telstarbox
Established Member
Another budget coach service has started up, serving destinations in the Midlands and the North:
http://gorillabus.com/index.html
http://gorillabus.com/index.html
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GorillaBus - new coach service
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Their "FAQ" section is interesting, using a forum instead of just answers to questions. I've never seen that on a company site before, I don't think.
Their website needs a little more thought though. It's very "loud", and not in a good way.
Their website needs a little more thought though. It's very "loud", and not in a good way.
northwichcat
Veteran Member
They are registered as a UK company, which is a good start: http://worksmart.org.uk/company/company.php?id=07668133
Maybe if someone is close to one of their departure points at a time when a coach is due to depart they can check if one does actually depart from there.
Maybe if someone is close to one of their departure points at a time when a coach is due to depart they can check if one does actually depart from there.
That's not necessarily conclusive because if there are no bookings then the service doesn't run. Someone would actually have to make a booking first to test. Who's going to be brave enough to try?
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Schnellzug
Established Member
Do they claim to actually be operating yet, or is it just a "paper" company so far? Even the Bus and Coach Forums don't seem sure. There seems to be rather a lack of pictures of any to be found yet as well.
telstarbox
Established Member
Might be able to check out the 08.25 Manchester - Bradford this week.
northwichcat
Veteran Member
They only accept PayPal for payments. (PayPal have a buyer protection policy if you don't get the advertised service.)
It seems to be that they launched the service today (19th Sep) which does seem a strange time to launch.
It seems to be that they launched the service today (19th Sep) which does seem a strange time to launch.
WestCoast
Established Member
Interesting, they have quite a few potentially useful services there.
Are they anything to do with the franchise that operates Terravision service?
Are they anything to do with the franchise that operates Terravision service?
185
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That character looks more like Chairman Souter than the Fat Yellow Guy. So they definately must be Stagecoach?!?!
(No, wait, the monkey is far more intelligent...)
(No, wait, the monkey is far more intelligent...)
northwichcat
Veteran Member
Doesn't seem so even though they are promoting them. Gorilla Bus have only been registered as a business this year. Terravision are actually an Italian Airport coach franchise system.
WestCoast
Established Member
I know - but who holds the Terravision franchise(s) in the UK (i.e. which firm runs the buses)? For their Stansted Airport - Central London and Liverpool Airport - Manchester services.
185
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The Terravision ad is a paid-for advert, nothing to do with them.
The address given is 39 St Johns Rd which looks like a private house by the level crossing, however there is land next door to it which could theoretically be used as a yard.
The address given is 39 St Johns Rd which looks like a private house by the level crossing, however there is land next door to it which could theoretically be used as a yard.
northwichcat
Veteran Member
Terravision London
183 -189 Park View,
The Vale,
London,
W3 7RW
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
39 is the one with a 'For Sale' board on it in Google Streetview, which isn't the one next to the yard. However, a registered address is not always the same as a depot address.
WestCoast
Established Member
It used to be Excalibur Coaches that ran the Terravision service, which is why I ask.
The only thing that made me curious about a possible connection between Terravision and Gorilla was this post on their Facebook site.
anthony263
Established Member
This reminds me of UK express coaches who were supposed to run services from south wales to Manchester/London. There was a new story in a local news paper in newport and there are timetables for the coach service in Bridgend, never seen a coach though and they have no website.
northwichcat
Veteran Member
Off their Facebook page:
The initial service is actually a huge circular route, from Liverpool through Manchester, Bradford, Leeds, Meadowhall, Sheffield, Chesterfield, Nottingham, East Midlands Airport, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Stoke on Trent and back to Liverpool, operating both clockwise and anti-clockwise. The thinking is that this will offer direct east-west links that don't exist at the moment, such as Stoke to Bradford, Wolverhampton to East Midlands Airport and Birmingham to Nottingham.
The initial service is actually a huge circular route, from Liverpool through Manchester, Bradford, Leeds, Meadowhall, Sheffield, Chesterfield, Nottingham, East Midlands Airport, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Stoke on Trent and back to Liverpool, operating both clockwise and anti-clockwise. The thinking is that this will offer direct east-west links that don't exist at the moment, such as Stoke to Bradford, Wolverhampton to East Midlands Airport and Birmingham to Nottingham.
telstarbox
Established Member
That explains why the departure time is the same to seemingly unconnected destinations! At least there's a clockface frequency (of 4 hours).
northwichcat
Veteran Member
Might still be but they may have split off Terravision in to a separate arm for business security i.e. if one part fails they shut down the failing company not all coach operations.
I think it's more to do with them advertising that you can use their coaches to get to Airports with cheap flights. They serve East Midlands Airport and say you can connect with Terravision services for Liverpool Airport at Manchester.
I'm not sure why they don't just serve Liverpool Airport. Maybe they want their Manchester-Liverpool timing to be competitive or maybe they don't think Liverpool Airport has a big enough market to share with Terravision.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
It seems they actually don't have any coaches at present and a company called VIP Contracts Ltd of Birmingham operate the services on their behalf: http://www.vipcontractsltd.co.uk/pages/aboutus.html
Steve Elms
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Hi, I'm Steve Elms, from GorillaBus. Yes, it's all genuine - we are operating along the lines of wet leasing in the airline industry, contracting in operators - primarily VIP Contracts of Birmingham at the moment - to provide the network. We've adopted the pre-booking only option in the short term to allow us to advertise a more frequent and intensive network, with the intention that the first few months bookings, along with comments and suggestions, will allow us to find when and where people really want to go, and look at more conventional operation. For those of you still nervous about trying it, the booking engine is powered by PayPal, including all their online security features. We're not associated with Terravision in any way, other than having a link to their site - we wanted to offer a direct Manchester to Liverpool facility ourselves, but realised that customers from Yorkshire and Manchester may appreciate the connection to the Airport, and they share a similar philosophy. Please feell free to quiz, comment, suggest, good or bad!
Schnellzug
Established Member
Well, that's not so unusual, and nor need it be suspcious, after all, that's how NX did most of their operations until quite recently.
That is still how National Express run the majority of their network.
It seems that the express coach market is a growing sector. Obviously, Greyhound (from First) have recently joined the sector and now GorillaBus. Considering I'm not far from Nottingham and East Midlands Airport, I didn't hear a thing about it until the day the service launched. Had I not have used this forum or read the Omnibuses blog, I wouldn't have heard about it at all.
East Midlands Airport have got some information on their website, but has any marketing been done to attract traffic elsewhere?
northwichcat
Veteran Member
They seem to have use Facebook as their main means of advertising and mainly targeted students and customers of budget airlines, which is why I find it surprising that they didn't launch a few weeks earlier.
I can't get any information about them from the website. Upon loading the page it says ''Your session has expired'' and nothing loads up. Annoying as it may be a handy service; if I knew where it ran and how much it cost!
Steve Elms
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trentside andjcollins, thanks for your observations - interestingly, they confirm what I originally believed - that conventional advertising simply doesn't work anymore. We have been running adverts, for example, in the Nottingham press for five weeks now, but, as your comments reveal, they clearly aren't very effective. I think that people are so familiar with that style of marketing that they are immune to it. We tried Google and Facebook ads, and the response, literally within a few hours, was incredible, and as a result, one forum picked up on it, followed by many others, giving us an exposure that newspapers simply did not. I accept that there is a certain air or respectability offered by newspaper advertising and the like, and maybe some of the forum comments are a reaction to this, but we are finding that other methods are reaching people a lot more effectively. I'm certainly open to opinions on this - what means of conventional advertising would have got through to you, for example? Mojo, I've just tried the site - it's working ok for me, and there's no logs of server down time, sounds like an issue with your browser.
Xenophon PCDGS
Veteran Member
My questions to you are as follows:-
1)...Is your fleet provision to be a leased proposal and what vehicles will be running your proposed services?
2)...When did you first make attempts to register your services. Do the Traffic Commissioners have any outstanding matters with you?
3)... Have you made approaches to the Local Authorities concerned?
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You have to get permission to operate into the airport and you have to pay departure charges. It is noteworthy that they don't compete with any of the Skylink services to East Midlands Airport. They serve both Nottingham and the airport but you can't buy tickets between the two places.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
The points served are on their website. These services are express so don't need to be registered.
Xenophon PCDGS
Veteran Member
I was having trouble in accessing their site, but would say that my first point needs an answer. The second part of my second question needs a full answer. I apologise for posting the first part of my third point (due to a difficulty in accessing the site earelier today), but I would like an answer to part two of the point, so I have now rephrased it to show the single point only.
My questions were addressed to Steve Elms and I expected him to answer them, since he introduced himself on the thread.
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As long as there is sufficient distance between stops (I think 15 miles) then the service does not need to be registered and will not be classed as a 'local bus service'. However, some companies prefer to be registered as that means you get BSOG (Bus Service Operator Grant) so they will sometimes stop in the middle of nowhere just to satisfy that regulation. Some coach services are registered for part of the route so they can claim BSOG for that section.
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