Megabus (United Kingdom)
Megabus is a long distance coach operator operated by the Stagecoach Group. Megabus commenced operations in August 2003, initially in the United Kingdom, and later expanding into other countries in the European Union. Some services link with Megatrain services, also operated by Stagecoach Group.
History
Services from London to Oxford commenced on 4 August 2003, and from Edinburgh to Glasgow and Perth and Glasgow to Dundee were added one month later. During November 2003 routes from Manchester to Liverpool and Leeds were added, but these ceased on 27 June 2004 and 3 October 2004 respectively.
On 1 March 2004 a network of routes from London's Green Line Coach Station to Brighton, Portsmouth, Southampton, Bournemouth, Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth, Cardiff, Swansea and Birmingham were added.
On 28 June 2004 routes from London to Milton Keynes, Leicester, Chesterfield, Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester and Glasgow were added and within two months these were followed by the expansion of the Scottish routes to include Aberdeen and Inverness. Stagecoach West lost the contract to run the National Express route between London, Cheltenham and Gloucester, prompting it to introduce competing Megabus services from 5 September 2004.
On 6 September 2004 Stagecoach took over the Motorvator service between Edinburgh and Glasgow, selling a number of seats per journey through the Megabus site, the remainder being available without booking in advance, at regular fares. This enabled Stagecoach to cancel the dedicated Megabus service between the two cities. On 15 November 2004, the London to Oxford service was replaced by seats on the Oxford Tube.
On 31 January 2005, Stagecoach bus route X5 between Oxford and Cambridge became part of the Megabus network, selling a number of seats per journey in the same way as the Oxford Tube and Motorvator. From 18 April 2005, Nottingham, Worthing and Winchester were added to the network by slight extensions/modifications to existing routes, but rationalisation of the rest of the network took place, with some early morning and late evening services were withdrawn. On 13 June 2005 a new service was introduced between London and Coventry. However, the London to Swansea service was withdrawn between Cardiff and Swansea.
A joint venture between Scottish Citylink and Megabus led to co-ordination of services in Scotland. On 21 November 2005, the 900 Motorvator service was replaced by an enhanced Citylink service, with the facility to buy seats through the Megabus website was retained. The next week, most of the faster Citylink services between Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth and Glasgow, and Inverness, Perth and Edinburgh were replaced by a more frequent, combined Megabus/Citylink service. As a consequence, passengers who previously used parallel Citylink services from the bus station in Perth town centre were required to use Broxden Park & Ride on the outskirts of the town, with little to no onward connections to the town centre. Tickets for the combined Megabus/Citylink services are available through both companies' websites, though often at different prices.
From 16 February 2006, the slower Citylink service between Dundee, Perth and Glasgow became available to book through the Megabus website, restoring Perth bus station to the Megabus network. The same day of the Citylink service modifications, the London to Manchester route was extended to Preston, with some journeys extended to Blackpool or Lancaster. This coincided with the loss of National Express work at Preston depot. The extensions to Blackpool and Lancaster were short lived, and were withdrawn in February 2006, citing low passenger numbers.
Again following the loss of National Express contracts (this time at Stagecoach Warwickshire's Rugby depot), on 5 December 2005, the London to Birmingham service was increased in frequency to every two hours with an additional stop on the outskirts of Coventry, and the withdrawal of the direct once-a-day service to Coventry city centre. One journey a day in each direction was extended to Wolverhampton. The stops in the south of Birmingham were no longer served. Further changes on this day were the doubling of the London to Nottingham service to twice a day with one journey extended to Chesterfield (which regained the service lost in April 2005) and the introduction of a new once-daily service from London to Norwich.
A number of changes to routes were made on 27 March 2006. A direct service was introduced between Ferrytoll Park & Ride in Fife, Edinburgh and London via Newcastle and Sheffield. Together with changes to the Leeds to London services, this meant that changes at Tibshelf services were no longer needed. In addition, many routes had timetable changes. In particular, the London to Southampton and London to Portsmouth routes became feeders to the London to Bournemouth service, with passengers required to change at Winchester. Some London to Bristol journeys were extended to Cwmbran.
- The London to Norwich and London to Wolverhampton and Chesterfield services were withdrawn on 14 May 2006
- The London to Cheltenham service introduced an extra stop at Reading Coachway on 20 November 2006.
- Early in February 2007, it was announced that the service between London, Milton Keynes, Leicester and Nottingham would be withdrawn on 11 March 2007. These services were restored Monday-Saturday following the acquisition of the East Midlands Trains franchise by Stagecoach, to and from London by Megatrain.
- From 21 May 2007, services between London and Leeds were extended to Middlesbrough, Sunderland and Newcastle.
On 1 October 2007, the London hub moved from Bulleid Way to Victoria Coach Station.
From October 2009 M35 Cardiff to Newcastle began.
In May 2011, services were introduced between London and Norwich, Leeds and Edinburgh, and London and Swansea and Pembroke Dock with through ferry fares to Rosslare Europort in Ireland. Additional journeys were added to several existing routes.
From April 2012, Megabus began cross-nation services linking the UK to continental Europe, from Birmingham and London to Paris and from Leicester and London to Brussels and Amsterdam. This was announced a month prior to the introduction of the services. A third route, which operates entirely outside the UK, links Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.
In 2013, Megabus started a route between Cologne, Brussels, Gent and London.
In 2014 Megabus launched a route between London, Paris, Toulouse and Barcelona. In Germany, as megabus.com GmbH, they also launched a route between Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich.
On 24 June 2015, Megabus launched first intercity bus services in Italy with 22 coaches out of a depot in Bergamo. The five main routes are:
- Turin-Venice stopping at Milan, Verona and Padua
- Turin-Naples stopping at Milan, Bologna, Florence and Rome
- Milan-Naples stopping at Bologna, Florence and Rome
- Venice-Naples stopping at Padua, Florence and Rome
- Milan-Rome west coast stopping at Genoa and Pisa
On 8 July 2015, a service commenced from Milan to London.
On 29 June 2016, Stagecoach Group announced that all operations in the European mainland, as well as those services linking London with Europe, had been sold to German competitor Flixbus from 1 July 2016 with Megabus serving as a contractor so no route changes were made. This left only domestic UK operations under the control of Stagecoach.
On 1 May 2017, Megabus commenced operations of five services from London Gatwick Airport and London Heathrow Airport; to the West of England. These will be operated by South Gloucestershire Bus & Coach.
Other services
Fleet
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Megabus fleet
| Fleet Number(s) | Thumbnail | Year | Manufacturer | Model Number | Engine | Transmission | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Megatrain fleet
| Fleet number(s) | Thumbnail | Year | Manufacturer | Model | Motors | Notes |
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