A TOTALLY BIZARRE EXPERIENCE! (but memorable) BlaBlaCar Bus or was it Crnja Tours Paris-Brussels

I know I made fun of Greta in this video, but no harm was meant. I don't have a problem with Greta Thunberg. In fact I think she's done a fantastic job raising environmental awareness with the younger generation. I consider myself environmentally aware, and so salute her work, and the work of the younger generation trying to change the mistakes of *my generation.
The plan was simple. Catch BlaBlaCar bus from Paris Bercy to Brussels Midi. I was left scratching my head several times. Instead of a BlaBlaCar bus, we got a wet lease (which included two drivers) coach from Croatian Crnja Tours. There was a hint of disorganisation from BlaBlaCar and I had a feeling this bus driver was new to the route, especially when he tried to enter a motorway the wrong way down a slip road.
*** FOLLOW ME AT:
Web: www.planestrainseverything.com
Twitter: / planestrainsev1
Facebook: / planestrainseverything
Instagram: / planestrainseverything
*** MUSIC:
Music courtesy of epidemicsound.com
*** TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:25 Paris Bercy Coach Station
00:03:23 Roissypole / CDG Airport
00:03:46 Motorway mishap
00:04:39 Lille
00:05:13 Brussels

[@steve-marsh]

Wow Scott, that could've been your last ever review :O very entertaining review though :)

[@taniaedwards4702]

That scene in the bus station reminded me of Monsieur Hulot's Holiday with the poor people running from one platform to another only to see the train arrive on a completely different platform. Look forward to watching your videos Scott, you do make me laugh!

[@craighobbs3708]

A lot of Parisian public transportation hubs are not only filthy but are extremely dangerous

[@holygooff]

Bercy is special. There is a toilet, but I wouldn't even go there if I needed it very urgently. It's an open sewer.

[@bluemedusa9858]

Not only hubs but many of areas in Paris besides touristic spots are becomming dangerous at some points and especially when the sun goes down. Basically Paris is slowly becomming a sh*thole

[@vivianhughes9347]

Well done for trying it - but it looks like a real cowboy outfit. Totally shocking when the driver was heading down the slip road the wrong way Scott, just wondering, could you post the amount you paid for your trips on future videos? I know you do sometimes for Ryanair, but it would be useful to get an idea of the cost of your road trips as well. Cheers. Vivian

[@michasreisefieber]

The Bla Blas Bus toures are served by individual bus conpanies. Maybe this was a sub contractor, but maybe it was only a different bus, because the bla bla panted bus was maintained or broken deown. After the first peak in the long distance bus scene around 2014, most routes now are very long and serve different countries. Most of the busses come from eastern europe and they have very different standards. So this worries me a bit and I think it is a dangerous practice. Sub contracting is even more dangerous, because especially in big contracts the prices are already bad. A sub contractor even gets less of the money from the main contractor, that makes it even more worse. They have to save everywhre, drivers, busses, maintainance...

[@misterskylight66]

Crnja Tours is cooperating with BlaBlacar

[@davidbutler180]

Reminds me of some grim, dangerous 1980s coach trips

[@ameerali.ouarda]

I’ve been on blablabus twice and it was a horrific third party bus and the legroom was horrendous. Virtually non existent my legs were locked. Wouldn’t go on them again!

[@de29a15]

I have had the exact same experience as you describe. I took blablacar 4 times, wheras I've taken flixbus for more than 50 trips ! Everytime I have ridden a red car, I had dangerous drivers who did not know the roads they were driving on and WE had more than 1 hour delay. They were extremely dangerous and the coach were nasty. No restroom and I remember a car where the electric plugs had cables going all around. Terrible partners : VIC, LVIT... It is a shame, because After the purchased OUibus, they got rid of the 40% drivers working directly for them, and most other companies (starshipper) moved to Green cars.

[@pavld335]

Good to know. I was curious but thanks. I'll stay away.

[@chuckpenfold4748]

This was hilarious! You're lucky he didn't take you back to Pula! Nothing against Pula, lovely place. The sign on the front of the bus read (if my broken Croatian is to be trusted) "occasional transport." The music may have been Oliver Dragojevic, and I think you could hear someone telling him when he went down the slip road: "You need to get over there!" Great stuff!

[@mary-janejenkins9560]

Love the wrong way down the slip road all adds to the excitement 😂😂💕

[@JohninRosc]

Always interesting and informative. You've given me a lot of good ideas for travel (though a 10pm to 3am bus ride between Paris and Brussels isn't one of them). Thanks for the video.

[@kevinellis8869]

I do love your adventures, perhaps time for a relaxing UK timetable challenge? PS - Just had 8 days Spirit of Scotland train pass and loved the look of Paisley Gilmour Street as we were passing through a couple of times (looked out for you :)) Please keep the trips coming.

[@tstuart7333]

Nice little adventure. 3am set-down where! did you go to sleep? Many thanks once again Scott. Always interesting content.

[@markmcniven2625]

That sounded like the start of a bad joke. A Scotsman on a Croatian bus going from Paris to Brussels.

[@Tozzyy11]

Amazing video! Also when’s the next timetable challenge?

[@PatrickLeFloch]

How was the bus itself? I recall being on Flixbus which had good reclining and a slide-into-the-aisle feature which is great for elbow room. I was wondering if Crjna had the same.

[@David2012342]

Would you consider doing the Bus from London UK to Dublin Ireland by Bus Éireann? They operating days are a little strange however.

[@ats90mph]

In the US Bus industry we call this a “Farm Out”. Whenever there is a schedule that we can’t keep due to a driver or equipment shortage, we start calling around. We will give the schedule to whoever is licensed and able to do it for our price. Unfortunately this often time leads to a passenger experience that isn’t uniform, and can be quite poor. My former company got into hot water with one of our contracts when we started farming out regularly. However after customer complaints, and the companies we farmed the service to didn’t follow the contract boarding and seating policies, we were asked to stop, or they’ll find a carrier that will run the service with their own drivers and busses.

[@derekstuart5234]

Sub-contracting (as we call it in UK) can be a really good system, if you find good contractors. We have a good relationship with a few coach companies that operate school services (UK school buses are regular passenger coaches unlike in USA) and they are quiet during the school holidays, which in UK is around 2 months. However, during those 2 months we are very busy and we sub-contract a lot of our work to school operators and likewise the rest of the year, they often sub-contract bits to us when they're busy. However, we started finding that we'd do our bit off peak but they'd fail us during the peak. in the end we bought some more vehicles, recruited some more drivers and terminated some of the smaller work that wasn't worth keeping a dedicated vehicle for.

[@peterskegness3204]

"Croation version of Des O'Connor" 🤣🤣😁

[@Bruce-1956]

I've seen eastern European trucks reversing on motorways because they missed the exit.

[@Bobrogers99]

The things that go wrong make a trip memorable. A trip where everything went smoothly might be more easily forgotten.

[@kriskruz3792]

Never heard of blablabus - Thanks for uploading and alerting us to this bus service.

[@derekstuart5234]

'I know I made fun of Greta in this video, but no harm was meant. I don't have a problem with Greta Thunberg. In fact I think she's done a fantastic job raising environmental awareness with the younger generation. I consider myself environmentally aware, and so salute her work, and the work of the younger generation trying to change the mistakes of *my generation.' Don't be intimidated by these little econazis, Scott. They're obsessed and no matter how much you appease them it will never be enough. They're like little religious fanatics.

[@xr6lad]

100%. Sorry I do not like people using others; using young people is a speciality because they think using children to push a message makes them untouchable (the ‘how dare you bully a child’ which is exactly what they said when people questioned Greta). In this case they had a bonus of having one with a health issue that was allowed to get away with screaming at adults and a section of the community thought it was not only ‘cute’ but again the health issue to avoid any criticism…

[@terranceparsons5185]

So a professional driver goes the wrong way onto a motorway! Blablapillock

[@norshahilabintiishakmoe7786]

the way you said bla bla bla hahahahah make me laugh

[@Iain1983]

A Croatian version of Des o’ Connor sounds horrific 😂

[@marygarner5249]

Hello Scott so do look forward to your adventures always BIG 👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@bigmick3978]

absolute trooper i would have told him get that music down 😂

[@crrntvntsnthnlnftnsscmmnty]

Bercy is something that's for sure. Mind you, so is Brussels Nord. Though actually the area around Midi is actually rougher as I understand it, wouldn't really want to be there at 3am if I could help it.

[@robertkarp6336]

Quite the adventure. I'm always a bit concerned about drivers who may nod off on those overnight runs.

[@xr6lad]

I’m concerned with ones using one hand to drive in heavy traffic…..

[@davidoliver1169]

Fantastic video Scott. You like an adventure and how mad is that driver.

[@douglasdunlop9156]

Well presented , informative interesting and good patter well done Scott.

[@Andy-ju8bb]

So what is there to do in Brussels at stupid o'clock in the am?

[@alisonlucas6206]

Thanks for your reviews, Scott. You have done some amazing trip.

[@michaelkohutek1113]

At least you got to your destination in one piece! Travel well....and be safe

[@alexmcwhirter6611]

What an experience! Pity IZY train was axed a few weeks ago. That would have been one worth checking.

[@chrisgironde6669]

Your lucky your doing Paris bus station in day light hours I’ve changed there onto Bordeaux Flixbus at night Felt totally unsafe

[@georgemoore5139]

Well I do say your game to try the "oddball" stuff!!

[@cameronmurray3039]

Scott, I'm sure I saw you outside Paisley Gilmour Street a couple of days ago

[@johnfitzpatrick6544]

What did you do in Brussels at 3.00am?

[@jollyjohnston1984]

I'm interested to know what the Croatian version of Des O'connor sounds like

[@dtvfan24]

Blablabla car now a bus. Omg. Blablabla car is good Uber like thing

[@sheilam4525]

That was some journey!🤣🤣

[@allangold806]

I’ve mentioned it before but it would be really good if you mentioned the cost of the journey.

[@peterriemersma7946]

I love the name "The Most Amazing Son In..." at 2:22

[@truckerallikatuk]

Going into Brussels at 3am? You mad man! That whole area is dead...

[@Gazereths1234]

Jesus wrong way onto a motorway? Scary. Not as scary as a Croatian Des O'Connor though!

[@keithparker1346]

Funniest comment here 😂

[@AlexEwan1]

At least I now know never to travel with BlaBlaBa or whichever 3rd party they are contracting the work to at the time.

[@BoskiM]

The driver was fortunate not to have an accident driving the wrong way on the slip road. Inexperienced driver

[@andym28]

Seconded about bercy bus station. Had my bag stolen in June. No money passport or phone. Flixbus wouldn't let me email my family. Got a passenger to reach out to my family via his phone. Got my girlfriend to fly over after 9 days in bercy Park. Blabla are a bit more helpful but I have a reminder of bercy station on my passport because I look like a guy who slept in bercy park for a week.

[@AndreiTupolev]

Well, it's normal practice to subcontract at busy times, National Express regularly does it. It's not that that's so unusual as perhaps the choice of subcontractor. I suspect the coach and drivers were laying over and they asked them if they'd like a quick fill-in trip to Brussels

[@zodzod9378]

How much ? £

[@AdrianNelson1507]

Always used to offer out my rides on blablacar but after several years of no "hits", I stopped. Good idea though, much more used in mainland Europe

[@andreaswheeler]

that really was an adventure! looked quite scary when the driver went the wrong way

[@bluemedusa9858]

Croatian style ahhaha

[@eastwestdividetrains]

Maybe time to rename the channel "The journeys I made so you don't have to" ? Keep up the good work!

[@picnique7045]

Thx your video has been a great reference for me

[@medn2295]

Hi . I enjoy your content and subscribed. Thank you for the great content . A common man’s perspective that I prefer over some of the other snobbish influencer type bloggers. One last point though, I appreciate British humour; however please do not demean Greta’s message.

[@TheFragmentor]

Most of it looked like a complete sh*thole. The Greta thing was funny.

[@cannyexplorer5357]

Thanks for the timely warning, was looking at this service. Definitely going to use another company. Why has the French authorities not investigated this company or don’t they care.

[@gazza1858]

BlaBla Black sheep Iv heard of that but not BlaBla bus .

[@AndreiTupolev]

4:00I think that's about where I'd decide that hitchhiking even in the middle of the night might be preferable 😶

[@wezzel2806]

They had a deadly accident earlier this year in Belgium. The driver was under influence of drugs. Two people were killed.

[@andysheppard8346]

We're talking bottom of the barrel travel ere. Great vid and insight to what's about.. Got to weigh it up with airport hassle though

[@hanshartfiel6394]

BlaBla seems to be a bit like FlixBus, they don't all the busses they are running in their name but often subcontract to coach companies and you'll find a different livery on the bus

[@luisstransport]

Great video

[@lattlaylew2112]

Super video so it was !

[@crazyfroggie6546]

That wasn't bla bla bus... but every bus in front of you at the stops was a bla bla bus.

[@paulhoughton5266]

Hi Scott, enjoyable, in a certain way, to watch. However there are much better capital cities to travel between in Europe, than Paris and Brussels. Try Madrid to Lisbon

[@andrewsmith2399]

Wow I'm seeing things

[@stendecstretcher5678]

You certainly live life on the edge 😀

[@Moshimulations]

First they were OuiBus, then Blablabus and now BlablaCar lol what is with their name?

[@janetwhitten3945]

I really enjoy your adventures. As the only driver in the family for years, I have always enjoyed doing the odd bus journey. My favourite being belfast to Blackpool. Got to see the town of Carlisle rather than just the name on a motorway sign

[@shanegriffin8682]

Hmm driving the wrong way down the road. On reading about this company i found out about the following incident. On 10 April 2022, an accident happened close to Antwerp, Belgium. Two occupants of the bus were instantly killed, whilst several others were left in a life-threatening condition. The driver of the bus tested positive for drugs just after the accident. Police also stated that the driver of the bus was known for drug offences in the past. That's the sort of people that this company hires as drivers. I think i'll give travelling with BlaBlaCar Bus a miss. There are much more safer and more reputable operators to travel with. Oh and anyone who was offended by that Greta Thunberg joke really need to lighten up btw!

[@icdgyixifyinstereo]

Thanks for the warning. BTW, little Greta is beyond satire.

[@derekstuart5234]

Based on his written comments above I'll wager he's come in for abuse from the greta youth brigade. They're fanatics. I work in public transport and am trying to get as many cars off the road as possible but even then my employer is being abused because of [insert latest gripe here] by them.

[@xr6lad]

It’s amazing how because of a medical issue we are meant to exempt her from manners and accept her screaming at people when we wouldn’t accept it from anyone else. And that makes her untouchable in her defenders eyes.

[@paulmark63]

Hi Scott hope you are well I seen this coach service at London Victoria like with most companies they lease coaches with different names. National express do this all the time some of them I been on and are quiet good Scott continue the great work paul In Kent

[@derekstuart5234]

It's not a lease, which is an entirely different thing. These are contracted services and Nat Ex will pay a mileage/ time rate for services. I don't know what it's like now, but when I worked for National Excuse 20 odd years ago, with the exception of the airports (which were largely in-house thanks to NX purchase of Speedlink, Airbus, Flightlink etc) all the rest were contracted to either private coach companies or the large PLC bus operators. It used to be a real privilege to be a NX contractor or driver. Not now and they really struggle to find operators as more and more desert them in favour of flix or megabus. I don't know what their rates are now but despite being former NX, when I bought my first coaches and contacted my former colleagues in the contracts department I laughed at their rates.

[@cal-efc8062]

Croatian Des O’Connor 😂

[@dl8cy]

Could be end worse with that wrong-way driver! huh!

[@ianraffel7505]

Booking system and driver both need to be condemned. What a disaster, coped with admirally.

[@xr6lad]

A bus or truck driver (never mind a car) - but the former can cause greater damage - driving with one hand NEVER impresses me and is outright dangerous in heavy traffic.

[@royhumphrey49]

The driver should have been sacked for gross incompetence!

[@obzcure]

Oh... OK then

[@enricomonti156]

Yesterday I was travelling on Flixbus from Metz to Strasbourg and before our bus pulled in, we spotted a privately operated BlaBlaCar Bus which I believe was bound to Paris. They still operate also between Italy and Paris somehow

[@MattMoyes]

New company name: BlaBlaHeadOn

[@mikestravelshow]

Driving down the wrong slip road could of been a total disaster if it was involved in a crash head on. Very scary to say the least with the driver having no regards to safety of you or your fellow passengers. An absolute disgrace.

[@keithparker1346]

It sounds as if the driver was half asleep... dangerous

[@AnoNymInvestor]

Greta 🤣🤣🤣 Thx Scott! 👍🇩🇪

[@Robutube1]

There is nothing, NOTHING to recommend this company - thanks for trying them Scott, so we don't have to. Tired drivers, 3rd party buses and the potential for fatal accidents; no thanks.

[@hoiyinwan8233]

You have amazing contents! You must suffered a lot while making these videos!

[@bd4_l]

Well that was a memorable lil trip

[@danielpeti3885]

Good music :-) Luce Mala what the driver was listening

[@deeser]

Please flag this with BlaBlaCar. it's not OK to have a coach driver so overtired that they go the wrong way down a motorway!

[@stephens9566]

Not good driving the wrong way I think I would of had a fair bit to say.

[@kevanhubbard9673]

The main bus station in Paris use to be on Rue Stalingrad on the north of the city centre so maybe they have moved it or maybe south bound ones use Bercy although as Brussels is north that can't be it!That would be an interesting trip Glasgow to Stalingrad AKA Volgagrad by bus although not the best time for a westerner to be back in the USSR!

[@briocheoleary5043]

Love this content.. you do it, do we don’t have to, lol

[@oscars4107]

More like Nah Nah bus😐

[@timbounds7190]

And I thought Stagecoach were a bit rough and ready in their early days!

[@junethomson5176]

They still are

[@katbryce]

😬 It is certainly cheaper than Thalys but I think I would still prefer to take the train.

[@alexmcwhirter6611]

Thalys used to operate a budget TGV branded IZY between Paris Nord and Brussels Midi. Sadly it's been axed. Thalys says it didn't want to confuse its customers with two products but I believe it was because Thalys is short of rolling stock. I expect you heard about Thalys suffering three train failures in the past fortnight.

[@katbryce]

@@alexmcwhirter6611 Yes, but I've also heard that Thalys has been taken over by Eurostar, and surely Eurostar has spare trainsets at the moment due to them not running a full service? 🤔

[@alexmcwhirter6611]

@@katbryce Indeed. They merged a few months ago. Thalys has received no extra rolling stock for over 20 years. It's short of capacity. Yes the Siemens Eurostar trains could operate Amsterdam-Brussels-Paris.

[@twobins2060]

The things you do for our entertainment.

[@andrewsmith2399]

I'm sorry to say that but what the f*** is that bus depot I Edinburgh bus station look bad s***

[@the_vehicle_spotter]

Anyways here is your like

[@jasonpolaris]

The driver is like me playing Bus Simulator LOL

[@jodydorsett8726]

For a man, who self admitattally confesses to not sleeping on the move...why take late night transport?

[@keithparker1346]

It's usually cheap