Greyhound

[howittpie]

Noticed in bus and coach weekly that the London-Glasgow greyhound service is coming off in September and there is some reduction on the South Coast service however the welsh service is performing above expectations. Is this beginnig of the end for Greyhound in the uk?

 

[telstarbox]

How well loaded are the London to Hampshire routes? As the timings versus rail are more competitive here I'd expect them to be doing well.

 

[overthewater]

Noticed in bus and coach weekly that the London-Glasgow greyhound service is coming off in September and there is some reduction on the South Coast service however the welsh service is performing above expectations. Is this beginnig of the end for Greyhound in the uk?

Coach service that operates along the same route as the soon to be held rail service

 

[Lrd]

How well loaded are the London to Hampshire routes? As the timings versus rail are more competitive here I'd expect them to be doing well.

I did Southampton - London a few months a go, I think it left at 0550 and got to London at about 0830, there were about 10 of us on board! The train takes an hour less but the coach only cost me £6 instead of an Anytime fare.

Of all the coaches I've seen going through Southampton City Centre they look rather empty, although they may pick up/drop off a few passengers at the University.

 

[Pink]

Im used greyhound i always find them better than National Express.

 

[adtrainz]

With regards to the Glasgow service, isn't it an overnight service? This would mean it competes with NX, Megabus' sleeper service...and the Caledonian Sleeper?

 

[radamfi]

With regards to the Glasgow service, isn't it an overnight service? This would mean it competes with NX, Megabus' sleeper service...and the Caledonian Sleeper?

And it also competes with the regular Megabus seated coach service. I suspect the market is simply too saturated.

Having said that, were Silver Choice doing OK before they got taken over by First? Perhaps they would still be going strong now?

 

[GearJammer]

Do Greyhound coaches still operate Scania coaches?
The firm i work for (i won't name them but theres a clue in my pic <<<< are allowed to park X amount of trucks in Scanias at Segensworth/Fareham each weekend as an extension to are yard which becomes crowded, its a 2 minute walk away, also parked in there at weekends were the Greyhound coaches, usually 4-5 of them, but not seen them for a while, so wondered if they got new coaches from another manufacterer?

 

[sonic2009]

Do Greyhound coaches still operate Scania coaches?
The firm i work for (i won't name them but theres a clue in my pic

 

[howittpie]

And it also competes with the regular Megabus seated coach service. I suspect the market is simply too saturated.

Having said that, were Silver Choice doing OK before they got taken over by First? Perhaps they would still be going strong now?

If my memory serves me correctly Silver Choice were in financial trouble at one point as they ran 2 London services one direct from Hamilton and one via Birmingham and Manchester. When it became the First nightflyer I used a few times and always seemed busy but never used when it became part of the Greyhound operation.

 

[F Great Eastern]

It's unfortunate that Greyhound has struggled so much in this country, it's a better product and the coaches are of a higher standard than National Express. however it seems people are just used to using National Express and MegaBus and are not willing to switch despite the obvious advantages.

For me there is no competition, if I can take a coach with all that legroom, plug sockets, leather seats, Wifi, toilet and a few more things I'd take it over a National Express coach that may offer just leather seats and toilets.

By the way, here is a twitter account of a driver
https://twitter.com/greyhoundukmick

 

[starrymarkb]

To be honest they never really made a effort with it. First never really seem to see any innovations through. If they built up more of a UK network then people might chose them. But for much of the UK the only options are NatEx or Megabus, if Greyhound don't serve an area you are not going to take them.

Stagecoach seemed to be more patient with Megabus, giving the routes time to build before chopping and changing.

 

[F Great Eastern]

Allegedly why Alex Warner left as UK bus Business Director and as MD as Greyhound UK, pretty much the fact about the dumbing down of the product and the lack of will to drive it forward within the business.

 

[anthony263]

Greyhound can be a lot better than it currently is I agree in fact I passed on of the First Cymru greyhound Scannias broken down close to the M4 at Jct 33 on my way home from work this evening.

 

[F Great Eastern]

First don't want to buy new coaches though which is partly why the National Express contracts were ending, and the fact the Greyhound services have been using refurbished coaches from 2004 to 2006. This is part of the reason the brand has not reached it's potential and unfortunately this is First all over, they've invested very little in the coach fleet in the last 4-5 years.

First Aircoach in Dublin is going to get hit very hard by competition soon on their flagship intercity route because they need vehicles with toilets since the route had it's rest stop removed when it went non stop and First's answer is to replace very high spec 2009 vehicles without toilets with ex NX contract vehicles from 2004-2006 that have lower spec but do have toilets to avoid having to buy/lease new vehicles. A poor compromise as passengers want toilets, but the values the brand is built on is being abandoned to provide them. The competition will offer brand new coaches that an tick all the boxes so no doubt this will go the same was as Greyhound.

 

[tbtc]

were Silver Choice doing OK before they got taken over by First? Perhaps they would still be going strong now?

Apparently they were, but with lower cost base to First. There's always been a new operator willing to try their hand at the Glasgow - London coach market though.

To be honest they never really made a effort with it. First never really seem to see any innovations through. If they built up more of a UK network then people might chose them. But for much of the UK the only options are NatEx or Megabus, if Greyhound don't serve an area you are not going to take them.

Stagecoach seemed to be more patient with Megabus, giving the routes time to build before chopping and changing.

I totally agree - First just don't seem to want to expand markets or develop them or innovate (with the exception of bendi-buses). Stagecoach have more patience and more will to try new things - Magic Bus, Megabus, Yellow Taxibus etc, even if that's meant competing with other Stagecoach brands.

Some things haven't worked (Taxibus), but they've built Megabus up from nothing (with life expired double deckers) to take a bit share of some of National Express's key routes.

TBH, if Stagecoach owned the right to Greyhound (as a brand) I could imagine them running it as an alternative to Megabus (going for the more expensive end of the market) because they know how to work a market with different products.

 

[anthony263]

I agree and as we have all seen Megabus has proved to be a sucess for Stagecoach.
In fact the south wales - London route is to be further expanded along with some of the crosscountry routes from Cardiff/Bristol to Manchester/Sunderland.

 

[F Great Eastern]

We've also seen better investment in the likes of new vehicles etc also, whilst the Greyhound specs of the vehicles are very good and better than Megabus, the feeling I always got is that First were simply launching Greyhound to find something for the vehicles to do after deciding to pull out of National Express work, they were not willing to throw capital at new vehicles to expand the service, as seen with the Scotland service which despite starting later, had vehicles two years older than those the other services had.

 

[Blindtraveler]

what nat ex work do First still do? As stated earlier they do seam to be good at not investing and pulling things

 

[F Great Eastern]

None, it all ceased in July.

 

[anthony263]

Confirmed First dont have any national express coaches, us down at Edwards coaches have most of the national express services operating out of south wales

 

[F Great Eastern]

Well to be pedantic they do have National Express coaches, just not any contracts.

The vehicles are either being allocated to other operations in the wider group, or being prepared for disposal.