Flixbus Discussion

[Martin1988]

Only ever instance I had with a service being cancelled was back in Summer 2024 when I attempted to book on a short lived extra journey on the 070 between Leeds and Birmingham. Think it was intended to run over the Summer period and presumably would have been run by Turners. It was also due to start the day before I was booked to travel on it. However two days beforehand, I got an email from Flixbus advising me that the journey had been cancelled and I seem to recall the start date was pushed back a couple of days according to the journey planner.

In the end, that journey ran for a week at the most and then got pulled completely.

I also remember some very short notice alterations that came in on the Bristol to London route in Autumn 2021 and it was suggested to me at the time that it was to do with Turners being short of drivers.

I also once did a trip on the Leeds to London route with Whippet where there should have been a driver swap en-route but the driver who was booked to take over failed to appear. As a result the original one had to take us all the way to London but because he'd gone over on his driving hours, he was forced to stop at a Service Station for a legal break which delayed us on our journey.

 

[Cheers Drive]

Appreciate you obviously didnt go down the hotel route, but I cant help think €80 per person is problematic. If you're on your own that isnt going to get you much in bristol at such short notice.

You can get Travelodge or premier for 30/40/50 most times sometimes less

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You can get Travelodge or premier for 30/40/50 most times sometimes less

And Travelodge let’s you pay for the day before so you can book in after midnight having lost 12 hours obviously

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Flix will never cancel for low number of bookings, but if they are short of a vehicle or drivers, the operator will try to choose the trip with the lowest patronage to cancel. Interesting what you note about Whippet - they are no longer on the network of course, and maybe this is why

Yes I thought this would be the case but I used to spend hours talking to the controllers and managers about this and drivers on spare and this would happen regularly but maybe before the route had started. A lot of drivers would still get paid for sitting there but I would ask why amd they said for cancelled by flix because of low patronage. When at whippets we always had enough coaches spare and drivers in fact too many drivers because they liked to take people on with the Promise of being a flix driver but once they had you would chuck you in the buses some drivers had been there for months waiting to do flix. I think whippets lost it due to quite a lot of complaints about the flix drivers moaning about having to clean the coach and abusing passengers verbally. A lot of them would get a bit aggressive over the tannoy and some were daily arguing with other coach drivers.

 

[EYFanatic]

A new N14 overnight from York to London starts in the March/April changes

Looks like it might be worth booking to see how it does

 

[WelshBluebird]

You can get Travelodge or premier for 30/40/50 most times sometimes less

Not in bristol.
When i looked earlier for tonight it was over 100 quid for the ones on the outskirts of town, almost 200 for the ones in town.
Tomorrow looks like the more reasonable prices so not sure if something is on in town tonight or if its just the on the day prices get ramped up.

 

[markymark2000]

February, March & April changes
I've shared the details in other places so might as well share here. Lots of expansion coming up with new routes and both new and returning stops. I've not provided operator details except where the information is known for a fact. All information comes from Flixbus open data (and can be viewed on bustimes.org), the Flixbus site itself when you search for trips, and in some rare cases, information from staff at operators (information which is only being shared because there is public information to go with it).

Everything shared here is bookable on the Flixbus site in some way, shape or form. Tables are correct as of 28th Jan and I will try and keep it updated as more information comes to light. Purely as a disclaimer, please only use this as a guide. Flixbus are well known for providing optimistic dates for changes, and changing their mind on things.

Spoiler: February Changes

2nd Feb	061 South Coast - London	Additional trip added Fri-Mon. 12:30 from Poole 18:00 from London
5th Feb	920 Birmingham - Gatwick	Major timetable changes. 1 trip diverted via Oxford. Drop from 10 to 8 trips temporarily
5th Feb	980 Manchester - Gatwick	New service linking Manchester, Stoke, Coventry, Heathrow and Gatwick. Running 3 trips per day. Route to be operated by Prospect
9th-22nd Feb	071 Manchester - Bristol	Service enhanced to 4 trips daily for the school holidays (plus a 5th trip on Fri/Sat/Sun)
9th Feb	045 Plymouth - London	Service enhanced to also run on Thursdays
15th Feb	042 Cardiff - London	Brand new timetable operating 7 trips daily, with some trips diverted via Heathrow, Swindon or Bristol.
15th Feb	046 Swansea - London	Brand new timetable and enhanced to 4 trips daily. 3 trips to be ran by Newport bus. Other trip unconfirmed.
15th Feb	940 Swansea - Gatwick	New timetable. Service increased to upto 15 trips daily Newport-Gatwick, 14 extend to Cardiff and 6 to Swansea.
26th Feb	920 Birmingham - Gatwick	Additional 2 trips each way (15:35/17:30 from Birmingham & 12:20/22:30 from Gatwick). To be operated by Prospect
26th Feb	980 Manchester - Gatwick	Additional 1 trip each way (04:40 Manc - Gatwick & 21:20 Gatwick - Manc). To be operated by Prospect

Spoiler: March Changes

5th March	023 Manchester - London	Service retimed with journey time reductions. Additional round trip each day
12th March	920 Birmingham - Gatwick	Additional 1 trip each way
12th March	980 Manchester - Gatwick	Additional 2 trips each way (08:30/15:10 Manc - Gatwick & 07:05/23:20 Gatwick - Manc)
23rd March	041 Bristol - London	A number of Thurs-Mon trips increased to run daily
23rd March	045 Plymouth - London	Service increased to daily
23rd March	071 Manchester - Bristol	11:45 from Bristol & 18:10 from Manchester enhanced to run daily

Spoiler: April Changes

1st April '	001 Newcastle - London	Additional trip each way. Existing trips retimed by around 30 minutes.
1st April	002 Leeds - London	Timetable completely changed. Still 7 trips Leeds - London with 2 extending to Bradford
1st April	003 Sheffield - London	1 trip per day extended to Huddersfield and Halifax. 1 short Sheffield - Halifax trip added. Retimings of upto 1 hour
1st April	004 Nottingham - London	Enhanced to 12 trips per day, of which 4 extend to Derby. More consistent stops at Nottingham Uni
1st April	005 Leicester - London	Loughborough loses 2 trips per day. Minor retimings (upto 30 minutes) plus 21:30 from London retimed to 22:30.
1st April	007 Norwich - London	Reduced to 1 round trip but extended to London Victoria
1st April	014 York - London	2 trips added via Leeds, Sheffield Interchange and Derby.
1st April	020 Birmingham - London	Timetable changes (Timetable doesn't look fully released yet)
1st April	025 Birmingham - London	New service operating 1 trip per day via Birmingham Airport & Oxford. To be operated by Prospect
1st April	026 Blackpool - London	New service operating 1 round trip daily. Via Manchester, Stoke, Birmingham & Finchley Road.
1st April	041 Bristol - London	Extra trip each way and timetable changes (extra trip operated at Bristol end)
1st April	043 Bath - London	2 additional round trips. Plus existing trips retimed
1st April	044 Gloucester - London	Timetable changes. Generally journey times increased slightly
1st April	061 South Coast - London	Enhanced to run 9 trips daily, of which 5 will run via Southampton. All trips to be operated by GoSouthCoast
1st April	070 Bristol - Leeds	New trips at 12:05 from Leeds & 18:30 from Bristol
1st April	071 Manchester - Bristol	13:10 from Manchester & 19:30 from Bristol enhanced to run daily
1st April	073 Manchester - Newcastle	07:50 from Manchester & 13:25/13:50 from Newcastle retimed. 13:05 from Manc & 18:45 from Newc to run daily
1st April	074 Liverpool - York	Service reintroduced operating 2 trips daily, both trips running the full route. To be operated by York Pullman
1st April	076 Manchester - Birmingham	16:10 from Birmingham & 20:00 from Manchester enhanced to run daily
1st April	078 Taunton - Newcastle	Extra trip each way Taunton to Newcastle
1st April	079 Manchester - Leicester	Enhanced to run 3 trips daily, times of existing trips changed. Extra trips to be ran by First Leicester
1st April	084 Birmingham - Swansea	New service 1 trip per day via Newport, Cardiff, Bridgend and Swansea Uni. To be operated by Prospect
1st April	087 Plymouth - Nottingham	New route operating 2 round trips daily. Via Leicester St Margarets, Birmingham, Cheltenham Arle Court, Bristol, Bristol Airport, Taunton & Exeter. To be operated by Go South West
1st April	091 Glasgow - Aberdeen	Service retimed with 4 extra trips each extending to/from Glasgow Airport
1st April	092 Edinburgh - Aberdeen	Service retimed.
1st April	900 Nottingham - Gatwick	Additional trips each way between Derby & Gatwick and 1 Leicester - Gatwick
1st April	905 Bradford - Gatwick	New service operating via Leeds, Sheffield, Meadowhall, Nottingham, Northampton, Milton Keynes Central, Luton Airport Parkway and Heathrow CBS & T5. Operated 2 full trips, plus 1 Northampton to Gatwick short run daily.
1st April	910 Swansea - Bristol Airport	Enhanced to 7 trips daily. Timetable completely changed
1st April	920 Birmingham - Gatwick	2 additional trips each way (03:10/12:55 from Birmingham & 08:05/18:15 from Gatwick). To be operated by Prospect
1st April	930 Liverpool - Leeds	New service running 6 trips each way via Liverpool Edge Hill, Manchester Airport, Huddersfield and Bradford. Also 1 trip extends to Newcastle via Middlesbrough & Sunderland. To be operated by Ashcroft & J&B
1st April	990 Cambridge - Swindon	Retimed upto 2 hours later
1st April	998 Brighton - Milton Keynes	New route operating 4 round trips daily via Preston Park, Gatwick, Heathrow and Luton Airport Parkway.
1st April	N14 York - London	New overnight service from York to London via Doncaster, Meadowhall, Milton Keynes, Luton Airport Parkway & Heathrow CBS.

 

[YorkRailFan]

A new N14 overnight from York to London starts in the March/April changes

Looks like it might be worth booking to see how it does

Any idea who is operating it?

 

[Cheers Drive]

Not in bristol.
When i looked earlier for tonight it was over 100 quid for the ones on the outskirts of town, almost 200 for the ones in town.
Tomorrow looks like the more reasonable prices so not sure if something is on in town tonight or if its just the on the day prices get ramped up.

Thats what I had to do the night flix left me abandoned in Bristol at 3am I only knew because other passengers did it this was first week of January and I stayed in the one on Victoria street

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Jan 2026 ==

Thats what I had to do the night flix left me abandoned in Bristol at 3am I only knew because other passengers did it this was first week of January and I stayed in the one on Victoria street

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Jan 2026 ==

Thats what I had to do the night flix left me abandoned in Bristol at 3am I only knew because other passengers did it this was first week of January and I stayed in the one on Victoria street

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Jan 2026 ==

Cost me £37 I think it depends on how booked up they are. I used to work all over uk and Travelodge usually around 27-45 premier similar but premier is so dirty I’d rather take Travelodge

 

[EYFanatic]

Any idea who is operating it?

Sadly not yet, but maybe York Pullman?

 

[mph111]

Sadly not yet, but maybe York Pullman?

J&B are advertising for a Flix driver to be based at Pullman.

 

[Zakaria Fadel]

It seems that FlixBus will be serving Milton Keynes as of April.

 

[TravelDream]

Appreciate you obviously didnt go down the hotel route, but I cant help think €80 per person is problematic. If you're on your own that isnt going to get you much in bristol at such short notice.

Yes, last minute prices tend to increase quite a bit.

Plus Bristol is a pretty expensive city for hotels as it goes.

Honestly, reliability is what keeps me to National Express. Some of these routes seem to have just too many cancellations.

 

[markymark2000]

Sadly not yet, but maybe York Pullman?

N14/014 look to be Wellglade Group given that on the first day of operation, both bus boards start in Derby. And the 014 (which the N14 interworks with) has little reason to divert via Derby unless there is an operational reason, such as a driver swap.

Though I stress there is no official confirmation on this, it is just my observation from the timetable.

 

[route101]

Flixbus seem to going for the airports such as Gatwick. Nothing ground braking in terms of routes. I wonder if there will be any expansion in Scotland, been a while.

 

[gingerheid]

Extra Flix routes involving Cambridge from May:

UK083 Birmingham - Coventry - Cambridge - Norwich. Once daily daytime from the beginning of May, using Birmingham based coach

UK950 Norwich - UEA - Thetford - Cambridge - Luton Parkway - Heathrow. 6x daily from late May.

Birmingham was a route Megabus always seemed to have hopes for, but the frequency of changes suggested they never really found the winning formula.

The 950 is faster over the length of the journey and replaces the National Express link betwen Cambridge and Luton, but at cost of the service omitting the most obvious airport for people from Norwich to go to (Stansted) as well as Mildenhall and Thetford.

 

[markymark2000]

Flixbus seem to going for the airports such as Gatwick. Nothing ground braking in terms of routes.

Purely an observation but Flix has done their main stuff to London, are they now focussing on NatExs next main market of the Airport work and trying to run them out of that too? Heathrow and Gatwick will have no space left soon the way that Flixbus are going.

I wonder if there will be any expansion in Scotland, been a while.

I think it's a shame that they haven't managed to expand more in Scotland. But then again, is it really a good idea for Flix to expand given most of the logical routes would result in a 3 way competition?

Birmingham was a route Megabus always seemed to have hopes for, but the frequency of changes suggested they never really found the winning formula.

Not sure the 083 will be the winning formula overall either. Very inefficient having a bus sat around to do 1 trip. At least Megabus was efficient as 1 vehicle did 2 round trips.

The 950 is faster over the length of the journey and replaces the National Express link betwen Cambridge and Luton, but at cost of the service omitting the most obvious airport for people from Norwich to go to (Stansted) as well as Mildenhall and Thetford.

Flix can't serve Stansted because of the concession nonsense. Similarly why they can't serve Luton Airport and are instead dropping people at Airport Parkway and telling people to use the DART.

 

[nick291]

Flix can't serve Stansted because of the concession nonsense. Similarly why they can't serve Luton Airport and are instead dropping people at Airport Parkway and telling people to use the DART.

Yeah but they bought Flibco out and are taking over their services to Stansted.

 

[Trainman40083]

N14/014 look to be Wellglade Group given that on the first day of operation, both bus boards start in Derby. And the 014 (which the N14 interworks with) has little reason to divert via Derby unless there is an operational reason, such as a driver swap.

Though I stress there is no official confirmation on this, it is just my observation from the timetable.

I did wonder about Midland General.. More space at Meadow Road depot now, since Notts and Derby moved to their new site.

 

[markymark2000]

Yeah but they bought Flibco out and are taking over their services to Stansted.

Where is your proof of this?

Per the articles which were released at the time (of which Routeone is one and has been quoted below)

Flix has announced the acquisition of a majority share of airport transport platform Flibco
....
Flibco will continue operations under existing management, the companies confirm.

There is also the fact that the concession Flibco holds is for London routes, not regional routes.
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/000016-2025 (not the easiest to quote from sorry)

II.2) Description
Lot 2 - London Routes

....

Lot No 2
A contract/lot is awarded: Yes
V.2.3) Name and address of the contractor
Flibtravel International UK Limited

 

[Martin1988]

I'd like to see Flixbus launch routes from Bristol to Oxford and Bristol to the South Coast given that NX no longer provide any such journeys.

 

[route101]

Extra Flix routes involving Cambridge from May:

UK083 Birmingham - Coventry - Cambridge - Norwich. Once daily daytime from the beginning of May, using Birmingham based coach

UK950 Norwich - UEA - Thetford - Cambridge - Luton Parkway - Heathrow. 6x daily from late May.

Birmingham was a route Megabus always seemed to have hopes for, but the frequency of changes suggested they never really found the winning formula.

The 950 is faster over the length of the journey and replaces the National Express link betwen Cambridge and Luton, but at cost of the service omitting the most obvious airport for people from Norwich to go to (Stansted) as well as Mildenhall and Thetford.

Good to see the Norwich route to Birmingham. Always thought that was a gap that NX never filled.

 

[nick291]

Where is your proof of this?

Per the articles which were released at the time (of which Routeone is one and has been quoted below)


There is also the fact that the concession Flibco holds is for London routes, not regional routes.
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/000016-2025 (not the easiest to quote from sorry)

My apologies, I thought they bought them outright and not a majority share, thankyou for clearing that up!

I'd like to see Flixbus launch routes from Bristol to Oxford and Bristol to the South Coast given that NX no longer provide any such journeys.

Bristol to Oxford is a criminally underserved corridor in my opinion. Flix could stand to do well out of that!

 

[gingerheid]

Flix can't serve Stansted because of the concession nonsense. Similarly why they can't serve Luton Airport and are instead dropping people at Airport Parkway and telling people to use the DART.

The government needs to be telling airports that they're not going to be getting planning permission for anything unless they stop that kind of anti-competitive nonsense that damages public transport links.

 

[markymark2000]

Bristol to Oxford is a criminally underserved corridor in my opinion. Flix could stand to do well out of that!

Is it underserved though? Or is it that a coach would find it hard to compete with a train? The only way you can have competitive journey times is a non stop service, but is there really enough demand to sustain a non stop coach service? You'd likely need to run via other places such as Swindon to make it worthwhile for passenger numbers, but then you are slowing down the service and making it less attractive to your longer distance passengers.

And if there was such demand and it was so underserved, surely someone like Oxford Bus Company or Stagecoach would have done it before given their strong presence in the city with coaches?

The government needs to be telling airports that they're not going to be getting planning permission for anything unless they stop that kind of anti-competitive nonsense that damages public transport links.

I fully agree. All Airport bus stations/interchanges should be open to all bus operators like Manchester Airport and Gatwick. No excuse for these silly concessions which essentially say "You pay us lots of money, and in return we will ban put a stop to anyone competing with you in this area". Then again, with all of the money Stansted and Luton make on these anti competitive concessions, they can probably pay for a lot of government lobbying.

 

[Dwarfer1979]

The government needs to be telling airports that they're not going to be getting planning permission for anything unless they stop that kind of anti-competitive nonsense that damages public transport links.

And the airports will respond with 'franchising' - from their perspective they will maintain they are just ensuring they get the right quality in their provision and influence over which links they get to match their requirements whilst managing vehicle volumes on the busier corridors to ensure their limited facilities at the airport still have space for less busy but equally important flows from elsewhere. Whether you like this argument in general it is clear none of the UK governments have grounds to criticise an organisation like an airport (or Universities who also do this sort of thing) that controls access and routes in this manner in order to ensure it gets the service it thinks it needs.

 

[Cesarcollie]

The government needs to be telling airports that they're not going to be getting planning permission for anything unless they stop that kind of anti-competitive nonsense that damages public transport links.

Er…… otherwise known as Franchising! Is it wrong at an airport but right in Manchester, London, West Yorkshire etc…….?!

 

[JonathanH]

I'd like to see Flixbus launch routes from Bristol to Oxford and Bristol to the South Coast given that NX no longer provide any such journeys.

Surely the reason that NX don't provide such journeys is because they can't make them pay? Is there genuine volume of demand on these journeys?

 

[Mwanesh]

Good to see the Norwich route to Birmingham. Always thought that was a gap that NX never filled.

There is no demand .National Express had the 302 to Northampton.Megabus tried it , , , the coaches carried fresh air.

 

[Temple Meads]

Appreciate you obviously didnt go down the hotel route, but I cant help think €80 per person is problematic. If you're on your own that isnt going to get you much in bristol at such short notice.

Indeed. We were travelling on a Sunday evening, when hotel prices are usually at their lowest, so I expect we could've got somewhere rather nice for €80 each (£69.28 at today's exchange rate), but if it was a Friday or Saturday night it could be a real struggle, especially if you were on your own.

 

[Mwanesh]

Is it underserved though? Or is it that a coach would find it hard to compete with a train? The only way you can have competitive journey times is a non stop service, but is there really enough demand to sustain a non stop coach service? You'd likely need to run via other places such as Swindon to make it worthwhile for passenger numbers, but then you are slowing down the service and making it less attractive to your longer distance passengers.

And if there was such demand and it was so underserved, surely someone like Oxford Bus Company or Stagecoach would have done it before given their strong presence in the city with coaches?


I fully agree. All Airport bus stations/interchanges should be open to all bus operators like Manchester Airport and Gatwick. No excuse for these silly concessions which essentially say "You pay us lots of money, and in return we will ban put a stop to anyone competing with you in this area". Then again, with all of the money Stansted and Luton make on these anti competitive concessions, they can probably pay for a lot of government lobbying.

Having been to Stansted recently everyone has their bays assigned.National Express , Flibco , First , Central Connect and Arriva .I think airports just use their business model on the bus station .You dont just fly in without a slot.

 

[Deerfold]

Having been to Stansted recently everyone has their bays assigned.National Express , Flibco , First , Central Connect and Arriva .I think airports just use their business model on the bus station .You dont just fly in without a slot.

To be fair, that's true at most non-airport bus stations of reasonable size.