Megabus by Stagecoach

[spoony]

Yesterday I travelled back by the megabus coach service from Portsomouth to London Victoria for £1, and then onwards from Victoria to Sunderland for £10. I only booked the tickets last week. Their fleet seems a bit on the old side, and they dont seem to issue proper tickets (just e-tickets) so their overheads cant be too expensive. They ran on time however and got me from A to B as desired, but how can they make any money from running services so cheaply?

 

[Stonesourscotty]

Same Model as the Airplanes They must have a break even point and so much is needed before it breaks even?

The fleet aint that bad for such cheap fares. the Skyliners and Plaxtons are great but the Joncks are Horrible Veh's Recently it appears Stagecoach have been using ex Traction Deckers on Sundays instead of Coaches on Yorkshire services.

 

[mbonwick]

The reason Stagecoach make money from Megabus is because they are either competing against themselves (so make money either way) or against other companies whre the low costs become a factor.

MegaBus doesn't get all that many new vehicles when compared to the rest of the normal SC fleet, instead it gets many second hand of a SC subsidary after a few years use.

 

[anthony263]

Well stagecoach have invested in new plaxton bodied volvo for the south wales - london services which do seem to be very well used especially now that there is a 4am departure from cardiff and the last coach from london is at 23:00, i have used both services when i went to london for the acton depot open day back in march.

there were only 8 people on the coach when it left cardiff but it ceratinly filled up when we got to bristol and the coach was full on the 23:00 departue from victoria, including some students from cardiff university who went there for an evening out.

i think mergabus & national express are doing well as they offer good value fares and particulary from cardiff the journey times arent that much longer than the journeys by train and i might add the coach is more confortable than the first great western hst

 

[mbonwick]

National Express are doing very poorly indeed. They've had to renegotiate their rail franchises and their coaches aren't faring much better, probably due to being operated on a tender basis.

 

[driver9000]

Megabus is real mix of old and new, much of the fleet is made up of former National Express Volvo B10M/Expressliners from when Stagecoach worked NatEx, Neoplan Skyliners displaced from Oxford Tube duties and tri-axle Volvo Olympian/Alexander R types repatriated from when Stagecoach had Hong Kong CityBus. Brand new coaches direct into the Megabus fleet are kept to a minimum but the older coaches are quite comfy and better than Id have expected from a no frills service.

 

[Stonesourscotty]

It seems your opinions are about 5 years out of date there as there standards are alot higher and i actually think the coaches are better than Nat Ex as Quite a few of Trathens vehicles are internally revolting. i saw excrement on a curtain on a Nat Ex Neoplan

Megabus is real mix of old and new, much of the fleet is made up of former National Express Volvo B10M/Expressliners from when Stagecoach worked NatEx, Wrong its Mostly Joncks,Neoplans and Newbuild Plaxtons with the majority being bought this side of the Millenium

Neoplan Skyliners displaced from Oxford Tube duties Wrong No Skyliners have been displaced from Oxford Tube a Buchan Link/Megabus Spare is actually on loan to Oxford Tube

and tri-axle Volvo Olympian/Alexander R types repatriated from when Stagecoach had Hong Kong CityBus. Wrong Only 1 Olympian regularly works in Service and thats a South West trains liveried one (Leeds-Portsmouth Service Only) and thats only as a stop gap measure. More Plaxton Coaches are due probably to replace Joncks

Brand New coaches are Common except on services that don't serve London or Services to Liverpool Figure that one out for yourselves lol

There is also Megabusplus which combines Megabus and Megatrain so that the coaches connect onto EMT Train services, and there are also Megatrain services on Virgin SWT and EMT Services.

 

[driver9000]

Thanks for bringing my memory up to date stonesourscotty, your right my knowledge is from the early days of Megabus however if there is only 1 tri-axle R type then the Megabus one I saw in service on the northern end of the M6 about a month ago must have been seriously lost or caught up in a time warp! The older Skyliners from the Oxford Tube were displaced to a split between Megabus and Glasgow for the Buchan link you mention, this was in about 2004/2005 when Lancaster gained a London Megabus link as this is what the service used with the coaches being allocated to Preston, a least one kept its T-UBE registration. I remember a Bucham (X78?) liveried Skliner making into Morecambes workshop after catching fire on the M6 whilst on its trip to the north after repainting at Oxford.

 

[spoony]

I must say I am quite impressed with the service, I see they also do megatrain as well

 

[Stonesourscotty]

All the Neoplans in service now are new builds bought either specifically for the Oxford Tube or for megabus none of the transferred ones remain in Stagecoach ownership Note that some of the new Neoplans have transferred from megabus to Buchan Link but can still regularly appear on megabus work especially at the Weekend.

The Megatrain service is good but limited to one carriage per train which is a bit of a shame really.

Do you know what livery this Oly was that you saw on megabus on the M6 as i don't think any retain megabus livery anymore? Might have been a Ex Manchester Magicbus transferring to Scotland for Schoolbus Yellow Conversion?

 

[mbonwick]

I know about Scotlands Yellow school buses, but could someone explain to me about MagicBus please?

 

[Stonesourscotty]

In manchester and liverpool there is a budget version of Stagecoach called Magicbus basically High Capacity vehicles on student corridors. All vehicles are in a Blue livery similar to the Megabus livery.

http://chris-lowes-bus-rally.photos.gb.com/p53381814.html

Here are the kind of vehicles previously used.

 

[mbonwick]

Ah right OK.
Up here we've got 13296/7 (F 296/7 DRJ) knocking about somewhere, with at least 1 still in normal service!

 

[driver9000]

Do you know what livery this Oly was that you saw on megabus on the M6 as i don't think any retain megabus livery anymore? Might have been a Ex Manchester Magicbus transferring to Scotland for Schoolbus Yellow Conversion?

It was in Megabus livery heading south in service showing London Victoria as its destination with passengers onboard.

 

[Stonesourscotty]

I'm not aware of any Stagecoach Volvo's retaining Megabus livery but i'll look into it for you.

It would have been swapped at Watford Gap SS for a Rugby allocated vehicle if it did anyway as im sure there now banned from London.

 

[Stonesourscotty]

Quite a Few tri axles worked the Silverstone services at the weekend but they where all in Stagecoach Corporate livery or South West Trains Livery.

Get your Neoplan Megabus rides in now whilst you can before the New Van Hools Arrive.

 

[rick9525]

The new Van Hools have arrived.

Above is one I rode on from London to Manchester a couple of days ago, top deck front seat right. Its picted at Watford Gap Services

Its a very nice ride with decent leg room I have to say. all for £2 return.

A few days before though I suffered a 3 hour delay to Newcastle due to a big smash on the M6. I was the only one going on it from Manchester and the driver took me to Wooley Edge services having first picked up in Leeds to go to London. I was then transfered onto the Inverness service which they held for me which went straight up th A1.
The return bus was also over 2 hours late but made up time as it did not go back via Sunderland and Middlesbrough having picked up the passangers on the way up.