Megabus Discussion

[Mwanesh]

I don't see why they couldn't have made all of these changes in October? Least then that would have given Stagecoach drivers more notice and October was already the planned date for the timetable change (the website wouldn't let you book beyond October)

Some not noted changes above which are rather interesting. One of the Dumfries to London services is actually via Newcastle and the M1 corridor! Very bizzare starting point for an M1 corridor service.Swansea is gone from the network, as is Gatwick Airport. New M52 Plymouth to London gone already, despite it basically only just starting.


I do wonder if we will see Parks of Hamilton opening another depot somewhere to cover more Megabus stuff? Parks used to have a depot in Rochdale to cover National Express work and Parks do still have a Plymouth depot for National Express. Further, Parks have a seeming growing relationship with Scottish Citylink. Megabus has never taken off in Devon/Cornwall (just using the Falcon service to link people up to Bristol for wider network connections), however with Edwards Coaches ever growing with National Express, could Parks switch their Plymouth depot to be a Megabus depot rather than NatEx?

The Cwmbran coaches will be 7 years old next month.The Stagecoach way has been to keep quiet till word gets out.They did the same when some of the work moved from Cwmbran to Bristol years ago.They only told staff a week before and loaned some Megabus drivers to depots in South Wales even Bristol itself. The news of Stagecoach leaving Megabus Network came at a time Newport Transport and Edwards Coaches were recruiting .Most of the drivers have already jumped ship.

 

[Megafuss]

Problem with Carlisle as National Express no to their cost is that it's a good half an hour drag into the city centre and out again with no obvious p and r type location on the outskirts to serve
They probably are also capitalising on the fact that currently National Express do not serve Southwest Scotland, this was a covid casualty that has never returned as far as I know

Re the Megabus stop in Carlisle. I think Kingstown ASDA would have been a better stop, but the Argos stop is close to the M6 as well

 

[168lover]

Which bus type and company normally run the 11am Manchester-Reading anyone know?

 

[Martin1988]

Looking at your spreadsheet, Monday to Thursday there seems to be very few services even on main routes like London to Manchester. Is the demand really that much less during the week? Most National Express services run daily, relatively few are Friday to Sunday only.

My theory is that the cuts are down to Stagecoach not doing the work in house and the private hire operators that are left not having sufficient capacity to run extra services during the week or else they don't consider it financially viable. Sadly Flixbus seem to be doing the same.

NX have had plenty of services in the past that have only operated on certain days of the week. In recent years I do feel NX have kept their routes and timetables more consistent whereas Flixbus and Megabus seem to have been chopping and changing theirs every few months.

 

[richw]

My theory is that the cuts are down to Stagecoach not doing the work in house and the private hire operators that are left not having sufficient capacity to run extra services during the week or else they don't consider it financially viable. Sadly Flixbus seem to be doing the same.

NX have had plenty of services in the past that have only operated on certain days of the week. In recent years I do feel NX have kept their routes and timetables more consistent whereas Flixbus and Megabus seem to have been chopping and changing theirs every few months.

National express despite being more expensive seem to be able to defend their market position. Despite all the negative comments made about Levantes they are in my opinion the most suitable express coach on the road. They are comfortable for passengers and well designed for the purpose they serve

 

[markymark2000]

assumed Dumfries and Berwick would be on the way to somewhere bigger, but they are both start points. Maybe something to do with new contractors?

Reports on Megabus/Citylink Enthusiasts Group on Facebook (Must be a member to see posts) suggests that West Coast Motors Borders Buses will be covering the Berwick service and it's starting at Berwick simply to cover dead mileage.

My theory is that the cuts are down to Stagecoach not doing the work in house and the private hire operators that are left not having sufficient capacity to run extra services during the week or else they don't consider it financially viable.

Not always capacity but lack of wanting to put all of their eggs into the basket. National Express operators tend to have a lot of NatEx work and this makes up a good amount of the overall company revenue, without NatEx, the companies would be generally 1/2 the size they are now. NatEx have also built up their relationships with 3rd party operators over a good number of years. Megabus 3rd party operators mostly have less than 5 buses per day on the network and it's only really in more recent years that Megabus has started to use 3rd party operators to provide normal services.

Megabus and Flixbus both tend to set fares around buses being quite busy and focus on lower fares. Megabus especially look to only want to provide services when it's really busy and they can fill buses and don't see the overall benefit in providing a fuller service. Instead of becoming first choice, I note that Flixbus and Megabus tend to be the places that people look when National Express becomes full or too expensive.

 

[swinny1990]

There's hardly any M72s from Nottingham to London from September and no M81s either

 

[Parebunks]

There's hardly any M72s from Nottingham to London from September and no M81s either

I think it's still two M72s per direction per day from what I can see? And there's still one reduced M81 Friday-Sunday, along with a new M83 Leeds-Nottingham-Birmingham-Bristol.

 

[swinny1990]

There isn't one late enough around 7pm -8pm back to nottingham from London anymore

 

[route101]

At least the overnight Glasgow to Southampton is still running, you do get a few people using it to travel all the way to Southampton.

The Glasgow to Portsmouth service is just joining the dots up megabus style.

 

[computerSaysNo]

What will happen/is happening/has happened with all the Megabus branded coaches in the Stagecoach group? I don't really keep up with the fleet in England, are there a lot of vehicles? And what sort of age profile are they? I'm wondering, if they're fairly young, whether they could replace some of the older vehicles, or those in poor condition, in areas such as East Scotland.

 

[Volvodart]

What will happen/is happening/has happened with all the Megabus branded coaches in the Stagecoach group? I don't really keep up with the fleet in England, are there a lot of vehicles? And what sort of age profile are they? I'm wondering, if they're fairly young, whether they could replace some of the older vehicles, or those in poor condition, in areas such as East Scotland.

Some are being used for rail replacement but I am unsure if this is long term.

 

[richw]

And what sort of age profile are they

62 to 68 plate. Will have astronomical mileage I imagine.

 

[paul1609]

From my point of view its mainly the services that I use that seem to have gone. London to Glasgow non stop (now down to a couple of nights aweek) and London to Manchester. I reckon Easyjet will now get my Scotland trips and Flixbus Manchester/ Sheffield. Ive had to cancel one megabus Manchester trip and refund it as the new service they booked me on to arrived 5 hours later. Dont see me using Megabus in the future except as a very much last resort.

 

[py_megapixel]

Minor curiosity from a Megabus journey the other day. The bus (Mercedes Benz Tourismo) had a seatbelt light which came on and off at different points during the journey. Is that automated somehow or does the driver have a switch?

 

[Blindtraveler]

Do we reckon that the Megabus cuts are a sort of managed decline situation in the hope that they can get out of it all together eventually? If so then flixbus are going to have to seriously up their game before I even touch them, I can't risk cancelled journeys or ropey service when travelling at a disabled passenger. Passenger. Megabus used to be the same in its early days and again it was a good few years before I adopted the brand for solo travel

 

[route101]

From my point of view its mainly the services that I use that seem to have gone. London to Glasgow non stop (now down to a couple of nights aweek) and London to Manchester. I reckon Easyjet will now get my Scotland trips and Flixbus Manchester/ Sheffield. Ive had to cancel one megabus Manchester trip and refund it as the new service they booked me on to arrived 5 hours later. Dont see me using Megabus in the future except as a very much last resort.

London to Glasgow Non stop is the M11X operated by Macleans, always busy when I see this service.

 

[paul1609]

London to Glasgow Non stop is the M11X operated by Macleans, always busy when I see this service.

Ive always used it in the other direction going home just in case you dont go to sleep. Its always been busy for me too but as I understand it in the new timetable it will only run 2 days a week. The other nights it runs via Manchester. If Ive misread it then Im happy.

 

[Parebunks]

Used the new M84 for the first time yesterday on my way back from Manchester to Oxford. Ran about 20 minutes late throughout, even the 15.5 hours given for the full Glasgow to Portsmouth looks like it may not quite be enough. Seems to be using Plaxton Panoramas (LSK 807 and LSK 808) similar to those on the Oxford Tube - the space may well be necessary as it was busy even on a Tuesday, but the seats aren't really comfortable enough for long distance journeys, the Interdecks that Stagecoach used were more comfortable despite being a bit worn out.
I've continued working on the timetable spreadsheet - some things still seem to be being added to the booking engine and I'm not checking regularly so it is still a work in progress, please use the 'comment' function on google sheets if you spot any errors. In general weekend services look to be maintained or even slightly improved, but the Monday-Thursday cutbacks are very substantial. Suspect this will mean less megabus-branded vehicles as operators will need to find other work during the week? Hard to tell for me now if this is a managed decline situation or a genuine attempt at reorientation.

 

[route101]

Used the new M84 for the first time yesterday on my way back from Manchester to Oxford. Ran about 20 minutes late throughout, even the 15.5 hours given for the full Glasgow to Portsmouth looks like it may not quite be enough. Seems to be using Plaxton Panoramas (LSK 807 and LSK 808) similar to those on the Oxford Tube - the space may well be necessary as it was busy even on a Tuesday, but the seats aren't really comfortable enough for long distance journeys, the Interdecks that Stagecoach used were more comfortable despite being a bit worn out.
I've continued working on the timetable spreadsheet - some things still seem to be being added to the booking engine and I'm not checking regularly so it is still a work in progress, please use the 'comment' function on google sheets if you spot any errors. In general weekend services look to be maintained or even slightly improved, but the Monday-Thursday cutbacks are very substantial. Suspect this will mean less megabus-branded vehicles as operators will need to find other work during the week? Hard to tell for me now if this is a managed decline situation or a genuine attempt at reorientation.

One of the Parks Panoramas in Megabus colours is an ex demo is quite uncomfortable as the arm rests don't move. I thought they would use the single deck volvo on the M84 like the M17.

I would be interested in the driver rota for the M84.

 

[PaulWC]

Minor curiosity from a Megabus journey the other day. The bus (Mercedes Benz Tourismo) had a seatbelt light which came on and off at different points during the journey. Is that automated somehow or does the driver have a switch?

Can't answer the question, but I did a Megabus journey from Manchester Airport to Middlesbrough a couple of weeks ago, and I noticed the seatbelt light was doing the same thing. The light to say if the toilet was engaged appeared to have a mind of its own as well. Mind you, by the time we left Leeds the stench coming up from the toilet was unbelievable....

 

[route101]

I see the M17 Glasgow to Southampton and return has been quietly dropped. The overnight was useful for people going on a cruise from Southampton.

 

[richw]

I see the M17 Glasgow to Southampton and return has been quietly dropped. The overnight was useful for people going on a cruise from Southampton.

From when? It’s still available to book Southampton to Glasgow through until mid December. 1020 departure from Southampton.
Screen shots attached showing booking site showing availability to book November and December

 

[Parebunks]

From when? It’s still available to book Southampton to Glasgow through until mid December. 1020 departure from Southampton.
Screen shots attached showing booking site showing availability to book November and December

If you look at the trip time on that it is alas no longer the M17 but the M84, which takes considerably longer and wanders around the country so much as to not really be useful end to end.

 

[Resuwen]

I had to use the M20X operated by McLeans from Victoria to Edinburgh overnight last night after a cancelled flight.

Absolutely shocking experience I’m afraid.

 

[Tartanarmy85]

I had to use the M20X operated by McLeans from Victoria to Edinburgh overnight last night after a cancelled flight.

Absolutely shocking experience I’m afraid.

What was wrong used that service before normally runs fairly smoothly

 

[richw]

If you look at the trip time on that it is alas no longer the M17 but the M84, which takes considerably longer and wanders around the country so much as to not really be useful end to end.

I couldn’t see the route number anywhere on the megabus search results

 

[Temple Meads]

I couldn’t see the route number anywhere on the megabus search results

From memory the route number is never displayed during the booking process and only shows in the booking reference code.

 

[Resuwen]

What was wrong used that service before normally runs fairly smoothly

Rookie driver, being coached by a colleague.

Very loud chat, every other word the F word.

Boasting about having done time for GBH, about having been up since 6am and barely being able to stay awake at the wheel.

Getting somewhat lost on the way out of London and doing extensive running through small village lanes at a point we should have been on the motorway.

 

[Titfield]

Rookie driver, being coached by a colleague.

Very loud chat, every other word the F word.

Boasting about having done time for GBH, about having been up since 6am and barely being able to stay awake at the wheel.

Getting somewhat lost on the way out of London and doing extensive running through small village lanes at a point we should have been on the motorway.

I would report that to the DVSA that in your opinion the journey was unsafe.