Uber plans to let users buy train and plane tickets through its app as it looks to move beyond minicabs into an all-encompassing transport hub.
Inter-city trains and coaches will be available to book through Uber in the summer, the company said. It plans to let tourists buy plane and Eurostar tickets later in the year.
Uber will also let people rent cars across the UK through the app, and plans to offer hotel booking at a later date, as part of a plan to move towards a fully-fledged transport booking system.
The company, which recently secured a new London licence in a major boost to its British business, is in the final stages of reaching agreements with operators to sell the tickets.
They will be available as QR codes within the app, with journeys organised so that the company’s cars ferry passengers to and from a station or airport.
More than 40pc of Uber’s existing trips in the UK start or end near public transport facilities such as stations or airports. Allowing users to buy train and coach tickets marks an effort to demonstrate that Uber augments public transport instead of replacing it.
While the company will take a fee for booking transport, it also believes that letting people buy tickets through the app will mean more people taking an Uber to a station.
The company has been accused of contributing to congestion by flooding the streets of major cities with private cars. Uber, by contrast, has claimed that it cuts down on private car ownership.
Uber has shown public transport directions on its app since 2019 but has not allowed users to buy tickets through the app.
Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s chief executive, set out a plan to turn the app from a minicab provider to a full transport service when he joined in 2018, but the chaos of the pandemic and the accompanying surge in its food delivery business affected the plan.
Uber’s UK boss Jamie Heywood said the changes would turn Uber into a “one-stop shop for all your travel needs”.
It already allows users to rent bikes and scooters through the app in the UK.
