elsewhere is a luxury service, which French uberx is not - maybe we don't have the same definition of professional driver, but you need them to be professionals for insurance and tax reasons. - there has been a direct rail link from CDG to central Paris since 1981. It's called RER B.

crdb 9y ago
It's confusing because the terms are different internationally. The RER B is not a direct train link - it's equivalent to taking the Piccadilly Line from Heathrow, you will take a long time through many stations and share with commuters. Think instead Hong Kong's express train or the Narita Express in Tokyo: a fast, clean, premium service that takes you from airport to city centre core locations in a couple of stops (the Heathrow Express is actually pretty bad for this as it arrives somewhere far from most places of interest which is why they're building CrossRail). UberX/Pool in most of the world (although this is changing - e.g. license now required in Singapore) means the everyday salaryman who happens to commute by car and decides to pick people up on the way to bump up his end of month. Many people end up doing this full time but usually in between jobs. In some countries it's lucrative enough to become a career. How nice an X/Pool car is depends on the local market. In Singapore it used to be old, entry level Toyotas but as the rental company business improved it became small SUVs (like the Honda Vezel). In Sydney you get anything from a Subaru WRX to an E-class. Black in most of the world means "professional driver, new-ish sedan used for professional transport" and that depends again on the price locally. In Ho Chi Minh City it's a local market 8 seater van (like a bare bones Honda Odyssey with leather seats). In Singapore you can get the odd Mercedes E-class. In Hong Kong you get many Teslas, with the rest Audi A6 or larger. In France, X/Pool now use professional drivers, and the cars are sedans: Renault Laguna, Volvo S60, etc. In that sense, the service is equivalent to Black in the rest of the world. I agree about insurance and tax, but it really depends how you implement it. In Singapore, the license is very cheap and requires a few hours of training (for safety and to know your obligations). This is a stark contrast to 300k+ EUR/USD medallions.
- programLyrique 9y ago
  There are actually direct RER B trains between the airport and gare du Nord in central Paris and other RER B trains that stops at all the stations between the airport and gare du Nord... There is now a project to create another direct line between the airport and Gare de l'Est (and shutting down the direct trains of line B at the same time), the CDG express (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDG_Express https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDG_Express and more info in French https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDG_Express https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDG_Express). The project was indeed stopped in 2011 butis now alive again, and very likely to be made. Se also http://www.cdgexpress.com http://www.cdgexpress.com
  - crdb 9y ago
    Excellent news! The last time I tried to take the RER (early 2010s), I was in a train full of graffiti, with drunks (or drug users?) passed out across the seats, and few escalators/lifts for my 20kg suitcase. So after this I thought it was less painful to pay for a taxi, the experience put me off trying the RER again. This round, the problem was a strike which surge priced the fare into 8 minutes ETA and 2x the usual. It's funny that CDG is actually a TGV station - you can probably reach other cities faster (and more comfortably) than Paris as a result.

crdb 9y ago

It's confusing because the terms are different internationally. The RER B is not a direct train link - it's equivalent to taking the Piccadilly Line from Heathrow, you will take a long time through many stations and share with commuters. Think instead Hong Kong's express train or the Narita Express in Tokyo: a fast, clean, premium service that takes you from airport to city centre core locations in a couple of stops (the Heathrow Express is actually pretty bad for this as it arrives somewhere far from most places of interest which is why they're building CrossRail). UberX/Pool in most of the world (although this is changing - e.g. license now required in Singapore) means the everyday salaryman who happens to commute by car and decides to pick people up on the way to bump up his end of month. Many people end up doing this full time but usually in between jobs. In some countries it's lucrative enough to become a career. How nice an X/Pool car is depends on the local market. In Singapore it used to be old, entry level Toyotas but as the rental company business improved it became small SUVs (like the Honda Vezel). In Sydney you get anything from a Subaru WRX to an E-class. Black in most of the world means "professional driver, new-ish sedan used for professional transport" and that depends again on the price locally. In Ho Chi Minh City it's a local market 8 seater van (like a bare bones Honda Odyssey with leather seats). In Singapore you can get the odd Mercedes E-class. In Hong Kong you get many Teslas, with the rest Audi A6 or larger. In France, X/Pool now use professional drivers, and the cars are sedans: Renault Laguna, Volvo S60, etc. In that sense, the service is equivalent to Black in the rest of the world. I agree about insurance and tax, but it really depends how you implement it. In Singapore, the license is very cheap and requires a few hours of training (for safety and to know your obligations). This is a stark contrast to 300k+ EUR/USD medallions.

programLyrique 9y ago
There are actually direct RER B trains between the airport and gare du Nord in central Paris and other RER B trains that stops at all the stations between the airport and gare du Nord... There is now a project to create another direct line between the airport and Gare de l'Est (and shutting down the direct trains of line B at the same time), the CDG express (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDG_Express https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDG_Express and more info in French https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDG_Express https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDG_Express). The project was indeed stopped in 2011 butis now alive again, and very likely to be made. Se also http://www.cdgexpress.com http://www.cdgexpress.com
- crdb 9y ago
  Excellent news! The last time I tried to take the RER (early 2010s), I was in a train full of graffiti, with drunks (or drug users?) passed out across the seats, and few escalators/lifts for my 20kg suitcase. So after this I thought it was less painful to pay for a taxi, the experience put me off trying the RER again. This round, the problem was a strike which surge priced the fare into 8 minutes ETA and 2x the usual. It's funny that CDG is actually a TGV station - you can probably reach other cities faster (and more comfortably) than Paris as a result.