Soon to be your tour bus with new Visitobus app Photo: Simon_sees / Wikimedia
RATP, the regional authority that runs Paris transit systems has just unveiled a new set of smartphone apps, one of which may become one of the city’s best tourist bargains.
Called ‘Visitobus,’ the new app turns an ordinary Paris bus ride into a good competitor for the tour buses by giving you an audioguide to the sights and features along the route, in English. Regular visitors to Paris have long known that the bus routes, some of which cover long distances across the city, beat the Metro for getting to know the city, so this is icing on the cake! Only a few lines are set up now, but the rest are in the works.
The apps are available starting tomorrow for both Android and IOS. They don’t appear to be in the app stores yet, but can be found at RATP’s site HERE. Included among the dozen are an app specialized for the RER A, Europe’s busiest train line with 1.2 million passengers a day, giving up-to-the-minute conditions all along the line.
The other apps include enhanced versions of the existing route planner, with information on what’s near each stop, where there are elevators or escalators, when there are disruptions, and perhaps best of all: Which car of the train lines up with which exit or transfer point.
