52-613: Megabus may refer to: Megabus (Europe) , a low-cost coach service with services in Europe owned by ComfortDelGro. Megabus (North America) , a low-cost bus service in the United States and Canada owned by Variant Equity Advisors. Megabús , a bus rapid transit system in Pereira, Colombia. Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
104-483: A 50p booking fee (raised to £1 in 2018), using a yield management model with the lowest fares offered for booking early and on less popular journeys. Typically, only the first six seats were sold at £1. As of 2018 however, the £1 fares have been withdrawn with references to them removed from the website and coach body advertising. Services often use out-of-town coachway interchanges to reduce delays caused by calling at interchanges in urban centres. Megatrain also follows
156-686: A joint venture in the provision of express coach services in Scotland. Under the terms of the agreement, Stagecoach would take a 35% stake in Citylink in return for certain rights to the Megabus brand in Scotland. This ended competition between the two operators and the withdrawal of the Motorvator brand. Stagecoach has resumed operating vehicles for Citylink under a franchise agreement, and many vehicles that operated as Motorvator now wear Citylink livery. However this sale
208-509: 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,
260-407: 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
312-503: A red and off-white livery, and was operated by Stagecoach Glasgow Ltd. Some seats on the Motorvator service were available for purchase through the low-cost Stagecoach subsidiary Megabus . Both companies offered fast, frequent and affordable express services along the M8 motorway corridor between the two Scottish cities, a situation that continued until 13 September 2005. On that date, Stagecoach and Citylink parent company ComfortDelGro announced
364-836: A role Western Scottish never succeeded in filling. Stagecoach operated in Glasgow as Magic Bus in the late 1980s using old London AEC Routemaster buses, though it sold the operation to Kelvin Central Buses (KCB) in the early 1990s. After a stillborn attempt in 1995 to purchase KCB, Stagecoach settled for a 20% stake in competitor Strathclyde Buses who purchased KCB, the present Stagecoach Glasgow operations were launched in 1997, after Strathclyde Buses sold to FirstGroup , and offered fast, direct and frequent services from Glasgow City Centre to Easterhouse , Castlemilk , Pollok , Darnley , East Kilbride and Cumbernauld . The Pollok and Darnley routes were express services which made good use of
416-539: 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: On 8 July 2015, a service commenced from Milan to London. On 29 June 2016, Stagecoach Group announced that all operations in
468-425: A through ticketing agreement with Yorkshire Coastliner . Megabusplus services also used coaches to Southampton Airport Parkway station , then Megatrain ( South West Trains ) to Bournemouth. In 2014, further Megabusplus services were launched using South West Trains services between London Waterloo and Honiton , then the following four coach routes from Honiton: Overnight sleeper services were introduced on
520-608: Is a long-distance intercity coach service operator owned by Scottish Citylink and based in the United Kingdom . Founded by Stagecoach Group (through Midland Red (South) Ltd ) in August 2003, it operates using low-cost fares, formerly starting at £1, based on a yield management model. Services link 90 locations throughout the UK and carry over 4 million passengers a year. From 2012 until 2016, when these services were sold to FlixBus ,
572-687: Is a longstanding joint venture between Stagecoach Group and ComfortDelGro, which also took over Falcon at the same time. Contracts to operate Megabus services are still held mainly by Stagecoach subsidiaries. In October 2024 Megabus announced the withdrawal of most of its remaining routes in England and Wales, citing low passenger numbers. Megatrain offered low-cost intercity train travel on some East Midlands Railway . Services were available Monday to Saturday only, with no service on Sundays or public holidays. Service ceased by 2024. Megabusplus services combined Megabus and Megatrain for through journeys. It
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#1732852574384624-637: Is among the Stagecoach Group's major operators of battery electric buses in Scotland, operating 15 BYD Alexander Dennis Enviro200EV and 6 Volvo 7900e buses in and around Kilmarnock, the latter Volvos being partially funded by SP Energy Networks as the UK's first electric buses serving rural communities. 25 single-deck Volvo BZLs and a further two Enviro200 EVs began to be delivered for Ayrshire services in February 2023, part of an order for 39 electric buses for West Scotland throughout 2023, funded by
676-419: Is being investigated by the office of fair trading. During 2006, Stagecoach introduced several new express services, including the short-lived X33 from Ayr to Paisley later extended to Braehead Shopping Centre, of which part of the route from Ayr to Paisley was originally operated by Western until the 1970s, albeit using a slightly different route. The X33 service was the first time the company had strayed into
728-805: Is normally easily identifiable, with the megabus.com name on the front and sides in yellow on a blue base and the Megabus logo on the left side of the coach (facing forward) and rear of the bus. Accessible coaches are operated on routes between England and Wales, the M9 and M90 in Scotland, and the M20. Vehicles are owned and maintained by various Stagecoach subsidiaries. When branded vehicles are unavailable other Stagecoach vehicles can be used or coaches hired in. Substitute vehicles used have been Dennis Trident 2 and Volvo Olympian double deckers, and Dennis Dart and Volvo B10M single deckers. Stagecoach London double deckers from Leyton garage were often seconded to Megabus until
780-602: The Isle of Arran to the west. Frequent express services also reach Glasgow and Edinburgh from throughout Ayrshire & the X74 from Dumfries. Stagecoach West Scotland operates under Stagecoach Western which is the prevalent brand and is used for the vast majority of bus operations throughout the West Scotland region. Most Stagecoach Western branded vehicles wear the old Stagecoach corporate livery of red, blue, orange and white, while
832-550: The London low emission zone , all were replaced by Alexander Dennis Enviro400s in 2019. For the first time since Megabus was founded, 'Sid' the Megabus mascot, was given a voice - which could be heard in the automatic commentary on the vehicles whilst they were in motion on the tour. On 9 June 2018, a Megasightseeing bus strayed in to a demonstration in Trafalgar Square in support of the far-right leader Tommy Robinson . The bus
884-602: The Stagecoach in Lancashire X61 Blackpool to Manchester service, which was usually operated by a coach but this service was significantly slower than the equivalent National Express service. 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
936-527: The yield management model. Tickets must be bought in advance via the Megabus website or by telephone, when passengers are given a reservation number that they show the driver when they board. The only services on which tickets can be bought on the vehicle are a small number of Scottish services. Megabus serves many towns and cities. For service efficiency it sometimes uses coachway interchanges rather than urban bus stations (e.g. Meadowhall Interchange rather than Sheffield Interchange ). The Megabus fleet
988-587: The 2005 and 2006 UK Bus Awards, Stagecoach West Scotland took the top award of 'UK Bus Operator of the Year', having narrowly missed out on the prize in 2004. It also received the 'Best Large Fleet Operator' award at the industry ceremony for both years. Stagecoach arrived in the west of Scotland when it purchased Western Scottish Omnibuses Ltd of Kilmarnock for £6 million in July 1994. Western Scottish was, at that time, owned by its management and employees, who had purchased
1040-602: 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 operating five services from London, Gatwick Airport and Heathrow Airport to the West of England . These were operated by South Gloucestershire Bus & Coach . Stagecoach purchased
1092-561: The London to Glasgow route in 2011, using Jonckheere Mistral articulated coaches with a flat bunk bed as well as a seat for each passenger. Luxury Megabus Gold coaches were introduced from 8 July 2013 on selected sleeper services between London and Edinburgh/Aberdeen, as well as some day services. This sub-brand is in line with the upmarket Stagecoach Gold and Citylink Gold brands already used by Stagecoach subsidiaries. This service ended in May 2017, due to it being consistently loss-making, and
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#17328525743841144-734: 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 . 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
1196-492: 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
1248-588: The Magic Bus brand having been dropped in the city. In July 2004, Stagecoach announced the acquisition of the M8 Motorvator Glasgow to Edinburgh express service from Lanarkshire firm, Longs Coaches. This pitched Stagecoach in fierce and direct competition from Scottish Citylink, a company Stagecoach ironically operated vehicles for under a franchise agreement. Stagecoach continued to use the distinctive M8 Motorvator brand on this route, with vehicles wearing
1300-484: 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
1352-560: 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
1404-659: The South Gloucestershire Bus & Coach business in September 2019 and integrated it into its Stagecoach West subsidiary. In October 2017, Megabus created a new M39 service, running from Aberystwyth to Birmingham, via Welshpool and Shrewsbury. This service is operated by Mid Wales Travel. In March 2018, the Advertising Standards Authority banned Megabus from using adverts promising £1 fares as few seats were available at this price. Megabus' response
1456-401: 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
1508-550: The Western portfolio. The last 'big' purchase Stagecoach Western has made to date was that of AA Buses, the bus operations of Dodd's Of Troon, on 1 May 1997. At the same time the bus operations of Shuttle Buses of Kilwinning were also absorbed. This would add local bus operation around Irvine, Stewarton and Troon , and would consolidate the Stagecoach Western operation, securing it as the dominant operator in north Ayrshire ,
1560-522: The coaches are now only used on daytime services. On 23 April 2018, Megabus, along with Stagecoach London , started operating three non-stop open top bus sight seeing routes in London under the Megasightseeing brand. Each trip on the route was approximately two hours long, and used a GPS activated pre-recorded 'guide'. The three circular routes, which ran hourly on the hour started from Tower of London , The London Eye , and Park Lane . Tickets for
1612-583: The company from the state-owned Scottish Bus Group in October 1991 on the breakup and privatisation of that concern. Stagecoach wasted no time in expanding its operations in the west of Scotland, and in October 1994 purchased the small Arran Transport business based in Brodick, on the Isle Of Arran. In January 1995 Western took over the operations of A1 Service of Ardrossan, bringing with it around 75 vehicles and
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1664-551: The company's operations in the towns of Ardrossan, Saltcoats , Stevenston and Kilwinning , together with the very busy and frequent Ardrossan to Kilmarnock service. Though for a time the former A1 Service operations were under the separate legal entity of Stagecoach (A1 Service) Ltd, that company has since been absorbed by Western Buses. Clyde Coast Coaches of Ardrossan, a previous competitor to Western Scottish in services around Kilmarnock, sold its bus operations to Western in 1995, adding services from Saltcoats to Largs and Beith to
1716-501: The defunct company's motorway services before either Arriva or Stagecoach could, and as such Stagecoach decided not to restart operations. The East Kilbride services were soon withdrawn, some regarding the timetabling of it as optimistic, and the remaining operations were rebranded as the "no-frills" Magic Bus with rock bottom fares and older vehicles. The Castlemilk operation was taken over by FirstGroup in June 2005 who until January 2006 kept
1768-596: The heart of First's Glasgow operating territory in 1997, though First withdrew from Ayrshire in October 2005 leaving Stagecoach the sole dominant operator once again. While minor competition existed for several years from T & E Docherty around Irvine, Stagecoach has since purchased the routes and vehicles used by that operator. Minor competition exists from Shuttle Buses between Kilwinning and Kilmarnock (including local operation in Irvine) and McGill's Bus Services in Largs . At both
1820-675: The heartlands of ' Clydeside ' Another new service was the X16 connecting Ayr with Hamilton and East Kilbride via Kilmarnock, although the service was reduced to only serve between Ayr and Kilmarnock from summer 2020 due to low passenger usage, before being withdrawn completely among a number of service cuts from 17 July 2022. Stagecoach West Scotland has depots in Brodick (Isle of Arran), Ardrossan , Kilmarnock , Ayr , Cumbernauld , Stranraer and Dumfries . As of July 2019, Stagecoach West Scotland operates 359 buses and coaches. Stagecoach West Scotland
1872-539: 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,
1924-579: The new M77 motorway in the area and used new low floor vehicles. However, due to First Glasgow 's new operations in Stagecoach's key Ayrshire and Fife markets Stagecoach decided to scale down operations in the area. It acquired Arriva Scotland West 's 49% stake in Paisley company Dart Buses . Dart took over operation of the Pollok and Darnley services, which were closer to its base in Paisley and more in fitting with
1976-595: The old Stagecoach service 175 running alongside its own 75 service. Vehicles in the Magic Bus operation wear a deep blue livery with bright yellow lettering, complete with slogans "It's magic!" and "It goes roon the toon!" ( sic ), the latter imitating the Glasgow dialect . Though the Ballieston service was withdrawn during summer 2006, the Easterhouse service is still operated, though now by Stagecoach in Glasgow branded vehicles,
2028-468: The operator also ran routes to continental Europe . Some services linked with Stagecoach-operated Megatrain value rail services. 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,
2080-473: 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
2132-452: The present time. Megasightseeing followed the same yield pricing model of traditional Megabus routes, where fares can start from as little as £1, plus booking fee. The buses initially used on the service were former East London and Selkent 2005/06 Alexander ALX400 bodied Dennis Tridents . These vehicles were refurbished and converted to open and part open top by Alexander Dennis . They were housed at Bow bus garage . To comply with
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2184-524: The remainder wear the new Stagecoach corporate liveries. It is the principal trading name of Western Buses Ltd. The company also provide vehicles for Scottish Citylink express work, mainly on the Glasgow to Edinburgh corridor, and also for Megabus, mainly running from Aberdeen to London. Stagecoach West Scotland had faced sustained competition from the FirstGroup between Ardrossan and Kilmarnock since Stagecoach launched its network of Glasgow city services in
2236-465: The rest of its west of Glasgow motorway express services. Stagecoach supplied vehicles to operate the routes, which continued under the Stagecoach Glasgow livery and brand, while several Dart vehicles were repainted into the Stagecoach corporate livery. Dart Buses ran into financial trouble early in the new millennium and without notice ceased operations overnight in October 2001. First registered
2288-506: The sale of that company to Macquarie Bank . When using substitute vehicles, there may not always be an onboard toilet, and in such cases rest stops are made. Some journeys are contracted to other operators using non-Megabus liveried vehicles, including Turners Coachways of Bristol, Tetleys of Leeds, Hamiltons of Uxbridge and Compass Royston from Stockton-on-Tees. Initially, most routes used buses designed for short journeys that had neither toilet facilities nor luggage space, and each passenger
2340-455: 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,
2392-504: The service were pre-booked from the Megabus website, and cash was not accepted at the roadside, however, bookings could be made for a particular journey right up to the time of departure, subject to availability. Megasightseeing was the only non-stop sightseeing service in London. Each sightseeing trip on the service carried up to 44 passengers. By reducing the number of bookings per trip, a top deck seat could be guaranteed, something other sightseeing operators in London are unable to offer at
2444-579: 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. Following this Megabus tickets were sold on
2496-458: The title Megabus . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Megabus&oldid=1116387872 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Megabus (Europe) Megabus
2548-444: Was allowed only one bag. Stagecoach West Scotland Stagecoach West Scotland is an operating region of Stagecoach UK Bus , comprising Western Buses Ltd based in Ayr , Scotland . Stagecoach West Scotland operates in west central and southwest Scotland, in an area bounded by Largs and Braehead to the north, Hamilton to the east, Stranraer and Lockerbie to the south and
2600-509: Was launched on 30 March 2009. As at August 2019, Megabusplus services use coaches to East Midlands Parkway station , then Megatrain ( East Midlands Railway ) services to London St Pancras . Even though Stagecoach ceased operating rail services in August 2019, when East Midlands Trains was superseded by East Midlands Railway , services continue to operate as of May 2021. As at August 2019, services operated were: Services previously operated from York but ceased in 2017 when Megabus entered
2652-492: Was overtaken by protesters and a significant amount of damage occurred to the vehicle, which resulted in it needing to be towed away. In May 2021, Megasightseeing services were withdrawn and replaced by City Sightseeing services jointly operated by Stagecoach and Julià Travel on behalf of the company. The same Alexander Dennis Enviro400 vehicles that were used on the Megasightseeing service were repainted into City Sightseeing livery. Advertised fares initially started at £1 with
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#17328525743842704-520: Was to withdraw the £1 fares altogether, leading some passengers to note that the ASA's decision has worked to the detriment of Megabus customers. In August 2022, as part of the Stagecoach Group sale to DWS, it was agreed that Megabus' retail activities (the sale and marketing of tickets) would be sold to Scottish Citylink . An earlier proposed sale of Stagecoach to National Express would have seen Megabus sold in its entirety to ComfortDelGro . Scottish Citylink
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