I have long thought that you can tell a fair amount about a country given the transportation arrangements at the airport. If you have an airport where taxi drivers are allowed to roam the terminal attempting to scam passengers, then there’s either widespread corruption or airport management taking a very relaxed view of its responsibilities. And if you have an airport where there’s an obvious convenient option which is more expensive and some complex and packed service which is cheaper, then that’s not a city in need of tourists. And there are cities that can manage to put up clear signage and others where they decide that passengers need to complete an informal intelligence test.
Nantes made a broadly encouraging first impression. Nantes didn’t have taxi drivers roaming free and it had excellent signage, so it felt like an adult had been in charge of the arrangements. The airport was, however, very keen to guide passengers towards the direct bus costing €10, while being rather less enthusiastic about advertising the number 38 bus, which cost just under €2. The cheaper option was not exactly concealed, but it had been placed in the category of information available primarily to people who had already discovered it.
I obviously wanted the cheaper of the two buses and I was pleased to note that the tickets were sold at the same machine and the process was clear only for those who had read up in advance. However, the driver of this bus fended off over ten different customer groups, using his knowledge of French, German and English, because passengers were muddled up over how the buses worked. I thought that the local bus company was price gouging, there was no need for the €10 fare when evidently the rest of the network works with fares that are a fifth of that.
But, I had my front row seat and I was pleased that the journey into a relatively central part of Nantes took just over 35 minutes. The bus was clean, comfortable and professional driven and I was pleased at my thrifty ticket which cost me under €2. And not everywhere can compete with cities such as Wrocław, Warsaw and Gdańsk, where ordinary public transport reaches the airport without the authorities deciding that the final few kilometres require a special financial contribution. Those cities appear to regard an airport as part of the transport network rather than a captive market with runways, but I mustn’t sound like I’m complaining as the service I did catch was affordable, timely, clean and with a friendly driver.