Uber ties up with Omio to add train and coach booking, starting with UK

Uber is testing adding coach and train travel to its app in the UK so customers can book longer-distance ground travel via a fully-integrated tie-up with Berlin-based global travel platform, Omio.

Omio has built up its consumer-facing apps for booking intercity and international travel, across a wide variety of supported transport options, over almost a decade of operations. However, in recent years, it’s been plowing resources into building out a b2b line—making its inventory available to partners via APIs so they can add transport booking options to their apps and apps and platforms.

According to founder and CEO Naren Shaam, Uber is not the first such tie up for Omio. But he admitted that it is the first partner to get full access to its ground transport inventory—which covers over 1,000 transportation providers across 37 countries.

CEO Shaam said Uber was the first partner in both scales and the first to gain access to Omio’s full ticketing API so customers can do everything within the Uber app. He added that it was the first collaboration concerning the product being offered that they were proud of.

Omio’s earlier B2B partnerships include some transport providers, like UK-based LNER, travel search engine Kayak, and technology giant Huawei, among others.