Megabus Discussion

[Spsf3232]

Having worked for Citylink and Megabus, Citylink we're always the ones that ran the operations from Glasgow and even 10 years ago Megabus was more of a hindrance to Citylink than anything. I think FlixBus coming onto the scene, they just didn't have the fight in them to stay relevant. I also don't think the new Stagecoach owners were interested either in the venture and seem to be trying to cost cut.

I can see the Megabus brand vanishing and Citylink remaining for the cross border work in the future.

 

[Parebunks]

It looks like there's a sporadic Bristol to Cardiff coach that seems to still exist post December 4th. But yeah does seem like the regular Anglo Welsh services are gone, just replaced with the odd token one which no doubt will be removed in the future due to low use!

As far as I can see that's the M19, which carries on all the way to Glasgow!

 

[WelshBluebird]

As far as I can see that's the M19, which carries on all the way to Glasgow!

Fun journey! So yeah maybe it is just the Scottish services that continue and wherever they happen to go also get served. Not something I'd want to be relying on though!

 

[AlastairFraser]

Looking at the booking engine the statement seems to have been somewhat unclear - the only ones that seem to be carrying on from December are the ones ran out of Scotland, so not the Wales-London or Wales-Manchester and Leeds routes. If that's right and the Wales routes aren't just taking longer to add, I wonder if the megabus brand might be living on borrowed time - at this point I see little reason not to standardise it all to Scottish Citylink.
This is a real shame for me personally - although the times have certainly become less convenient recently megabus were still the only company running from Oxford to north of Birmingham, and I did prefer their vehicles to flix or NX. Perhaps inevitable though, particularly after the still fairly recent cutbacks/changes. Hoping that this creates opportunity for flix to fill the remaining gaps including Oxford - the once-a-day M84 is certainly inadequate and such a long route as to be constantly delayed by multiple hours.

Yes I reckon Flix will fill the gaps. I actually prefer the Flixbus experience and prices, so hopefully they take up most of the old routes relatively soon. My only worry is that NatEx will use it as an excuse to raise fares in the interim between Megabus shutdown and Flix registering the former Megabus routes.

 

[JonathanH]

Yes I reckon Flix will fill the gaps.

Is Flixbus actually doing so well that it will pick up the gaps? Is this actually an overall lack of demand for coaches, rather than being forced out of the market by competitors?

 

[AlastairFraser]

Is Flixbus actually doing so well that it will pick up the gaps? Is this actually an overall lack of demand for coaches, rather than being forced out of the market by competitors?

It seems to have been significantly expanding over the last few years, I guess time will tell if it is successful.

 

[WestCoast]

It seems to have been significantly expanding over the last few years, I guess time will tell if it is successful.

I think Flix UK will continue to grow, their booking experience is far more modern than megabus. I mean I don't think there is a market they have entered where haven't ended up as the dominant or second largest operator of long distance coach services, the megabus Europe operations ended up in their hands as I recall. Go to any coach station round Europe these days and it's wall to wall Flixbus, quite incredible really.

 

[JonathanH]

It seems to have been significantly expanding over the last few years, I guess time will tell if it is successful.

There is only so much cherry picking that can be done though.

 

[Deerfold]

Yes I reckon Flix will fill the gaps. I actually prefer the Flixbus experience and prices, so hopefully they take up most of the old routes relatively soon. My only worry is that NatEx will use it as an excuse to raise fares in the interim between Megabus shutdown and Flix registering the former Megabus routes.

They generally won't need to register them, though obviously they'll have to find staff and buses.

 

[route101]

As far as I can see that's the M19, which carries on all the way to Glasgow!

Only operates on a few days of the week this route. Very useful to get back on a Saturday night from Cardiff to Glasgow where is no flights but operated by uncomfortable VDL coach.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 25 Oct 2024 ==

Looking at the booking engine the statement seems to have been somewhat unclear - the only ones that seem to be carrying on from December are the ones ran out of Scotland, so not the Wales-London or Wales-Manchester and Leeds routes. If that's right and the Wales routes aren't just taking longer to add, I wonder if the megabus brand might be living on borrowed time - at this point I see little reason not to standardise it all to Scottish Citylink.
This is a real shame for me personally - although the times have certainly become less convenient recently megabus were still the only company running from Oxford to north of Birmingham, and I did prefer their vehicles to flix or NX. Perhaps inevitable though, particularly after the still fairly recent cutbacks/changes. Hoping that this creates opportunity for flix to fill the remaining gaps including Oxford - the once-a-day M84 is certainly inadequate and such a long route as to be constantly delayed by multiple hours.

Shame the M84 replaced the M17 which was far more useful and direct from Glasgow to Southampton.

 

[Parebunks]

Shame the M84 replaced the M17 which was far more useful and direct from Glasgow to Southampton.

The booking engine now seems to in fact be suggesting the M84 is to be replaced with a revived M17 (weekends only) as the only route to Oxford - I doubt this and suspect it might be a bug but interesting nonetheless.

 

[AlastairFraser]

I think Flix UK will continue to grow, their booking experience is far more modern than megabus. I mean I don't think there is a market they have entered where haven't ended up as the dominant or second largest operator of long distance coach services, the megabus Europe operations ended up in their hands as I recall. Go to any coach station round Europe these days and it's wall to wall Flixbus, quite incredible really.

Agreed. The consistency of the online experience helps a lot.

There is only so much cherry picking that can be done though.

It's not necessarily just cherry picking - they could pick up routes that lost service and still have potential with their larger cost base across Europe. I am aware that most Flixbuses are operated by third parties, but the central group still has significant marketing resources.

They generally won't need to register them, though obviously they'll have to find staff and buses.

True - maybe they'll try and grab as many ex-Megabus contractors as possible.

 

[cnjb8]

True - maybe they'll try and grab as many ex-Megabus contractors as possible.

Operators such as Linburg have only recently taken up Megabus work and given up on Flix!

 

[Megafuss]

Two things I could not abide by when thinking about Megabus as an option.

No scheduled breaks on long distance trips.

Every single north/south cross country route I could have made seemingly routed via Manchester to the detriment of end to end journey time.

If you make the onboard experience uncomfortable and longer than it's needs to be, don't be surprised when people go elsewhere.

 

[tram21]

Is Flixbus actually doing so well that it will pick up the gaps? Is this actually an overall lack of demand for coaches, rather than being forced out of the market by competitors?

It's certainly coach competition rather than demand for coaches in general! Coaches are experiencing a boom at the moment, and Flixbus continues to grow at a very fast rate, causing Megabuses demise.

 

[Mitchell Hurd]

Two things I could not abide by when thinking about Megabus as an option.

No scheduled breaks on long distance trips.

Every single north/south cross country route I could have made seemingly routed via Manchester to the detriment of end to end journey time.

If you make the onboard experience uncomfortable and longer than it's needs to be, don't be surprised when people go elsewhere.

I'm glad someone's mentioned about no scheduled breaks - even Mum said it's not right.
This is why Oxford - Leeds is enough for me or hopefully that M17 from Oxford to Glasgow as it seems a much more smoother run!

 

[nick291]

Megabus to reduce service provision in England and Wales

Megabus to reduce service provision in England and Wales - routeone

Megabus is to reduce its service level in England and Wales from 4 December against a background of what it says is low passenger demand.

www.route-one.net

So what I get from that in terms of being a Bristol passenger is no more direct services to London from Cardiff/Swansea? Very odd decision as the services always tend to be full. Same with the Falcon, but that is continuing at least.

 

[Parebunks]

Just got on a rammed megabus from London to Glasgow and Aberdeen - most of the 'inside England' ones looked equally full. Seems remarkable that they can't make this work as a business model even if Fridays are the busiest day of the week, they seem to be having to do some real maths just to get everyone booked on board.

 

[Simon75]

2023 Megabus did some cut backs too (ie not serving Newcastle under Lyme)

 

[AlastairFraser]

Just got on a rammed megabus from London to Glasgow and Aberdeen - most of the 'inside England' ones looked equally full. Seems remarkable that they can't make this work as a business model even if Fridays are the busiest day of the week, they seem to be having to do some real mathe just to get everyone booked on board.

It's probably the cost of fuel and drivers making it unsustainable - especially if they have to offer more to get drivers to work for them, compared to NX's nicer coaches (or a local company for that matter). The amount of Megabus coaches with maintenance issues I've been on is appalling for a large company.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 26 Oct 2024 ==

Operators such as Linburg have only recently taken up Megabus work and given up on Flix!

Has some of the work they took on been cancelled by this announcement?
I can understand why a smaller operator would be less inclined to go with Flixbus, they seem to require a lot of resources to start a franchise with.

Maybe they'll bid for a NX contract instead.

 

[extendedpaul]

Sad but not surprising news.

I must have made around 200 journeys @ £1 or free, mostly London to Cardiff, over a 5 year period. Once aware of the system - services for the date 90 days ahead went on sale every day at exactly midnight - I would frequently be sitting at the PC at 23.59 ready to grab a £1 ticket and usually succeeded. There were also £1 National Express Fun Fares but they didn't have double deckers with the much coveted front seats. Also their booking fee was £1 and you couldn't book multiple single journeys in one transaction which is still the case.

The Gold coaches did a few daytime journeys on that route and had fares starting at £3 which included a hot or cold drink, biscuits and sometimes a sandwich. Their crews were Scottish and almost always very friendly and chatty. Happy days.

On one occasion I had two Megabus returns London To Barcelona, for (then teenage) son and me in a basket, total cost £4 plus the standard 50p booking fee. Told him the next morning I had let them go to his genuine disappointment. I felt that over 48 hours coach travel was just too much to spend about 12 hours there.

 

[Mwanesh]

Agreed. The consistency of the online experience helps a lot.

It's not necessarily just cherry picking - they could pick up routes that lost service and still have potential with their larger cost base across Europe. I am aware that most Flixbuses are operated by third parties, but the central group still has significant marketing resources.

True - maybe they'll try and grab as many ex-Megabus contractors as possible.

Flixbus wont grab many Megabus contractors because the ones left used to do Flix work before.Flixbus has not expanded that much they are just doing the main corridors nothing much outside the areas Megabus was doing .

 

[londonteacher]

I don’t reckon FlixBus will pick up routes. They might test the waters with some or up frequencies on those with no Megabus competition but the business case would need to be good

 

[AlastairFraser]

Flixbus wont grab many Megabus contractors because the ones left used to do Flix work before.Flixbus has not expanded that much they are just doing the main corridors nothing much outside the areas Megabus was doing .

We'll have to wait and see I guess. Surely coach operators can't sit on their hands waiting for work for too long after December, especially while the threat of poaching drivers from the logistics industry remains.

 

[Robertj21a]

So.....

Is the end result that Megabus will, in future, just be on the long distance Anglo-Scottish runs ?

Flixbus seems to be expanding very quickly (rather as expected) and I wonder if Megabus will exist at all before long.

 

[route101]

Sad but not surprising news.

I must have made around 200 journeys @ £1 or free, mostly London to Cardiff, over a 5 year period. Once aware of the system - services for the date 90 days ahead went on sale every day at exactly midnight - I would frequently be sitting at the PC at 23.59 ready to grab a £1 ticket and usually succeeded. There were also £1 National Express Fun Fares but they didn't have double deckers with the much coveted front seats. Also their booking fee was £1 and you couldn't book multiple single journeys in one transaction which is still the case.

The Gold coaches did a few daytime journeys on that route and had fares starting at £3 which included a hot or cold drink, biscuits and sometimes a sandwich. Their crews were Scottish and almost always very friendly and chatty. Happy days.

On one occasion I had two Megabus returns London To Barcelona, for (then teenage) son and me in a basket, total cost £4 plus the standard 50p booking fee. Told him the next morning I had let them go to his genuine disappointment. I felt that over 48 hours coach travel was just too much to spend about 12 hours there.

I remember using a gold service from Cardiff to London. Was one of the van hool double deckers, comfortable enough, though I prefer a normal seating arrangement,

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Oct 2024 ==

Just got on a rammed megabus from London to Glasgow and Aberdeen - most of the 'inside England' ones looked equally full. Seems remarkable that they can't make this work as a business model even if Fridays are the busiest day of the week, they seem to be having to do some real maths just to get everyone booked on board.

Been my experience of Megabus too, the Glasgow/Edinburgh to London services are usually full overnight. Even the 0405 service from Glasgow had a decent load on it.

Flixbus have expanded although not hugely.
National Express aren't looking like they are going to bring much of their old network back.

 

[TravelDream]

Megabus to reduce service provision in England and Wales

Sad times. I really don't see it as low demand as the coach services I have been on are generally quite busy.

Which routes are being cut exactly?

All Megabus services in Wales are England-Wales so I guess they are going to continue. And a lot of the Manchester/ Birmingham/ Newcastle services are Anglo-Scottish.

 

[Parebunks]

Which routes are being cut exactly?

All Megabus services in Wales are England-Wales so I guess they are going to continue. And a lot of the Manchester/ Birmingham/ Newcastle services are Anglo-Scottish.

England-Wales routes don't look to be continuing, think that was poor wording in the statement.
Definitely continuing: M9, M11, M11X, M19, M20, M20X
Possibly continuing in some form: M17/M84 (the M17 is in the booking engine from mid-December, but only northbound, and the M84 is Anglo-Scottish so no direct reason why this would be the end for it)

That takes Sheffield/Leeds/Newcastle down to 2 a day, and only slightly above that for Manchester and Birmingham - hardly competitive with NX or Flix.

 

[route101]

England-Wales routes don't look to be continuing, think that was poor wording in the statement.
Definitely continuing: M9, M11, M11X, M19, M20, M20X
Possibly continuing in some form: M17/M84 (the M17 is in the booking engine from mid-December, but only northbound, and the M84 is Anglo-Scottish so no direct reason why this would be the end for it)

That takes Sheffield/Leeds/Newcastle down to 2 a day, and only slightly above that for Manchester and Birmingham - hardly competitive with NX or Flix.

The M84 is not bookable according to the booking engine after 4th of December.

 

[darloscott]

I’d reckon the only things left will be the Glasgow/Edinburgh-London and the intra-Scottish stuff that I imagine will eventually all get folded into the Citylink brand and Megabus will be no more.