Uber adds shared rides and train booking in Spain

Uber has unveiled a ride-sharing service in Spain’s capital Madrid called UberX Share.

The service aims to make travel more sustainable as well as enabling users to save up to 30% by sharing with other users.

The initiative was announced last week during an event in Madrid, where the ground transport provider also announced the integration of train tickets across Spain into its app.

In a release, Uber says UberX Share rides will be at least 8% cheaper than UberX, which is the platform’s most popular option.

The service works by notifying a user who has requested a ride that another passenger wants to go in the same direction. The users then share part of the ride or the complete journey.

Uber said the service is the evolution of a carpooling initiative it has had in the United States and some cities across Europe, including Paris and Stockholm, for a number of years.

Felipe Fernández Aramburu, director of Uber in Portugal and Spain, said the move is part of the platform's drive to make cities more sustainable. He added that the company has seen the initiative work well in other cities, with millions of people happy to share rides and save money.

The integration of rail reservations across Spain follows a similar move in the United Kingdom announced two years ago. The integration is thanks to a partnership with ground transportation platform Omio, which was first announced in August 2022.

The move now makes it possible for users to reserve a train ticket and hire a car from the app for the same trip.

Aramburu said the addition of rail in Spain was a step further in Uber’s evolution to becoming the leading app for travel globally.

Jean Francois Bessiron, director of B2B for Omio Group, added that the partnership with Uber is part of its mission to facilitate door-to-door multimodal travel.

Uber has committed to being a zero emissions platform in Europe and the U.S. by 2030 and the rest of the world by 2040.