Megabus launch new Plymouth - London route

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

........perhaps seeing an opportunity given the poor reliability of rail services?


https://www.busandcoachbuyer.com/megabus-launching-new-plymouth-bristol-london-route/

[Bob_Blakey]

Exeter<>London: +/- 5/6 hours on a bus against +/- 2 1/2 hours by train. Personally I will stick with the latter. The requirement to get to the Honiton Road P&R^▸ (Park and Ride) site on London-bound journeys - this Megabus doesn't serve Exeter city centre - might also dissuade some potential passengers. Obviously onward transport from the Honiton Road P&R site required in the opposite direction.

[TaplowGreen]

I'm not suggesting that it will suit everyone - but (for example) students or those not in a rush/on a limited budget will find a fare starting at £9.99 from Plymouth to London hard to resist, even if the journey takes a couple of hours longer - particularly if it's reliable at weekends during the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) BBQ season.

(And yes, I know that not every ticket will be £9.99)

[IndustryInsider]

Great news to have more public transport options. 

In terms of the potential for students using it, getting themselves up for 7am might be the biggest challenge! 

[broadgage]

Personally, I consider that buses or coaches are generally inferior to trains, and I would therefore almost always select a train except for short or local journeys.

As buses and coaches improve and trains get worse the difference is reducing.

[grahame]

Subject line is a Plymouth - London launch but six months later

From yesterday's Metro

The coach service operator Megabus has announced it is cutting its routes across England and Wales.

Demand for its services has failed to meet pre-pandemic levels – despite the operator offering fares for as little as £1.

It will continue to operate its routes in Scotland as well as all cross-border services between Scotland, England and Wales, reports Route One.

The Falcon route between Bristol and Plymouth will also continue unchanged but all other operations in England and Wales will cease from December 4.

[Chris from Nailsea]

The Falcon route between Bristol and Plymouth will also continue unchanged ...

Glad to see that Han Solo and Chewbacca have job security, though. 

[IndustryInsider]

The Falcon route between Bristol and Plymouth will also continue unchanged ...

Glad to see that Han Solo and Chewbacca have job security, though. 

Does that mean it’ll only run between Plymouth and Bristol, or will it carry on to London still?

[RichardB]

The Falcon route between Bristol and Plymouth will also continue unchanged ...

Glad to see that Han Solo and Chewbacca have job security, though. 

Does that mean it’ll only run between Plymouth and Bristol, or will it carry on to London still?

Only between Bristol and Plymouth.  It's particularly good for Bristol Airport.

[TaplowGreen]

National Express have announced that they will be adding extra services on their Bristol-London route and also additional services on other routes from which Megabus are stepping back from.

Good opportunity I guess - and timely after yesterday's rail meltdown in the Bristol area!


https://www.bristol247.com/news-and-features/news/national-express-boosts-capacity-on-bristol-to-london-routes/

[IndustryInsider]

Competition can only be a good thing.  I wonder why Megabus couldn’t make it work for them?

[grahame]

Competition can only be a good thing.  I wonder why Megabus couldn’t make it work for them?

I'm going to disagree with you - competition can be a problem.  But a monopoly can be even worser if done wrong

Let's take local buses as an example. `It's within my memory here in Melksham of us having two operators on the Chippenham - Melksham - Trowbridge route and two buses an hour - two minutes apart and with frequently changing timetables, and with buses jumping past each other to get to stops first.  A 30 minute service would have brought far more passengers to the route and in tandem been better for the economy of places served.  One company ran services from early in the morning until late evening and the other ran only from the time their single-shift drivers signed on in the morning until going-home time - so the busiest segment of the day.  The other company changed drivers during the day and provided full service - but lost this battle in the "bus wars".

The last bus from Chippenham is now 17:36 rather than 22:16.  During much of the day it *does* run every 30 minutes evenly now, so that's a benefit ... and the bus fare prior to the £2 cap had risen rather faster than inflation.  Some of that may be due to the rise in vehicle quality (which I applaud) but as a private company one has to wonder simply because there is no easy visibility, but the loss of the marginal (for profit) evening service is regretted.  "Of course" being a commercial operator, they can make changes with 56 days notice; on this route I now see a stability which sustains passenger levels so I'm not anticipating changes every couple of months which it felt we had at the time the companies were playing leapfrog.

I don't know what the demise of Megabus will do to National Express fares, nor what National Express will do with their timetable. For sure, they will probably infill the gaps that Megabus cherry-picked, but I would not rule out thinning of services at other times that were there to give people the choice.  We are moving to a "take what we provide - you have no choice" scenario from a "you'll prefer our product" scenario.  Sure, you have competitors such as the train.  See how Bristol to London fell apart yesterday, and there are no longer the competing trains via Salisbury available.

No solution to offer here - apart from a regulated public transport network in which the passenger and areas served are given top billing, but with an element of reward to motivate those who design, implement and operate it to make it even better.

[JayMac]

FlixBus have entered the domestic coach market and have been aggressive on pricing. That may explain why Megabus were struggling.

There will, I believe, still be competition on fares and National Express won't have a monopoly on mamy routes. Flixbus are growing and are also partnering with independent operators. One local example being Berry's Coaches in Somerset. They have long operated express coach serrvices to London in competition with National Express and Megabus. They are now a Flixbus partner.

[IndustryInsider]

Competition can only be a good thing.  I wonder why Megabus couldn’t make it work for them?

I'm going to disagree with you - competition can be a problem.  But a monopoly can be even worser if done wrong

Let's take local buses as an example…

I’m going to agree with you. 

Though I was rather meaning competition for GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) from other transport modes.

Many seemed to have come and struggled/gone over the years from GWRs main markets like Devon/Cornwall, Cardiff and Bristol.  If a regular express coach service between a major city like Bristol and London, an almost perfect sort of distance for a coach, and with good motorway links, can’t make a go of it, then something is very wrong!