NX joins Megabus at to Stratford City (and it's rubbish)

[jamesontheroad]

Caught the 1800 Megabus M16 from Stratford to Norwich last night, Monday 4 June.

(In May, all Norwich / London Megabus services were curtailed to Stratford. Presumably, Megabus hope that the tube, DLR and TFL connections at Stratford are enough to compensate for not serving Victoria).

Yesterday was the first day for National Express operations from Stratford City - all services have moved from the 'old' bus station on the Stratford side of the station to the new one, which is to the north of the big rusty bridge. They say it's 5 minutes walk, but it's probably a bit more if you have luggage.

Autostradale's 'Airport Bus Express' also appeared to be stopping here, but there is no info on their website, and the published timetables still refer to the old bus station.

There were two uniformed ticket vendors on the pavement - one for NX and one for Airport Bus Express.

The new bus station is a bit of a mess. Built on the cheap, it appears, there is no shelter for intercity and airport bus passengers, and the whole pavement adjacent to the curbside coach stops was packed with passengers when I arrived around 1745. There are no real signs indicating bays or stops, and no real time departure info. All-in-all, it's a bit crap.

Has anyone else experienced it this week?

 

[Flying Snail]

Built on the cheap, it appears, there is no shelter for intercity and airport bus passengers, and the whole pavement adjacent to the curbside coach stops was packed with passengers when I arrived around 1745. There are no real signs indicating bays or stops, and no real time departure info. All-in-all, it's a bit crap.

That is an oft repeated theme with British bus stations. Proper bays and indoor waiting areas for local services while long distance routes get an outside shelter on a remote bay if they are lucky, if not just an unpleasant scrum on a piece of pavement with the public walking past. It all seems rather odd to me, I would have thought that longer distance services should get at least as high priority as a route serving the local housing estates.

 

[Bletchleyite]

That is an oft repeated theme with British bus stations. Proper bays and indoor waiting areas for local services while long distance routes get an outside shelter on a remote bay if they are lucky, if not just an unpleasant scrum on a piece of pavement with the public walking past. It all seems rather odd to me, I would have thought that longer distance services should get at least as high priority as a route serving the local housing estates.

Megabus have led this and it's because they are done on the cheap and will not pay to access bus stations. NatEx tend not to be quite so tight fisted so do end up in bus stations more often.

 

[PeterC]

I would never have called it a "bus station". It only ever was a yard for buses between journeys and some bus stops.

 

[padbus]

That is an oft repeated theme with British bus stations. Proper bays and indoor waiting areas for local services while long distance routes get an outside shelter on a remote bay if they are lucky, if not just an unpleasant scrum on a piece of pavement with the public walking past. It all seems rather odd to me, I would have thought that longer distance services should get at least as high priority as a route serving the local housing estates.

For some reason, politicians and planners don't seem to regard long distance coaches as being public transport. Exeter's long distance services are being cast out on to the street a week on Sunday.

 

[radamfi]

For some reason, politicians and planners don't seem to regard long distance coaches as being public transport. Exeter's long distance services are being cast out on to the street a week on Sunday.

Long distance coaches are almost exclusively for discretionary trips and, with a few exceptions, they are already served by train. Britain is actually unusual in any case in having purpose built bus stations in many towns and it is the coach operators who are choosing to save money by refusing to pay departure charges. There may be some bus stations which won't accept coaches, even if the coach operator is willing to pay the departure charges, for example if it is owned by a private bus operator. National Express of course have built their own coach stations.

The need for facilities would be mitigated if good real time information for coaches was available, meaning that you would only need to go to the bus stop at the last minute. The National Express coach tracker is woeful compared to the Flixbus app which shows you the current location of your coach on a map. Megabus require you to make a phone call if you want to know how late your coach is.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Proper bays and indoor waiting areas for local services while long distance routes get an outside shelter on a remote bay if they are lucky, if not just an unpleasant scrum on a piece of pavement with the public walking past.

Megabus won't pay the facility fees (a common theme with Stagecoach even on local services). NX arent quite so bad, but it's an obvious cost to cut if they need to squeeze margin.

 

[Andyh82]

That is an oft repeated theme with British bus stations. Proper bays and indoor waiting areas for local services while long distance routes get an outside shelter on a remote bay if they are lucky, if not just an unpleasant scrum on a piece of pavement with the public walking past. It all seems rather odd to me, I would have thought that longer distance services should get at least as high priority as a route serving the local housing estates.

If this is the same Stratford City Bus Station as has been there since 2012, there are no indoor waiting areas or substantial shelters for people catching local buses either?

 

[Teflon Lettuce]

Megabus have led this and it's because they are done on the cheap and will not pay to access bus stations. NatEx tend not to be quite so tight fisted so do end up in bus stations more often.

That, of course, is if you wish to forget the Green Line "Coach Stn" at Ecclestone Bridge

 

[padbus]

Long distance coaches are almost exclusively for discretionary trips and, with a few exceptions, they are already served by train. Britain is actually unusual in any case in having purpose built bus stations in many towns and it is the coach operators who are choosing to save money by refusing to pay departure charges. There may be some bus stations which won't accept coaches, even if the coach operator is willing to pay the departure charges, for example if it is owned by a private bus operator. National Express of course have built their own coach stations.

The need for facilities would be mitigated if good real time information for coaches was available, meaning that you would only need to go to the bus stop at the last minute. The National Express coach tracker is woeful compared to the Flixbus app which shows you the current location of your coach on a map. Megabus require you to make a phone call if you want to know how late your coach is.

I don't see that the type of use makes any difference. A long distance coach is vehicle shared by members of the public travelling to the same place and is open to any member of the public willing to pay the fare. It is, therefore, public transport. Anyone using a coach is not using a car and this should be encouraged.

There are many instances of bus stations being closed and replaced with smaller ones with no room for coaches: Northampton and (soon) Exeter come to mind. If operators are too mean to pay access fees that is up to them but both Nat Ex and Megabus are being evicted from Exeter bus station. Megabus shares the coach station in Plymouth with Nat Ex.

 

[Deerfold]

That, of course, is if you wish to forget the Green Line "Coach Stn" at Ecclestone Bridge

Not quite sure of the relevance of this. Megabus have been using the main Victoria Coach Station for several years now. They also use bus stations in Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield, Manchester at least.

 

[Temple Meads]

The National Express coach tracker is woeful compared to the Flixbus app which shows you the current location of your coach on a map.

The National Express tracker has a map showing the current location of the coach...

 

[radamfi]

The National Express tracker has a map showing the current location of the coach...

Oh, I didn't notice there is a map underneath the timetable. Thanks for the tip.

 

[radamfi]

Not quite sure of the relevance of this. Megabus have been using the main Victoria Coach Station for several years now. They also use bus stations in Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield, Manchester at least.

Megabus even have their own waiting room and ticket office in Manchester.

 

[Wirewiper]

There is an article about the move on the National Express website:

www.nationalexpress.com/en/help/coach-stations/london-stratford

A couple of advantages:

1) All NX departures from Stratford are now from the same stop - the previous arrangement, whereby Stansted Airport services departed from a remote stop on Great Eastern Road whilst services to East Anglian destinations departed from the Bus Station, caused confusion and led to some passengers missing their coach by waiting in the wrong location.

2) It avoids all the upheaval whilst the road system in Stratford Town Centre is remodelled.