Uber shuts down Shuttle bus services in Mumbai and Hyderabad amid low ridership
The shutdown affects 250-300 buses in Mumbai and 150-200 in Hyderabad, the people cited earlier said, requesting anonymity.
'In Mumbai alone, around 250-300 buses are off the road. Hyderabad will see 150-200 impacted," a Mumbai-based bus fleet operator said, adding that Uber had recently informed them about the shutdown.
Uber confirmed the development to Mint.
'Cityflo might absorb some of the demand, as Uber was operating on around 200-odd routes across Mumbai and Hyderabad— similar to Cityflo," said a second person directly aware of the matter.
In comparison, Mumbai-based Cityflo runs 450 buses in the city. Cityflo began its Delhi operations in March this year. Cityflo operates air-conditioned buses in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Delhi for office commute.
Around the same time, Uber launched its Shuttle service in Hyderabad only to shut it down within a few months.
Meanwhile, Uber has doubled down on Delhi-NCR. In January, Uber began offering unlimited free Shuttle rides between Delhi and Gurugram, valid until 1 February 2025, according to a company press release. As of December 2024, Uber Shuttle was operating on about 300 routes in Delhi.
Uber Shuttle services were launched in Mumbai in September 2021, shutting down less than four years later. At the time, the company had stated the service would remove 'the stress and time suck of traffic jams and the cost and hassle of finding a parking spot.And by making it easy for people to give up their cars, the service can reduce congestion, pollution and emissions in our cities."
'Low ridership and high operational costs appear to be the primary reasons behind the shutdown," said a mobility industry analyst, requesting anonymity. 'Uber was heavily discounting rides, but each trip needs at least 50-60% seat occupancy just to break even—and that's hard to sustain without consistent demand."
Previously, Amazon-backed Shuttl ceased operations in June 2021, ahead of its acquisition by Chalo. Ola Shuttle was officially shut down on 3 February 2018, after scaling down in several cities including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad. ZipGo suspended operations in February 2019, initially pulling out of Bengaluru and Mumbai before winding down the operations elsewhere.
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