Megabus Discussion

[route101]

The Glasgow - Southampton service was very useful and it was popular with cruise passengers.

 

[joieman]

Sadly Megabus just gave up, lots of potential wasted, National was always going to survive however I understand your points. National serves a lot of places Flix or Megabus would not dare to serve.

Megabus had some poorly-located stops. Their stop in Loughborough was way out outside Holywell Park with few amenities for passengers, and I believe their stop in Leicester was at the similarly distant Fosse Park. These places were also both nowhere near the centres of the respective bus networks of the places they served, presumably making bus travel to connect to coaches less attractive.

 

[JonathanH]

Megabus had some poorly-located stops. Their stop in Loughborough was way out outside Holywell Park with few amenities for passengers, and I believe their stop in Leicester was at the similarly distant Fosse Park.

Flixbus uses Fosse Park as well.

 

[joieman]

Flixbus uses Fosse Park as well.

But critically, they also use St. Margaret's Bus Station in the city centre. Fosse Park is largely supplementary in function for Flixbus.

 

[GusB]

In my opinion, Megabus is now dead. Falcon should be sold back to Stagecoach South West and then rebrand the M11/M20 to be Scottish Citylink. Stagecoach for a number of years have slowly given up on the Megabus network in England, and then Comfort Del Gro just gave up and tarnished it further. There is no way now for Megabus to return in my opinion and the M11/M20 operating under Megabus will end up keep being cut because the name is mud.

I agree that the Megabus brand should be retired, for now anyway.

I personally think the Megabus brand should be kept

Why?

Megabus was set up as a low-cost operator that competed with the then-incumbent operators (Citylink and National Express). The Scottish competition was largely eliminated when Stagecoach took a significant stake in Citylink*.


Is it really sensible to have one company using two different brands on the same network of services? It just confuses passengers - when I book a journey with Citylink, why is the coach that I board branded as Megabus (and vice-versa)? It was even worse when the Citylink Gold and Megabus Gold services were introduced .

Megabus was the "disruptor" of its day but it soon became "the establishment". For a while, Flixbus seemed to be the new disruptor but Ember seems to have blown everything out of the water.

In a way, we're in a similar situation now to when long-distances services were de-regulated.

(*We could argue that Scottish competition was eliminated a few years beforehand when National Express acquired Citylink, but that's definitely a subject for a separate thread!)

 

[alan25]

Old timetables!!!

 

[-Colly405-]

I see that the Megabus Facebook page has posted a photo of a new Falcon livery...

Facebook

www.facebook.com

 

[padbus]

I see that the Megabus Facebook page has posted a photo of a new Falcon livery...

Facebook

www.facebook.com

Now that is good and much needed. The Falcon fleet has been looking very unloved.

 

[swinny1990]

There is rumours speculating that megabus are getting rid of the m11 and m20 can anyone confirm?

 

[markymark2000]

There is rumours speculating that megabus are getting rid of the m11 and m20 can anyone confirm?

I've heard similar rumours, but yet to find anything to substantiate the claims. You can't book any journeys for dates after Tuesday 20th January. Not sure if that is the end date, or just the date that they have not put more trips into the system.

 

[Mcv378]

There is rumours speculating that megabus are getting rid of the m11 and m20 can anyone confirm?

That would be a huge cut. I semi often use that route

 

[liamf656]

How many Megabus routes are there left nowadays?

 

[danielhogg2005]

How many Megabus routes are there left nowadays?

 Megabus
Falcon (Bristol - Plymouth)
M11 (Glasgow - London via Manchester)
M20 (Glasgow - London via Edinburgh)

Megabus/Scottish Citylink
M8 (Glasgow - Dundee via Stirling)
M9 (Glasgow - Aberdeen)
M10 (Glasgow - Inverness)
M90 (Edinburgh - Inverness)
M91 (Edinburgh - Inverness) (Serving more stops in the Highlands)
M92 (Edinburgh - Aberdeen)

 

[YorkRailFan]

If the M11 and M20 do go, it would make most sense to have Falcon as a stand-alone and the Soctland services using the Citylink branding in my opinion. At that point, I'd see little point in keeping the Megabus brand.

 

[-Colly405-]

Don't forget that the Falcon has a new livery of its own with tiny "by Megabus" decals

Not my photo...

 

[Volvodart]

If the M11 and M20 do go, it would make most sense to have Falcon as a stand-alone and the Soctland services using the Citylink branding in my opinion. At that point, I'd see little point in keeping the Megabus brand.

Just that at present the fares are cheaper in Scotland on Megabus than on Citylink.

 

[Tartanarmy85]

There is rumours speculating that megabus are getting rid of the m11 and m20 can anyone confirm?

M11 and M20 will merge with Nat ex next year

 

[nick291]

If the M11 and M20 do go, it would make most sense to have Falcon as a stand-alone and the Soctland services using the Citylink branding in my opinion. At that point, I'd see little point in keeping the Megabus brand.

Hopefully the option to purchase tickets in the stagecoach app would come about on the falcon if they do go.

 

[YorkRailFan]

Just that at present the fares are cheaper in Scotland on Megabus than on Citylink.

Strange, hopefully that would be sorted out if the merge were to happen but I have a feeling the Citylink fares would be retained and the cheaper Megabus fares abolished.

Hopefully the option to purchase tickets in the stagecoach app would come about on the falcon if they do go.

Agree, would make a lot of sense for Stagecoach to do that but I suppose ComfortDelGro would have to agree.

 

[markymark2000]

If the M11 and M20 do go, it would make most sense to have Falcon as a stand-alone and the Soctland services using the Citylink branding in my opinion. At that point, I'd see little point in keeping the Megabus brand.

As soon as the main England network went, it didn't make sense to keep the Megabus branding. They should have just there and then opted for a much stronger Citylink brand. All the negative press around Megabus giving up really won't have helped the M11/M20 over the past year.

M11 and M20 will merge with Nat ex next year

Is this fact or opinion? If fact, is there anything to back this up, and how do they intend on making this work?

 

[AlastairFraser]

That would be a huge cut. I semi often use that route

Indeed. I wonder if Flix would run more trips on the Anglo-Scottish routes if they did get rid of it, I've always seen them to as quite well patronised when they come through Preston.

 

[Highland050261]

As soon as the main England network went, it didn't make sense to keep the Megabus branding. They should have just there and then opted for a much stronger Citylink brand. All the negative press around Megabus giving up really won't have helped the M11/M20 over the past year.


Is this fact or opinion? If fact, is there anything to back this up, and how do they intend on making this work?

It will be just the same as when they ditched the other English runs. You can book National Express through Megabus.

https://www.megabus.co.uk/information-for-passengers/megabus-x-national-express/

 

[Scott mac]

M11 and m20 will be withdrawn from 22 of December

 

[overthewater]

That is the date Ive also heard but, that madness as all the coaches from 23rd until 5th Jan are full?

 

[embers25]

Why dont they sell falcon back to stagecoach, given they still run it.

 

[voidwxrranty]

Megabus/Scottish Citylink
M8 (Glasgow - Dundee via Stirling)
M9 (Glasgow - Aberdeen)
M10 (Glasgow - Inverness)
M90 (Edinburgh - Inverness)
M91 (Edinburgh - Inverness) (Serving more stops in the Highlands)
M92 (Edinburgh - Aberdeen)

These services are not shared any more. it’s full Citylink operations.

You can book any Citylink service on the Mega website and vice versa

 

[azOOOOOma]

I think it is a real shame to see Megabus become a shadow of its former self. Like the trains, I think the west coast routes simply have more viability given that they have several huge conurbations on the route.

With intra-Scotland competition heating up, I can see why they are retreating to their fortress. However with Flix gaining traction and Ember being so well loved, I don’t see a rosy future for Megabus.

If only they had been a bit nicer, customers may have been more brand loyal. I remember when Ryanair figured out that treating people abysmally is bad for business. Their product improved. Their service improved. Their technology improved and with that customer numbers and yield have been buoyant. Megabus uses Citylink’s booking engine and it takes me back to a time of dialup/AOL. It just doesn’t cut it today.

Megabus just thought it was cheap so they could be as awful as possible. That’s fine when you’re travelling long haul for £1* (*+ booking fee) but when the competition do it better, for similar or slightly higher prices then it’s a no brainer. I remember complaining about a driver bullying another passenger and their customer service was sarcastic and unhelpful. It seems they are reaping what they’ve sown.

 

[nick291]

I think it is a real shame to see Megabus become a shadow of its former self. Like the trains, I think the west coast routes simply have more viability given that they have several huge conurbations on the route.

With intra-Scotland competition heating up, I can see why they are retreating to their fortress. However with Flix gaining traction and Ember being so well loved, I don’t see a rosy future for Megabus.

If only they had been a bit nicer, customers may have been more brand loyal. I remember when Ryanair figured out that treating people abysmally is bad for business. Their product improved. Their service improved. Their technology improved and with that customer numbers and yield have been buoyant. Megabus uses Citylink’s booking engine and it takes me back to a time of dialup/AOL. It just doesn’t cut it today.

Megabus just thought it was cheap so they could be as awful as possible. That’s fine when you’re travelling long haul for £1* (*+ booking fee) but when the competition do it better, for similar or slightly higher prices then it’s a no brainer. I remember complaining about a driver bullying another passenger and their customer service was sarcastic and unhelpful. It seems they are reaping what they’ve sown.

The first nail in the coffin for megabus was selling to ComfortDelGro instead of staying wholly owned by Stagecoach. Think it was around the time Stagecoach tried to merge with National Express which never happened in the end.

 

[markymark2000]

If only they had been a bit nicer, customers may have been more brand loyal. I remember when Ryanair figured out that treating people abysmally is bad for business. Their product improved. Their service improved. Their technology improved and with that customer numbers and yield have been buoyant. Megabus uses Citylink’s booking engine and it takes me back to a time of dialup/AOL. It just doesn’t cut it today.

The silly thing here is that ComfortDelGro already has other booking engines and they could have expanded on existing partnerships rather than Scottish Citylink going separate. The Irish Citylink website from Rise Digital Media is really nice in my opinion. It brings timetables and tracking together in one place and a smooth booking engine. They use RDM/Bushub software for subsidiary Adventure Travel too. Expanding that partnership would have been much better than going it alone with the awful Scottish Citylink (and by extension, Megabus) website, and perhaps could have got some efficiencies of scale.

Megabus just thought it was cheap so they could be as awful as possible. That’s fine when you’re travelling long haul for £1* (*+ booking fee) but when the competition do it better, for similar or slightly higher prices then it’s a no brainer. I remember complaining about a driver bullying another passenger and their customer service was sarcastic and unhelpful. It seems they are reaping what they’ve sown.

I've found the same from customer service. But to be fair, I think the same can be said for a good few levels of staff within Citylink towers, the staff in the offices just don't seem to give a stuff. Falcon coach hasn't send tracking data to Bus Open Data since it moved to the Transmach machines and they just couldn't care less. It's the law and they think they are above it, happily putting Stagecoach South West ops licence at risk (as Falcon is registered with them still) because of Citylinks poor tech supplier choices. The data they keep sending to the National Coach Services Database is shoddy as well, often full of faults and inconsistencies (how can people plan journeys if the data being provided by even the coach operator is so bad). Another example to add to the list of bus operators who have 'all the gear but no idea'.


I do wonder if Irish Citylink is this bad too, or whether it's just a UK issue with Adventure Travel and now Megabus both being ran down and Scottish Citylink merely plodding on until such time someone puts up some meaningful competition then they will fold.

 

[overthewater]

The online booking says the journeys are all full, so if Megabus pulls the plug when are they going tell ALOT of unhappy customers their plans have been thrown out the window? That is disgusting if that is the case.