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Scheduled Intercity Coaches ran by Independants

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Man of Kent

Man of Kent

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rj246 said:
It's interesting that almost all London commuter coach are serving Kent.
For example, there were 10 departures of 735/736 serving Gravesend per day each direction, while
no service existed across the Thames in Essex.
Is it due to the geographical reason?
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Largely attributable to poor rail access to Canary Wharf from Kent, and that local rail stations are close to the Thames/Medway, while the towns have grown southwards and many people are nearer to the A2/M2.
 
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rj246

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Man of Kent said:
Largely attributable to poor rail access to Canary Wharf from Kent, and that local rail stations are close to the Thames/Medway, while the towns have grown southwards and many people are nearer to the A2/M2.
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So the Crossrail from Abbey Wood to Canary Wharf would be a potential challenge to these service?!
 
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duncombec

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rj246 said:
So the Crossrail from Abbey Wood to Canary Wharf would be a potential challenge to these service?!
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They could be, but that still doesn't solve the problem of getting to the railway station at the home end (which can be 2-3 miles, with expensive car parking or limited public transport options between 5 and 7am), and that the service to Abbey Wood is operated by Thameslink, with known reliability, punctuality and comfort issues.
 
markymark2000

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rj246 said:
It's interesting that almost all London commuter coach are serving Kent.
For example, there were 10 departures of 735/736 serving Gravesend per day each direction, while
no service existed across the Thames in Essex.
Is it due to the geographical reason?
Click to expand...
The only thing I can put it down to is south of London, National Express has a LOT of coaches which I believe people can and do use for commuting. Similarly west to Bristol, there are constant buses that way.
 
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extendedpaul

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My son had a flight into Southend Airport last week and was surprised at the lack of coach services to London compared with Stansted and Luton.

Reckon there's a gap in the market for an independent there.
 
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duncombec

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markymark2000 said:
The only thing I can put it down to is south of London, National Express has a LOT of coaches which I believe people can and do use for commuting. Similarly west to Bristol, there are constant buses that way.
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Hmm... not really. At least I'd be surprised if they did from Kent. Taking the main commuter coach area as an example, NatEx only have two stops, neither of which are really convenient. I'd be surprised if anyone travels from further out (e.g. Canterbury/Dover/Thanet), as the trains are faster - albeit more expensive - and better serve the urban areas.

Bayliss started a commuter coach service from Deal after "popular request" but found they couldn't make it work, and Buzzlines withdrew the longstanding service through Ashford a year or so ago - well before their recent demise - for the same reasons.

NatEx are also not that frequent. There are, across all operators, 40-50 coaches in each direction in the peaks. NatEx don't manage a tenth of that.
 
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darloscott

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duncombec said:
Hmm... not really. At least I'd be surprised if they did from Kent. Taking the main commuter coach area as an example, NatEx only have two stops, neither of which are really convenient. I'd be surprised if anyone travels from further out (e.g. Canterbury/Dover/Thanet), as the trains are faster - albeit more expensive - and better serve the urban areas.

Bayliss started a commuter coach service from Deal after "popular request" but found they couldn't make it work, and Buzzlines withdrew the longstanding service through Ashford a year or so ago - well before their recent demise - for the same reasons.

NatEx are also not that frequent. There are, across all operators, 40-50 coaches in each direction in the peaks. NatEx don't manage a tenth of that.
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Don't forget a significant proportion of the commuter coaches are ran by Clarke's and Kings Ferry, both of whom are NX owned, therefore I suspect there is a fair bit of making sure NX services don't compete with their own commuter operations.
 
markymark2000

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duncombec said:
Hmm... not really. At least I'd be surprised if they did from Kent. Taking the main commuter coach area as an example, NatEx only have two stops, neither of which are really convenient. I'd be surprised if anyone travels from further out (e.g. Canterbury/Dover/Thanet), as the trains are faster - albeit more expensive - and better serve the urban areas.

Bayliss started a commuter coach service from Deal after "popular request" but found they couldn't make it work, and Buzzlines withdrew the longstanding service through Ashford a year or so ago - well before their recent demise - for the same reasons.

NatEx are also not that frequent. There are, across all operators, 40-50 coaches in each direction in the peaks. NatEx don't manage a tenth of that.
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South East has a lot of commuter coaches but very little from the south or south west and that is what I was saying about NatEx has a lot of services to these places so people probably use them for commuting if they don't want to use trains.

Think Bristol where NatEx run many, many services. Southampton, Portsmouth and Bournemouth all have quite high frequency NatEx services.
 
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duncombec

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darloscott said:
Don't forget a significant proportion of the commuter coaches are ran by Clarke's and Kings Ferry, both of whom are NX owned, therefore I suspect there is a fair bit of making sure NX services don't compete with their own commuter operations.
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As a daily passenger, that would be somewhat difficult to forget! But the same is true even before the takeover of both operators.

National Express barely leave the motorway, whereas the commuter coaches serve the housing estates and villages without or with poor links to London. I can hardly imagine those travelling from the Kent coast would appreciate a grand tour of Medway's housing estates.
 
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Roilshead

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What about Parks involvement in Scottish Citylink operations? Don't they operate some timings on Glasgow/Edinburgh/Inverness/Aberdeen in their own right? - wasn't Scottish Citylink required to divest itself of some timings after the Stagecoach-ComfortDelgro joint venture was formed?

As the Parks timings are shown in the Citylink timetables, and carry Citylink numbers, with - presumably - inter-availability of tickets, I'm not sure what purpose the divestment served. Do Parks run coaches in their own livery on their timings, or do they run under the Citylink identity?
 
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darloscott

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Roilshead said:
What about Parks involvement in Scottish Citylink operations? Don't they operate some timings on Glasgow/Edinburgh/Inverness/Aberdeen in their own right? - wasn't Scottish Citylink required to divest itself of some timings after the Stagecoach-ComfortDelgro joint venture was formed?

As the Parks timings are shown in the Citylink timetables, and carry Citylink numbers, with - presumably - inter-availability of tickets, I'm not sure what purpose the divestment served. Do Parks run coaches in their own livery on their timings, or do they run under the Citylink identity?
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I saw a Parks coach in their own livery on the 900 last week but I suspect that was a one off and they're generally in a Parks branded Citylink livery
 
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Roilshead said:
What about Parks involvement in Scottish Citylink operations? Don't they operate some timings on Glasgow/Edinburgh/Inverness/Aberdeen in their own right? - wasn't Scottish Citylink required to divest itself of some timings after the Stagecoach-ComfortDelgro joint venture was formed?

As the Parks timings are shown in the Citylink timetables, and carry Citylink numbers, with - presumably - inter-availability of tickets, I'm not sure what purpose the divestment served. Do Parks run coaches in their own livery on their timings, or do they run under the Citylink identity?
Click to expand...

I'd have to say that the divestment to Parks was merely a vehicle (excuse the pun!) in order for Stagecoach to satisfy the rulings of the Competition Commission.
Of course I haven't any actual evidence of this but it seems highly convenient that back 11 years ago under investigation by the Competition Commission, when Stagecoach threatened to throw their toys out of the pram, that one of the principal Scottish Citylink contractors (Parks) happened to take on some routes so that the Competion Commission would shut up <D

Parks vehicles used one of the routes that were divested (Glasgow - Aberdeen) normally carry Citylink livery with Parks branding.

It'd be interesting delving into the accounts of Stagecoach and Parks as I'm sure that somewhere they'll be a connection!
 
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DMU180 said:
Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but Fishers Tours (Dundee) used to run Scottish express services of their own. A few of their coaches still have these advertised so would assume they still run? Never been able to find any information on routes or times etc
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While advertised as express services, and operating (to all intents and purposes) as such, Fishers routes are actually stage carriage routes with limited stops. A sentence at the end of their timetable confirms this... and was probably added after they landed in hot water with the Traffic Commissioner sometime in the early 2000's for failing to operate local bus services as registered.
 
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Roilshead

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John McGinley, Gortahork, Co Donegal, run Letterkenney - Glasgow (pre-booking only, but 4 days/week) and Co Donegal - Londonderry - Monaghan - Ardee - Dublin. When I used the latter service from Dublin a couple of years ago it also stopped in Omagh (well, on the by-pass); you could pay on the coach, but the method of fare collection was that you got on and at Monaghan (again, services on the by-pass, where a rest-break was taken) a staff member got on and collected fares as the coach journeyed onwards (presumably if you got off in Ardee you paid your fare to the driver on leaving).

Oh! That reminds me. Eamonn Rooney, Rostrevor, run Rostrevor - Newry - Belfast and Rostrevor - Newry - Dublin (peaks); and Dublin Coach run Belfast - Dublin (hourly). Both PAYE, with ticketing machines.
 
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Roilshead

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markymark2000 said:
I thought I would start a thread for us to keep track of some of the lesser known scheduled coaches. OF course we have Megabus, Citylink and NatEx who we all know but companies like Thandi Coaches and Berrys run their own scheduled intercity coaches and I thought it would be a good topic for discussion.

Berrys:
Superfast 1 - 2 x return trips - Tiverton, Wellington, Taunton, North Petherton & Bridgwater to London
Superfast 2 - 2 x return trips - Taunton, Ilminster, South Petherton, Yeovil, Ilchester, RNAS Yeovilton & Wincanton to London
Superfast 3 - 1 x return trip - Taunton, Street, Glastonbury, Shepton Mallet, Frome, Warminster & Codford to London

Hannon Coach
2 return trips - Lurgan, Lisburn, Belfast to Glasgow

JH Coaches
B66 - 1 return trip (Summer Mon, Fri & Sun) - Newcastle, Durham, Bishop Auckland to Blackpool.

New Bharat Coaches:
2 return trips - Southall, Slough, Coventry, Handsworth, Smethwick & Wolverhampton
1 return trip - Southall, Slough & Leicester
1 return trip - Southall, Slough, Leicester, Derby & Bradford

New Punjab
upto 3 return trips - Southall, Slough, Coventry, Handsworth, Smethwick & Wolverhampton
1 return trip - Southall, Slough & Leicester
1 return trip - Southall, Slough, Leicester, Derby & Bradford

Swanbrook
Upto 4 return trips - Cheltenham, Burford, Whitney & Oxford

Thandi Coaches:
751 - 2 x return trips - Gravesend, Dartford, East Ham, Barking, Luton, Coventry, Handsworth, Smethwick & Wolverhampton
752 - 2 x return trips - Gravesend, Dartford, East Ham, Barking, Luton, Leicester, Sheffield & Bradford
753 - 1 x return trip - Bradford, Sheffield, Leicester, Luton, Slough & Southall
754 - 2 x return trips - Bradford, Sheffield, Leicester, Coventry, Handsworth, Smethwick & Wolverhampton

Wright Bros
888 - 1 return trip (June-September) - Newcastle, Hexham, Penrith, Keswick


Commuter Coaches
Not listing all the routes as there are quite a few. Please see the list in post #2 by njawley for full routes.
To London:
Brookline, Centaur, Clarkes, Kings Ferry, Marshalls, Redwing

If anyone can help fill any gaps or if people want to post news regarding scheduled intercity coach routes then feel free.
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There are two "Thandis" out there! "Thandi Executive" (blue Thandi, Smethwick) run Southall - Slough - Coventry - Handsworth - Smethwick - Wolverhampton. The services listed above are "Thandi Coaches" (red Thandi, West Bromwich) . . . from what I can gather from a West Midlands bus forum they might be run by branches of the same family that split after a disagreement.
 
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Darklord8899

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PG said:
I'd have to say that the divestment to Parks was merely a vehicle (excuse the pun!) in order for Stagecoach to satisfy the rulings of the Competition Commission.
Of course I haven't any actual evidence of this but it seems highly convenient that back 11 years ago under investigation by the Competition Commission, when Stagecoach threatened to throw their toys out of the pram, that one of the principal Scottish Citylink contractors (Parks) happened to take on some routes so that the Competion Commission would shut up <D

Parks vehicles used one of the routes that were divested (Glasgow - Aberdeen) normally carry Citylink livery with Parks branding.

It'd be interesting delving into the accounts of Stagecoach and Parks as I'm sure that somewhere they'll be a connection!
Click to expand...

As far as I am aware Parks of Hamilton is still independently owned and has no connection to Stagecoach or companies connected to Stagecoach or it's subsidiaries

......Though I will stand corrected if anyone knows differently
 
61653 HTAFC

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Would perhaps be worth being more specific about London termini used: for example Berry's used to terminate at Hammersmith bus station in London, do they still do so?
 
markymark2000

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Darklord8899 said:
As far as I am aware Parks of Hamilton is still independently owned and has no connection to Stagecoach or companies connected to Stagecoach or it's subsidiaries

......Though I will stand corrected if anyone knows differently
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Parks I believe are independently owned however I got the impression that their 'city to city' services were just merely selling tickets trips which they run on behalf of Scottish Citylink. That is why I didn't include them. If Parks City to City services are separate to Scottish Citylink & Megabus, I would be happy to put them on the list.

61653 HTAFC said:
Would perhaps be worth being more specific about London termini used: for example Berry's used to terminate at Hammersmith bus station in London, do they still do so?
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Berrys do still use Hammersmith. I have edited this. When I click save, the changes should show then :)
 
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Andyh82

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What about coaches to Luton Airport other than the Greenline, isn’t there something called ‘Airport Express’ that uses old levantes, does that count? Also is Terravision still going?
 
markymark2000

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Andyh82 said:
What about coaches to Luton Airport other than the Greenline, isn’t there something called ‘Airport Express’ that uses old levantes, does that count? Also is Terravision still going?
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Greenline would count but it is owned by Arriva so I am unsure if I could count it. Plus, they can also act as a limited express local stopping service (similar to the Fishers Tours routes)

Airport Express I suppose does count.

Terravision is going but in the UK they are only a reseller for 'normal' services.
 
markymark2000

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Rothy said:
Anyone aware of this company? I just happened to come across them on Google. They seem to offer a similar service to the John McGinley one mentioned earlier.

https://busfeda.ie/donegal-glasgow
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Never heard of them but I suppose I best add them to the list.

It appears there are a lot more Scotland - Northern Ireland services than first thought. I thought only Citylink had the 923 and NatEx on the 920.
 
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Roilshead

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Rothy said:
Anyone aware of this company?
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I've seen their coaches in Galway on the Donegal-Galway service.

Between 1970-79 Lough Swilly, Ulsterbus, and Western SMT operated a Glasgow-Londondery-Letterkenny express with connections to West Donegal by Lough Swilly services. It was introduced at the request of Bord Failte to replace the withdrawn Glasgow-Londonderry steamers, which had historically served the Donegal-Glasgow market (Glasgow presents much more attractive employment opportunities than does Donegal). Unfortunately, unlicensed mini-bus operators - often taxi firms - offering cut-price, door-to-door services undercut and killed-off the Logh Swilly-Ulsterbus-SBG service. The current services offered by John McGinley and Bus Feda represent the development and professionalisation of those mini-bus operations; the Bus Feda web-site acknowledges the origins of the company.

Hannon Coach's NI-Glasgow service has the advantage of using a through coach, whereas the Scottish Citylink-Ulsterbus service requires Ulsterbus to Larne, where passengers disembark and transfer their own luggage onto the ferry, then transfer their own luggage back onto the Scottish Citylink Stranraer-Glasgow service (923?) after disembarking at Cairnryan (I think the Citylink Stranraer-Glasgow service is operated by Ulsterbus from heir Stranraer depot). Hannon Coach have applied to the NI Department for Infrastructure to operate a number of internal express services in NI in competition with Ulsterbus . . .

Patrick Gallagher coaches operate West Donegal-Londondery-Dungiven-Belfast (essentially am out and pm back for commuting Mon-Sat, but with a late journey Sunday night), but being operated under "international" regulations doesn't convey passengers wholly within NI.
 
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