Flixbus Discussion

[Butts]

Greyhound has been aquired by Flixbus a few years back, and I believe looking at trip reports on YouTube (so taken with a pinch of salt), that it's still the same greyhound

I have cancelled our trip from Los Angeles to Las Vegas within the proscribed time period for a 100% refund.
Unfortunately that comes in the form of a voucher.

There is anecdotal evidence that foreigners can get a cash refund - has anyone experienced this ?

It's less than a ton but would like it back.

Have booked AA Flight £60 each including Hold Baggage , Exit Seats and Drinks onboard, Priority Check In and Boarding plus Lounge Access for two of us. This is thanks to my BA Silver Status.

It's a no-brainer really 1 Hour against 5+ for just twice the price.

 

[Porty]

The opposition parties demanded Edinburgh trams instead.

Nonsense. The timetable for construction was never realistic with the capital funds available. Much transport capital expenditure has been diverted to extortionately priced ferries. The contract design for construction, which attempted to put more risk on the contractor, had the entirely foreseeable effect of upping tender prices for individual construction contracts - and even no-one bothering to bid. There now seems to be a truce between the Scottish government and the construction industry on the latter point - and the contractors seem to have won.

 

[markymark2000]

Bit of Flixbus news for everyone.

November/December saw a number of cuts to services, mostly midweek, however in the run up to Christmas, full timetables look to be returning until around 4th January. Then from week commending 5th January, you have some cuts midweek as services return to the early December timetables.
Then from week commending 12th January, many services have some changes.

Changes from 12th January as of information currently available via Flixbus website:
005, 010, 020, 021, 047, 049, 072, 073, 075, 078, 900, N21 & N23 all have some kind of minor retiming.
023 Manchester to London - the 10:00 trip from London now runs via Northampton Victoria street rather than Grange Park
045 Plymouth to London - The placement journeys which run Bristol - Plymouth (and vice versa) will now serve Bristol Airport, Taunton (Blackbrook BP Garage) and Cullompton Services. Plymouth - London trips will additionally serve Taunton.
061 Poole/Bournemouth/Southampton to London - All trips retimed. Temporary cuts to the timetable down to 4 trips per day, plus 1 extra on Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon (looks like it goes back up in Early Feb though).
070 Bristol to Leeds - Returns to 3 trips daily
071 Bristol to Manchester - cuts to 2 trips Tues/Wed
077 Cardiff to Birmingham - increased to 2 trips daily (reversing December cuts)
079 Manchester to Leicester - Minor retiming and stop in Nottingham is moved to Greyfriar Gate

Also of note, there are a number of changes and enhancements in February, March and April with around 5-7 buses worth of work being added and some vehicles being used for more hours of the day it seems (5-7 extra buses may be at the low end depending on how efficient operators are with their vehicles). And all of this, bearing in mind there is still data missing for 19 routes, and potential for more changes to come to existing routes but the data just isn't yet on the Flix site (not unheard of for Flix to put in one set of data, then completely change it again).

 

[Cowley]

The discussion about the A9 upgrade although originally related to the topic is going to have to be a separate discussion in the Other Transport section if anyone wants to carry it on.

If we could keep this one on Flixbus from here that would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[gingerheid]

Flixbus is now following in the footsteps of the other intercity operators and is significantly increasing it's network. Flixbus larger network starts on 27th April 2023 and the changes are in the spoiler below. Overall, this is quite a big increase with at least 2 new routes added (Manchester - Newcastle & Edinburgh - Aberdeen). Glasgow to Aberdeen more than doubling the current level of service.


If anyone is looking for the timetables for the new services, please see the below link to the Google Sheets that I have made. Please note that this only works on computers or Sheets mobile app. Blame Google.

Flixbus UK Public Timetable

docs.google.com

@markymark2000: Do you still maintain this? I ask as I can still access it, but I'm not able to change the timetable dropdown as it's a protected cell.

 

[markymark2000]

@markymark2000: Do you still maintain this? I ask as I can still access it, but I'm not able to change the timetable dropdown as it's a protected cell.

I do still maintain the sheet and I've fixed the issue. I'm not sure what had happened but it's fixed for now.

 

[gingerheid]

I do still maintain the sheet and I've fixed the issue. I'm not sure what had happened but it's fixed for now.

Thanks! It's a wonderful resource!

 

[markymark2000]

Thanks! It's a wonderful resource!

Thank you for your kind comments. I do try my best with it.

 

[James H]

I also appreciate your efforts to track the opaque workings of the Flixbus machine

One small point - your timetables for the 061 refer to 'Sandown Coach Station' in Poole - this should be Seldown Coach Park

 

[markymark2000]

I also appreciate your efforts to track the opaque workings of the Flixbus machine

It's awfully difficult haha. Thankfully there's some great people at the operators who do Flixbus work who are able to provide some insight.

I think 2026 may be a difficult year with the number of changes forthcoming. There's 50 changes to routes happening between 12th January and 1st April (inclusive) so far, and that number will only grow considering there are 19 routes with no data in April or beyond, and a number of changes which are coming which aren't yet publicised.

One small point - your timetables for the 061 refer to 'Sandown Coach Station' in Poole - this should be Seldown Coach Park

Thank you, I've just fixed that on all current and future timetables.

 

[gingerheid]

It's awfully difficult haha. Thankfully there's some great people at the operators who do Flixbus work who are able to provide some insight.

I think 2026 may be a difficult year with the number of changes forthcoming. There's 50 changes to routes happening between 12th January and 1st April (inclusive) so far, and that number will only grow considering there are 19 routes with no data in April or beyond, and a number of changes which are coming which aren't yet publicised.

It's this that makes what you do so useful! They're not the kind of reliable stable operator I'd prefer to rely on for commuting, but for cost reasons they're what I have to put up with! Knowing what they're up to as far as possible in advance is really useful.

 

[James H]

Yes, likewise, Flixbus will form part of my weekly commute this year.

 

[markymark2000]

It's this that makes what you do so useful! They're not the kind of reliable stable operator I'd prefer to rely on for commuting, but for cost reasons they're what I have to put up with! Knowing what they're up to as far as possible in advance is really useful.

Just for wider clarity, it's worth saying that 99% information that I provide both on any changes lists, and the timetable spreadsheet is information that is already public on either the Flixbus site, or on Flixbus own open data. Even now, there are changes which you can find via endless searching on the Flix website, but I choose not to add the data to the spreadsheet as Flix has a habit of changing their mind quite a lot.

Here's the current list of January changes which are currently known (all data is from Flixbus website and open data. The list may not be conclusive and so please only use this table, and the google spreadsheet above, as a guide only).

Date	Route	Change
12th Jan	005 Leicester - London	12:30 from London now gets into Leicester 5 minutes earlier.
12th Jan	010 Glasgow - London	Timetable changes to southbound service
12th Jan	020 Birmingham - London	Timetable changes. Trips now run run the same days each week rather than running on sporadic days
12th Jan	021 Liverpool - London	Minor timetable amendments on all trips
12th Jan	023 Manchester - London	10:00 from London now serves Northampton Town Centre rather than Grange Park
12th Jan	045 Plymouth - London	Timetable changes with Bristol to Plymouth 'placement trips' now diverted via Bristol Airport and Cullompton
12th Jan	047 Weston-S-M - London	Minor timetable changes
12th Jan	049 Cornwall - London	All journeys retimed slightly
12th Jan	061 South Coast - London	Most trips retimed & cut to 5 trips per day (only 4 trips Tue/Wed/Thurs)
12th Jan	070 Bristol - Leeds	12:45 from Bristol will run daily & 15:30 from Leeds is retimed to be 10 minutes earlier and run daily
12th Jan	071 Manchester - Bristol	Cuts on Tuesday/Wednesdays to 2 trips each way (1 BV & 1 First). Minor retimings on all trips
12th Jan	072 Liverpool - Leeds	Weekend journeys retimed
12th Jan	073 Manchester - Newcastle	13:05/13:50 journeys retimed slightly
12th Jan	075 Bradford - Birmingham	J&B trips retimed by 5 minutes
12th Jan	077 South Wales - Birmingham	06:00 from Cardiff to run daily, 13:00 from Birmingham will be retimed 5 minutes later & run daily
12th Jan	078 Taunton - Newcastle	Berrys trips retimed slightly
12th Jan	079 Manchester - Leicester	Minor timetable changes & stop at Nottingham moved to Greyfriar Gate
12th Jan	900 Nottingham - Gatwick	Most trips retimed slightly
12th Jan	N11 Aberdeen - London	Some stops retimed by upto 10 minutes.
12th Jan	N21 Liverpool - London	Northbound journey retimed to leave London at 23:59 & run 20 minutes later throughout
12th Jan	N23 Manchester - London	Minor timetable change on southbound journey (gets into London 10 mins earlier)

While there are some winners and losers in January, the current outlook for February looks promising with enhancements on the South Wales routes and new links to Gatwick.

 

[route101]

I am booked on the Cambridge to Brighton service. One of the more obscure services on the Flixbus UK network.

 

[gingerheid]

I am booked on the Cambridge to Brighton service. One of the more obscure services on the Flixbus UK network.

Surprisingly popular route from Cambridge to Stratford!!!

 

[Mikw]

I've just booked a Flix for London from Leicester for March due to having a money off voucher that needed using up.
For the first time it's offered me the "travel Neighbour free" option on this route.

 

[coach fan]

Surprisingly popular route from Cambridge to Stratford!!!

Doesn’t surprise me considering national express’s offerings on that corridor now are dreadful.

 

[gingerheid]

Doesn’t surprise me considering national express’s offerings on that corridor now are dreadful.

Despite the fact that it's personally useful to me it surprises me every time (except today obviously, when there are no direct trains and when it feels like FlixBus missed an opportunity to run more services given that the 1410 and 2015 from Stratford were both full), instead running a reduced timetable.

I realise that Stratford is a better gateway to London for coaches than the way too slow to Victoria via excellently served Stevenage and relatively poorly connected Finchley Rd of the Whippet Flixbus era, or than the too slow to Victoria while passing through Stratford usually without stopping after making a slow detour to Stantsted of the final NatEx era. As such both of those services seemed like their target market was overseas tourists that didn't know any better.

I would say that Cambridge to Stratford (and Stratford to wherever the people getting on are going) service was an inspired work of genius. However it's clear that (unlike with Norwich) the timetable creator never intended Stratford to be a destination from Cambridge; the times in both the original and expanded timetable don't suit Stratford but fill the gaps in the train service to Gatwick beautifully). I wonder what they could achieve if there were some more friendly return timings from Stratford!

 

[Simon75]

Some cross country (especially East Anglia) might be useful (quite a few First garages) across to the Midlands ie Leicester, Stoke-on-Trent or even to Luton Airport via say Stevenage ??

 

[MotCO]

Given the success of the Elizabeth Line, could / should Flixbus or indeed Nat Exp link say the Midlands or East Anglia to Brentwood or Romford, for onward connections to Heathrow, thereby avoiding London traffic or indeed, the M25?

 

[markymark2000]

Some cross country (especially East Anglia) might be useful (quite a few First garages) across to the Midlands ie Leicester, Stoke-on-Trent or even to Luton Airport via say Stevenage ??

Don't forget that Flix can't have access to Luton Airport for a few years due to the silly concession nonsense.

East Anglia is due a new route cross country apparently but still awaiting to see it advertised by Flix. Leicester is also due some more buses thanks to the increased partnership with First and I believe these will be cross country routes but waiting for trips to appear.

Given the success of the Elizabeth Line, could / should Flixbus or indeed Nat Exp link say the Midlands or East Anglia to Brentwood or Romford, for onward connections to Heathrow, thereby avoiding London traffic or indeed, the M25?

For Anglia, why link to Brentwood/Romford when you can link to Stratford and benefit from the same Elizabeth Line link, but also East London Line and DLR. Plus Stratford being a destination in it's own right and you can still claim the bus runs to London? Also to consider if that Norwich to Heathrow via Thetford, Mildenhall and Newmarket is around 4h30. Going to Stratford would take around 2h30 plus an hour on the train and any connection times. You'd just as easy get the bus straight through for the sake of 45 minutes extra. If anything, Flix and NatEx have built their Airport markets on the premise of running direct.

For Midlands, why would anyone bother faffing around from the M1/A1, over to East London to throw people people to get the train to Heathrow? You'd just use the M25 and link straight into Heathrow in 25-40 minutes. Quicker than you'll ever get to Romford/Brentwood.

 

[EYFanatic]

Just had a thought... With First now having a presence either directly or via firms it has purchased around Leeds, could it bring back the N601? When Whippets did it, it always used to be well filled from Leeds on quite a few days and certainly used to be packed by Nottingham and London Stratford used to fill up the remaining seats

From personal experience from having ridden it many times it would be well patronised especially if they can now use Stand 1 fully from Leeds thanks to the final death throes of Megabus south of the wall instead of using a layby a few minutes away from the station

 

[markymark2000]

With First now having a presence either directly or via firms it has purchased around Leeds, could it bring back the N601?

They could if they had the resources. I don't think this is the sort of thing First would want though. There's been enough issues in West of England getting drivers to do domestic Flix work, let alone international stuff. Whippets were also in a good location because they could run it single manned if they wanted. Or least, the double manning wasn't as long because of the driver swaps in Cambridge.

 

[route101]

Doesn’t surprise me considering national express’s offerings on that corridor now are dreadful.

And Gatwick.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 Jan 2026 ==

Despite the fact that it's personally useful to me it surprises me every time (except today obviously, when there are no direct trains and when it feels like FlixBus missed an opportunity to run more services given that the 1410 and 2015 from Stratford were both full), instead running a reduced timetable.

I realise that Stratford is a better gateway to London for coaches than the way too slow to Victoria via excellently served Stevenage and relatively poorly connected Finchley Rd of the Whippet Flixbus era, or than the too slow to Victoria while passing through Stratford usually without stopping after making a slow detour to Stantsted of the final NatEx era. As such both of those services seemed like their target market was overseas tourists that didn't know any better.

I would say that Cambridge to Stratford (and Stratford to wherever the people getting on are going) service was an inspired work of genius. However it's clear that (unlike with Norwich) the timetable creator never intended Stratford to be a destination from Cambridge; the times in both the original and expanded timetable don't suit Stratford but fill the gaps in the train service to Gatwick beautifully). I wonder what they could achieve if there were some more friendly return timings from Stratford!

Most people got off at Stratford but some went onto Gatwick. Some people got on at Stratford to Brighton. I was perhaps the only person who done the full route. 40 Mins from Trumpington to Stratford was pretty fast, we ended up sitting there for 20mins despite leaving Cambridge late.

 

[James H]

Anyone know when tickets beyond 1 April are likely to go on sale?

 

[markymark2000]

Anyone know when tickets beyond 1 April are likely to go on sale?

Some routes are already bookable past 1st April but don't be surprised if you book and then your trip has the time changed or something like that as the timetables aren't really concrete until a week or so prior.

Just to give you an idea the 12th Janaury timetable changes. Some trips have only become bookable this week. Some trips had a timetable in the system then randomly changed a fortnight ago. Other trips have been in the system for a few months and haven't been amended since. There is no consistency or fixed dates of when trips will become bookable. And nor is there any sort of logic around only releasing a timetable when it is 100% confirmed.

This is the mistake people make with Flix. They aren't, and probably will never be, an organised operator with long reliable booking windows. Nothing is concrete, everything seems to be subject to change. That's why any posts here or on the Flixbus UK Enthusiast groups, are done generally quite close to the change dates.

 

[gingerheid]

They also seem to charge a little more if you book too far in advance!

 

[route101]

They also seem to charge a little more if you book too far in advance!

Low cost airlines are the same. Although to get the cheaper fares on the Anglo - Scottish routes you do have to book a couple of weeks in advance.

 

[citybus2500]

Sadly, it was announded yesterday that Flixbus has taken a majority stake in Flibco.

I read it on a subscription Polish news site, but repeat some of the text here


Flix announced on January 13, 2026, a majority equity investment in Flibco , one of Europe's leading digital airport transfer platforms. This opens a new stage in the development of the airport shuttle bus segment in European public transport. The transaction strengthens Flix's position outside the traditional long-distance bus and rail market, and for Flibco, it means accelerated expansion within a larger technology platform.

"Over the years, we've learned that passengers are looking for reliable and affordable ways to get to and from the airport – not just between cities. This investment allows us to make a targeted entry into the airport shuttle segment," said André Schwämmlein , CEO of Flix . "Flix has built a strong business in a fragmented market, and we see clear potential for further scaling thanks to Flix's platform, technology, and reach," he added.

We built the Flibco concept with a clear dream: to become a leader in airport mobility. Finding a partner who shares this ambition and can keep pace with our growth is a breakthrough for us," emphasized Marc Sales , Associate at SLG . "Thanks to Flibco, we can expand this vision across borders and open up new opportunities for the entire group," he added.

 

[nick291]

Sadly, it was announded yesterday that Flixbus has taken a majority stake in Flibco.

I read it on a subscription Polish news site, but repeat some of the text here


Flix announced on January 13, 2026, a majority equity investment in Flibco , one of Europe's leading digital airport transfer platforms. This opens a new stage in the development of the airport shuttle bus segment in European public transport. The transaction strengthens Flix's position outside the traditional long-distance bus and rail market, and for Flibco, it means accelerated expansion within a larger technology platform.

"Over the years, we've learned that passengers are looking for reliable and affordable ways to get to and from the airport – not just between cities. This investment allows us to make a targeted entry into the airport shuttle segment," said André Schwämmlein , CEO of Flix . "Flix has built a strong business in a fragmented market, and we see clear potential for further scaling thanks to Flix's platform, technology, and reach," he added.

We built the Flibco concept with a clear dream: to become a leader in airport mobility. Finding a partner who shares this ambition and can keep pace with our growth is a breakthrough for us," emphasized Marc Sales , Associate at SLG . "Thanks to Flibco, we can expand this vision across borders and open up new opportunities for the entire group," he added.

How is that sad exactly? Gives flix access to Stansted at least.