Record numbers travel by coach

[notadriver]

With the recent staff shortages, engineering works etc are the public turning their backs on trains in favour of coaches? Will wages and conditions for coach drivers catch up or even overtake train drivers ?


http://www.independent.co.uk/travel...ever-for-last-minute-travellers-a6784796.html

Britain’s traditional Christmas transport shutdown begins tomorrow, with last trains setting off as early as mid afternoon. The nation’s railways will close as usual on Christmas Day. But The Independent has found there will be more options than ever for travellers who need to travel around Britain on Christmas Eve on public transport.

The last direct train from Bristol to Newcastle sets off at 3.30pm on Thursday afternoon, shortly before the final Eurostar departures to Paris and Brussels. By mid-evening almost all services are due to reach their destinations.

In previous years, inter-city travel without a car has proved difficult - but 25 December this year will see a record number of long-distance buses operating.

 

[Phil.]

Coaches.
Cheap.
Regular service.
Guaranteed seat.
Wi-Fi.
Toilet.
Diversión if roads are blocked with no replacement service.
What's not to like? (apart from legroom for a personage of 6' 3'' but no worse than a SWT 159.

 

[deltic]

It is interesting that while Megabus seems to be steadily growing its market, National Express apart from its airport services seemed to be managing a product in a slow decline with most innovative ideas being binned over the years. How long will it be before Megabus becomes the market leader?

 

[scott118]

Will wages and conditions for coach drivers catch up or even overtake train drivers ?

in short, no.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It is interesting that while Megabus seems to be steadily growing its market, National Express apart from its airport services seemed to be managing a product in a slow decline with most innovative ideas being binned over the years. How long will it be before Megabus becomes the market leader?

Or Souter buys it?

 

[overthewater]

It is interesting that while Megabus seems to be steadily growing its market, National Express apart from its airport services seemed to be managing a product in a slow decline with most innovative ideas being binned over the years. How long will it be before Megabus becomes the market leader?

Thats because Nat Express is crap, behide in the times, and needs to update its sel; just buying new coaches is not the answer.

Nearly all the Nat express routes are far to slow and go around the houses, while Megabus is cheap, cheerful and direct. I bet Megabus could provide a better network of routes if Nat express declines.

 

[radamfi]

A problem with Christmas Day coach services is the difficulty of getting to or from the coach stop. Unless you are within walking distance, you are relying on getting a lift or paying silly money for a taxi.

National Express services have been remarkably stable, with many of their timetables hardly changed in the last 10, 20 or even 30 years. I feel Megabus has peaked and they have cut a number of services this year. Souter has kept himself busy setting up coach networks in Finland and Estonia, following on from PolskiBus.

It would be interesting to see if Flixbus or Ouibus decide to enter the UK domestic market. Ouibus (formerly as iDBUS) have been running international routes for a while now and Flixbus have now got as near as Calais.

 

[howittpie]

I have sampled both Nat Ex and Megabus this Christmas and all coaches were nearly full. One of the problems I find is that the lack of comfort on the service coaches compared to the dupes. On the night of 22nd I travelled on the Burnley to London service. The Burnley to Manchester section was on the service coach which was uncomfortable and had no legroom I am only 5ft 10. At Manchester I transfered on the Abbots Of Leeming dupe loads of legroom and extremely comfortable seats. On the evening of 23rd travelled to Manchester on Megabus Van Hool decker legroom wasn't to bad and more comfortable than Nat Ex.
Unscientific observation that Nat ex and Megabus almost serve different demographics on the same route with older people using Nat Ex while Megabus seems the more student younger passengers.

 

[GatwickDepress]

Coaches.
Cheap.
Regular service.
Guaranteed seat.
Wi-Fi.
Toilet.
Diversión if roads are blocked with no replacement service.
What's not to like? (apart from legroom for a personage of 6' 3'' but no worse than a SWT 159.

Coach tickets are inflexible? For all the limits Advance tickets get, the railway's ToCs and choice granted for connections on legs marked as unreservable are very generous.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Regular service.

A service once a week is as regular as you get

There are few coach services as *frequent* as the corresponding rail service.

Guaranteed seat.

But not guaranteed walk-up carriage. The railway could offer this; if it did it would turn people away once full, like Eurostar and TGV do. Fancy not being able to travel around Christmas time unless you book months in advance?

Wi-Fi.

So do some trains.

Toilet.

So do most trains. And they are bigger, and they work better, and they don't have the stupid caravan style door lock that invariably results in some prat locking it OOU by accident.

What's not to like? (apart from legroom for a personage of 6' 3'' but no worse than a SWT 159.

Slow, no guaranteed carriage if you walk up, infrequent, poor legroom (SWT 159s are hardly the benchmark), narrow seats, poor ride. Cheap is about the only thing going for them, really.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Nearly all the Nat express routes are far to slow and go around the houses, while Megabus is cheap, cheerful and direct.

But by doing so, deliberately doesn't serve some markets at all. Nat Ex is more inclusive.

 

[Hadders]

I drove from Northampton to Reading on Boxing Day. The roads were busy but I observed a number of coach services whilst en-route that all appeared to be practically empty.

I suspect there is demand for urban bus services (and suburban train services for that mater) but not for inter-city coach (or train) travel.

 

[howittpie]

I drove from Northampton to Reading on Boxing Day. The roads were busy but I observed a number of coach services whilst en-route that all appeared to be practically empty.

I suspect there is demand for urban bus services (and suburban train services for that mater) but not for inter-city coach (or train) travel.

Have travelled on both Birmingham and Nottingham to London Megabus on boxing day in previous years and they have been full. This year may have been different with 2 days before people are back at work.

 

[gtr driver]

Sold. Convert all the railways to roads for coaches to run on.

 

[Dansgroupeu]

Would be a great idea or even run "Coach Lanes" on major A roads

 

[extendedpaul]

(First) Great Western lost my journeys to Megabus when their advances to Cardiff increased by 50% within a 12 month period. I travel London to Cardiff and back most weeks and am a very satisfied Megabus customer.

Most of their fleet are now double deckers which I find very comfortable with adequate legroom (6' tall). I like relaxing(dozing...) in my seat knowing nobody will want to see my ticket and I won't hear announcements for every station arrival and departure. However I would be reluctant to make a long journey on Megabus as there are NO scheduled comfort breaks even on a 12 hour journey to Scotland. Then it has to be the train.

I also often get the £1 ticket ...

 

[overthewater]

(First) Great Western lost my journeys to Megabus when their advances to Cardiff increased by 50% within a 12 month period. I travel London to Cardiff and back most weeks and am a very satisfied Megabus customer.

I wonder why the Gold service never took off then?

Most of their fleet are now double deckers which I find very comfortable with adequate legroom (6' tall). I like relaxing(dozing...) in my seat knowing nobody will want to see my ticket and I won't hear announcements for every station arrival and departure. However I would be reluctant to make a long journey on Megabus as there are NO scheduled comfort breaks even on a 12 hour journey to Scotland. Then it has to be the train.

I also often get the £1 ticket ...

Officially true there is NO scheduled comfort breaks, but I've yet to be on one where we never got one.

East coast; Woolly edge for driver change overs most times we got 20mins, still run early into London.

West Coast; Knuttsfords? Of course I believe thats where the Dup coaches change drivers and thus get 45min tea break.

 

[extendedpaul]

I think the Gold daytime service should have been allocated more evenly rather than one trip to Plymouth and all the others to Bristol/Cardiff. None ever went to Leeds, Manchester etc. Bristol and Cardiff already had a frequent Megabus service

I personally don't like sitting back to direction of travel by coach, nor having someone sitting opposite me while I'm dozing off so the Gold bus layout meant that I only used them occasionally. They were always reasonably full on my journeys with friendly Scottish crew too.

 

[richw]

Where I would of normally booked advance rail tickets this year I have used megabus as the fares were 10% of that of the rail advance.

Both are inflexible limiting me to the chosen service.
Guaranteed seat on the coach
Driver loads my luggage safely and don't need to worry that someone will grab it from a rack at the end of the carriage. I find the drivers always ask where your going and segregate luggage dependent on destination so only luggage for each destination is accessible at that destination.
Tickets checked on boarding so no interuptions during the journey for ticket checks - my last London to Cornwall rail journey I was subject to 3 ticket checks.

The only negative for Megabus for me is the journey is around 2 hours longer (scheduled)- sometimes early arrival at London, sometimes late dependent on how light/heavy traffic is- schedule seems based on medium traffic.

 

[exile]

I find coaches are OK for trips up to 2-3 hours (eg London to Birmingham). The lack of opportunity to get up and stretch one's legs is the problem (as it is in planes). I've done London to Manchester overnight (6 hours) a couple of times recently and as they both ran late we only had 10 minutes break at Birmingham - and the coffee machine wasn't working.

 

[WestCoast]

Notice a few people prefer Megabus to NX, I'm the opposite.

I travel with NX once a month or so; find the experience out of Birmingham good as there's a pleasant and safe indoor Coach Station nowadays with cafe, toilets and information as to when the coach will arrive. They have direct coaches to where I need to go (usually overnight services to Luton/Stansted airports or daytime direct to Blackpool) and you can also book on the day.

Hardly ever travel with Megabus anymore like I used to. They don't travel direct to where I need to go and after one too many times standing at their cold bus stop in Birmimgham waiting for late running services with no info, I decided not to use them unless absolutely necessary.

Your mileage may vary I guess, depends on the route.

 

[radamfi]

Hardly ever travel with Megabus anymore like I used to. They don't travel direct to where I need to go and after one too many times standing at their cold bus stop in Birmimgham waiting for late running services with no info, I decided not to use them unless absolutely necessary.

Your mileage may vary I guess, depends on the route.

Birmingham is significantly better served by National Express than by Megabus. Probably the issue with Birmingham is that there is no independent bus station in the city available for Megabus. Megabus is much more competitive on routes to Manchester. There they have access to a decent enough bus station and they now even have their own waiting room and ticket office. They also seem to have an inspector to help with boarding.

 

[notadriver]

An article quotes a Virgin Birmingham to London season ticket breaking the 10k barrier. How much is the equivalent coach and is it a viable alternative to commuting by train over this distance ?

 

[radamfi]

An article quotes a Virgin Birmingham to London season ticket breaking the 10k barrier. How much is the equivalent coach and is it a viable alternative to commuting by train over this distance ?

Don't forget on that route there are other cheaper train services. The coach takes too long for most people. I don't think you can get a coach season ticket but if you book well in advance you could expect to get Funfares or Megabus for £5 each way or less, which would at least make such a crazy commute cheap enough.

 

[notadriver]

Would it be possible to get cheap fares that arrive in London before 9am? I'm presuming departing at 6pm- 7pm wouldn't be problem in terms of cheap tickets on megabus.

 

[radamfi]

Would it be possible to get cheap fares that arrive in London before 9am?

You can easily see from the website that there are departures at 0400 and 0445 arriving at 0645 and 0800 and even for as soon as next Monday 11th you can get fares of £6 and £4.

 

[notadriver]

Well you would get between 6 and 7 hours at home if you did that.

 

[Bungle965]

I have started travelling a lot more by coach during the last year or so and i am relatively impressed, i have not experienced Megabus yet and i don't think that i will unless i really have to, simply because what you get with National Express is good enough for me. Power Sockets, Comfy leather seats and they seem to go everywhere. There is a few drawbacks for me though. Im sorry to say it but the class of people that use the coach are quite different to the train for instance i have had a person sat next to be screaming and swearing on her phone for the best part of 30 minutes another time a women would not stop coughing all the way though a 4h journey , if one person uses the toilet it stinks the whole coach out (a bit like being on a voyager). Coaches have a tendency to run late meaning that they can never be fully relied on,and the last one on the train they try there best to get you to your destination whether it be by rail or by a taxi, but on a coach you can end up in pretty unpleasant situations where for instance the coach does not run for whatever reason and the coach company can just say sorry nothing we can do. There are positives and negatives to both coach and train.
Sam

 

[richw]

Would it be possible to get cheap fares that arrive in London before 9am? I'm presuming departing at 6pm- 7pm wouldn't be problem in terms of cheap tickets on megabus.

Megabus do the stepped prices. First so many seats are £1, and then the price increases in inclements. I seem to always end up with £5 seats. £5 for Cornwall to London is excellent value and I can get 2 nights in a budget hotel and still be cheaper than an off peak train if I need to travel the day before/day after.

Even on the peak arrivals the first x number of seats are £1 and then so on.

 

[extendedpaul]

Megabus do the stepped prices. First so many seats are £1, and then the price increases in inclements. I seem to always end up with £5 seats. £5 for Cornwall to London is excellent value and I can get 2 nights in a budget hotel and still be cheaper than an off peak train if I need to travel the day before/day after.

Even on the peak arrivals the first x number of seats are £1 and then so on.

When Megabus launched in the UK in 2003 there were a number of seats sold on every service for £1. National Express Fun Fares also started at £1.

These days Megabus sell only one seat on each coach for £1 and the price then usually jumps to between £5 and £25 ( eg London to Barcelona). On the international routes the £1 ticket is usually snapped up within minutes of it going on sale at midnight. Megabus have confirmed on Twitter that there is only one seat per coach service at £1 though I did manage to get two for £2 on a Megatrain from Sheffield to London last year. During the (current)free seat promotion there are up to six seats per trip offered gratis.

If I need to change an advance rail ticket it costs me £10 ,on Megabus it's £1 including the new 50p booking fee and takes moments to do on line.

 

[185]

Or Souter buys it?

Ultimate revenge on NX, a company who continuously pooped on the operators big and small who held it's contracts.