Mega Bus

[ash burton]

Tried the Mega Bus service from London to Carmarthen at the wekend, for
£6.50 one way it was fantastic value compared to £24.50 by train or Nat
Express.

The same service goes on to Pembroke Dock and connects to the Irish Ferries
service to Rosslare, inclusive fares fro £1, amazing.

[Paul - xxx]

We've used Mega-bus regularly when we've gone away and the kids want to
join us later. Great value for money, so long as it's going where you
want it to!

--
Paul - xxx

[Jon]

I've found them good on the Bristol route, but that's about the only
place I go by coach where there is a "megabus" route.

Pedantic, I know, but I do wish they had called it "megacoach.co.uk"

[Railwayman.]

On Sep 12, 11:15 am, "ash burton" <ash.bur...@tesco.net> wrote:

Buses are great, I have stop about 25 yards from my front door that
goes into the city centre.
£3 return into city centre and it costs more than that for car park
for car even before thinking about fuels etc.

[John Williamson]

You don't live where I do, then. One bus every half hour, about the same
fare as you pay into the centre, but I normally can't get all that I
want there, so it's another two bus rides to get to the alternative
shops, so it's a day pass for a fiver. Plus, it takes about three hours
to do what I can do in under an hour in the car.

Even with my staff free pass, it's not worth my while to get a bus from
where I live to do anything other than go to a single destination, do
something time consuming or have a drink or three, and come back.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

[Brian Robertson]

Jon wrote:
> On Sep 12, 11:15 am, "ash burton" <ash.bur...@tesco.net> wrote:
>> Tried the Mega Bus service from London to Carmarthen at the wekend,

>> for Ł6.50 one way it was fantastic value compared to Ł24.50 by train

>> or Nat Express.
>>
>> The same service goes on to Pembroke Dock and connects to the Irish

>> Ferries service to Rosslare, inclusive fares fro Ł1, amazing.

>
> I've found them good on the Bristol route, but that's about the only
> place I go by coach where there is a "megabus" route.
>
> Pedantic, I know, but I do wish they had called it "megacoach.co.uk"

Perhaps they wish it as well, but I seem to recall that the original
vehicles were about as coachlike as the present coaches are buslike.

--
Visit my website: British Railways in 1960
http://www.britishrailways1960.co.uk

[Neil Williams]

On Sat, 17 Sep 2011 23:54:41 +0100, "Brian Robertson"
<br...@britishrailways1960.co.uk> wrote:
> Perhaps they wish it as well, but I seem to recall that the
original
> vehicles were about as coachlike as the present coaches are buslike.

Correct - they were old Dennis double deckers - the huge ex Kenya
ones.

I think the move to coaches was initially so toilet stops could be
removed.

Neil

--
Neil Williams, Milton Keynes, UK

[ash burton]

"Neil Williams" <pace...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:almarsoft.4603...@news.individual.net...

The current coaches are as comfortable as Train seats or Nat Express seats.
The cost savings are the clincher, why pay more for the same thing.

Ash

[Brian Robertson]

My problem with Magabus is that the timings to the places that I want to go
to are useless for my purposes.

[Bruce]

On 17/09/2011 21:55, John Williamson wrote:
> You don't live where I do, then. One bus every half hour, about the same
> fare as you pay into the centre, but I normally can't get all that I
> want there, so it's another two bus rides to get to the alternative
> shops, so it's a day pass for a fiver. Plus, it takes about three hours
> to do what I can do in under an hour in the car.
>
> Even with my staff free pass, it's not worth my while to get a bus from
> where I live to do anything other than go to a single destination, do
> something time consuming or have a drink or three, and come back.

Bus? Ferry here
<www.orkneyferries.co.uk/pdfs/timetables/summer/stronsay_summer.pdf>
--
Bruce Fletcher
Stronsay, Orkney
(Remove dentures to reply)

[Neil Williams]

On Sun, 18 Sep 2011 11:27:00 +0100, "ash burton"
<patric...@virgin.net> wrote:
> The cost savings are the clincher, why pay more for the same thing.

Because their network is very limited compared with NatEx and the
railway, and they don't do many intermediate stops (e.g. despite the
M1 being their main route from London to points north they do not
serve MK).

I suspect this is for flexibility of routeing.

[ash burton]

"Neil Williams" <pace...@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:almarsoft.6103...@news.individual.net...

I suspect it also may be to limit 'head on' competition with National
Express, filling in the gaps as it where.

For example the London to Pembroke service doesn't stop at Cardiff but does
stop at Newport and Swansea.

Ash

[ash burton]

"Neil Williams" <pace...@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:almarsoft.6103...@news.individual.net...

I suspect it also may be to limit 'head on' competition with National

[ash burton]

"Neil Williams" <pace...@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:almarsoft.6103...@news.individual.net...

I suspect it also may be to limit 'head on' competition with National

[allantracy]

>
> Pedantic, I know, but I do wish they had called it "megacoach.co.uk"

Apparently, there's a whole bunch of pilots nowadays that take great
delight in describing themselves as Bus Drivers.

[allantracy]

I have a relative that's used them and comments very favourably but
you do wonder how they make any money from a busload paying only a
pound each.

[allantracy]

> Buses are great, I have  stop about 25 yards from my front door that
> goes into the city centre.
> £3 return into city centre and it costs more than that for car park
> for car even before thinking about fuels etc.

I'm guessing that city isn't Birmingham then, where far too many have
to rely on buses.

Some routes operate every four minutes, a worst nightmare addition to
what is already chronic traffic congestion.

In the peak, a journey of six or seven miles into the city can easily
last an hour, on schedule, let alone with the inevitable delays.

From where I live, commuting from International to Euston by train is
faster then commuting to Brum by bus and at least you get breakfast on
the train.

I tell you, there’s a serious case to be made for an Eric Sykes style
bus service, you’re on it that long.

Needles to say, it’s not much better by car even a Lotus is f**king
useless stuck behind a bus at walking pace.

Birmingham is surely the largest city in Europe to rely more or less
wholly on buses for its public transport.

You would have to go to somewhere like Manila, in the Philippines, to
find anything as bad comparable.

[allantracy]

> Buses are great, I have  stop about 25 yards from my front door that
> goes into the city centre.
> £3 return into city centre and it costs more than that for car park
> for car even before thinking about fuels etc.

[Roland Perry]

In message
<c026950d-683d-4076...@1g2000yqm.googlegroups.com>, at
11:29:21 on Mon, 19 Sep 2011, allantracy <allanb...@ireland.com>
remarked:

>I have a relative that's used them and comments very favourably but
>you do wonder how they make any money from a busload paying only a
>pound each.

Only the first few seats will be a pound, the rest will cost
increasingly more. If I inexplicably wanted to do Birmingham to
Middlesborough this Thursday, for example, it's £17 single.
--
Roland Perry

[John Williamson]

Whereas a lot of tourists insist on calling me Coach Captain.

[Mizter T]

On Sep 19, 8:16 pm, Roland Perry <rol...@perry.co.uk> wrote:

> In message
> <c026950d-683d-4076-ac25-a576ca7de...@1g2000yqm.googlegroups.com>, at
> 11:29:21 on Mon, 19 Sep 2011, allantracy <allanbintr...@ireland.com>

> remarked:
>
> >I have a relative that's used them and comments very favourably but
> >you do wonder how they make any money from a busload paying only a
> >pound each.
>
> Only the first few seats will be a pound, the rest will cost
> increasingly more. If I inexplicably wanted to do Birmingham to
> Middlesborough this Thursday, for example, it's 17 single.

Do it!

[Bruce]

If Roland asks nicely, perhaps Michael Bell would give him a guided
tour of the delights of Middlesbrough. There's the railway station,
the red light district and the site of the former Middlesbrough FC
stadium at Ayresome Park.

Then, if Roland has any time to spare, there's the railway station,
the red light district and the site of the former Middlesbrough FC
stadium at Ayresome Park.

[Tony Walsall]

On Sep 19, 7:57 pm, allantracy <allanbintr...@ireland.com> wrote:
> > Buses are great, I have  stop about 25 yards from my front door that
> > goes into the city centre.
> > £3 return into city centre and it costs more than that for car park
> > for car even before thinking about fuels etc.
>
> I'm guessing that city isn't Birmingham then, where far too many have
> to rely on buses.
>
> Some routes operate every four minutes, a worst nightmare addition to
> what is already chronic traffic congestion.
>
> In the peak, a journey of six or seven miles into the city can easily
> last an hour, on schedule, let alone with the inevitable delays.

Perhaps you might like to point out exactly which (direct) route is
scheduled take 1 hour from 6-7 miles out into the City Centre.
Yes I know routes like the 72 & 73 from Solihull to Birmingham are
scheduled over an hour but no-one in their right mind uses them from
end to end

>
> From where I live, commuting from International to Euston by train is
> faster then commuting to Brum by bus and at least you get breakfast on
> the train.

Which area do you actually live in? Unless you live in the Metropole
or another hotel at the NEC there are not many residences close to
Birmingham International
>

<other garbage snipped>

Tony

[Neil Williams]

On Mon, 19 Sep 2011 11:43:42 -0700 (PDT), allantracy
<allanb...@ireland.com> wrote:
> Birmingham is surely the largest city in Europe to rely more or less
> wholly on buses for its public transport.

Manchester does very heavily. The catchment area of Metrolink is
tiny (though improving).

[Arthur Figgis]

On 19/09/2011 22:46, Neil Williams wrote:
> On Mon, 19 Sep 2011 11:43:42 -0700 (PDT), allantracy
> <allanb...@ireland.com> wrote:
>> Birmingham is surely the largest city in Europe to rely more or less
>> wholly on buses for its public transport.
>
> Manchester does very heavily. The catchment area of Metrolink is tiny
> (though improving).

While the trams are only one line, doesn't Birmingham have quite high
(heavy-)rail usage?

Or is this more a case of "Birmingham should have a metro, with real
tunnels and stuff, like some places in Foreignland have"?

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

[Graeme Wall]

London's foreign?

--
Graeme Wall
This account not read, substitute trains for rail.
Railway Miscellany at <www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail>

[Neil Williams]

On Sep 20, 12:17 am, Arthur Figgis <afig...@example.com.invalid>
wrote:

> Or is this more a case of "Birmingham should have a metro, with real
> tunnels and stuff, like some places in Foreignland have"?

Though it does have an underground station. Unfortunately.

Many European cities rely on street-running trams for public
transport. OK, Brum doesn't have those - but they're not an U-Bahn.

Neil

[Neil Williams]

On Sep 19, 8:40 pm, Mizter T <mizte...@gmail.com> wrote:

> > Only the first few seats will be a pound, the rest will cost
> > increasingly more. If I inexplicably wanted to do Birmingham to
> > Middlesborough this Thursday, for example, it's 17 single.
>
> Do it!

I'd definitely want to go for a return, though. Or a single *from*
Middlesbugger....

Neil

[Bruce]

Neil Williams <pace...@gmail.com> wrote:

>On Mon, 19 Sep 2011 11:43:42 -0700 (PDT), allantracy
><allanb...@ireland.com> wrote:
>> Birmingham is surely the largest city in Europe to rely more or less
>> wholly on buses for its public transport.
>
>Manchester does very heavily. The catchment area of Metrolink is
>tiny (though improving).

Liverpool also. Merseyrail serves the Wirral well, plus there are the
Southport and Ormskirk lines, but the other rail links into Liverpool
have very limited catchments and most people within the city boundary
use buses. Blame the planners of the 1960s for building so many
housing estates on the edges of the city that were completely reliant
on buses for their public transport needs.

[Neil Williams]

On Sep 19, 8:31 pm, John Williamson <johnwilliam...@btinternet.com>
wrote:

> Whereas a lot of tourists insist on calling me Coach Captain.

Bus drivers are known as "bus captains" in Singapore...

Neil

[Neil Williams]

On Sep 20, 11:58 am, Bruce <docnews2...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Liverpool also.  Merseyrail serves the Wirral well, plus there are the
> Southport and Ormskirk lines, but the other rail links into Liverpool
> have very limited catchments and most people within the city boundary
> use buses.  Blame the planners of the 1960s for building so many
> housing estates on the edges of the city that were completely reliant
> on buses for their public transport needs.

Part of it is because buses in the UK tend to offer a service all the
way into the city centre, whereas in Germany a bus would only offer a
service to the nearest appropriate railway station. So travelling all
the way in isn't an option - you have to change - or where it is an
option it tends to be an express bus at a premium fare/supplement.

Though in Liverpool's case (partly because the "outer loop" has no
passenger rail service) there are plenty of places, pretty much the
large area bounded by the M57, A57 and A580, for which there is no
logical railway station to do this.

Neil

[Bruce]

There seems to be strong resistance in Britain to the idea of using
bus feeder services into rail services. Similarly, people don't like
changing trains so direct services are de rigeur.

[Peter Masson]

"Neil Williams" <pace...@gmail.com> wrote

>Bus drivers are known as "bus captains" in Singapore...

The staff member on DLR trains used to be called the train captain. A much
better title, IMHO, than the current passenger service agent.

Peter

[allantracy]

>
> Or is this more a case of "Birmingham should have a metro, with real
> tunnels and stuff, like some places in Foreignland have"?
>

Yes, something along those lines.

My gripe isn’t so much that we don’t have a European style metro
(let’s keep things real shall we) it’s more that, even by miserable UK
standards, Birmingham is punching well below its weight.

When you consider developments over the years in Edinburgh,
Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and even Sheffield clearly Birmingham
should have by now, at the very least, extended its Metro and solved
the New St congestion problem to allow for more heavy rail expansion.

You do wonder why not because clearly other cities have been able to
make stuff happen, whatever the prevailing political circumstances.

It’s a problem with those that have been running the City and the
surrounding region not getting their act together in a coherent way or
simply not bothering their arses enough.

Our lot are a pretentious bunch of bullshitters, always in denial
about our wonderful industrial legacy, and far more interested in
attracting stuff like ballet and party conferences always trying to
play the game of being a big international player but it’s the kind of
bullshit guaranteed to get the rest of the country laughing.

Wasting time bidding for an Olympics and Grand Prix were classic
examples of that.

No other city in the World would be ashamed of kicking off the
Industrial Revolution, the one thing about Birmingham that no one can
take the piss about, the way some of Birmingham’s great and good give
the impression of being.

There always so obsessed with trying to lose an image (when it’s one
we should be celebrating) that the day-to-day stuff, like some decent
transport never seems to be a priority.

[ian batten]

On Sep 20, 6:55 pm, allantracy <allanbintr...@ireland.com> wrote:

> When you consider developments over the years in Edinburgh,
> Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and even Sheffield clearly Birmingham
> should have by now, at the very least, extended its Metro and solved
> the New St congestion problem to allow for more heavy rail expansion.

The latter I'll grant you (although it's difficult to do, because of
the throats both being underground, and the site being on a
substantial across the platforms) but the metro schemes always strike
me as precisely the sort of "playing at being sophisticated
continentals" nonsense that you highlight. Where would the metro run
to? The city centre's pretty compact and you can walk, through
pleasant streets, from the station to most of the obvious close-in
destinations. Destinations further out are complex because of the
canals, the width of Broad St and a variety of other practical
problems. The scheme to run the metro out to Five Ways is obviously
deranged, because Broad St is too narrow and getting from New St up to
there with steel-on-steel would be a challenge (which is why the BWSR
originally didn't go into New St and all runs in tunnel and cuttings
until beyond Five Ways). I don't say these things are impossible,
just that they aren't as easy as they are in roughly level European
cities which had their urban planning simplified by Bomber Command.

>
>
> Wasting time bidding for an Olympics and Grand Prix were classic
> examples of that.

The Olympics bid was a bit silly (although the "capital cities only"
policy, quietly ignored for Atlanta, hadn't been proposed). But the
Super Prix (F3000, which is now GP2, not F1) was at the time running
in places much smaller than Birmingham: one of the best known was Pau.
It was fantastic: we had visitors just happening to drop by every time
it ran, and I would say that it was one of the things that encouraged
the idea of central Birmingham as a destination. I also think that
the ballet has been a great success, but that wasn't really the
council's doing.

>
> No other city in the World would be ashamed of kicking off the
> Industrial Revolution, the one thing about Birmingham that no one can
> take the piss about, the way some of Birmingham’s great and good give
> the impression of being.

Most of the industrial revolution has long gone in the city centre:
the warehouses which were demolished to make room for the NIA were
about the last. Much of the real legacy (and the real action) is
over in the black country, and central Birmingham has little beyond
the canals to point to. And the canals --- starting with the
restoration at Cambrian Wharf and down the Farmer's Bridge flight in
the 1970s, and now with the stuff through the NIA --- are an
industrial legacy we are very proud of.

ian

[Mike Causer]

On Mon, 19 Sep 2011 11:31:32 -0700 (PDT)
allantracy <allanb...@ireland.com> wrote:

> Apparently, there's a whole bunch of pilots nowadays that take great
> delight in describing themselves as Bus Drivers.

Or, with less delight, "Driver, Airframe".




Mike

[Bruce]

allantracy <allanb...@ireland.com> wrote:

>When you consider developments over the years in Edinburgh,
>Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and even Sheffield clearly Birmingham
>should have by now, at the very least, extended its Metro and solved
>the New St congestion problem to allow for more heavy rail expansion.

Liverpool doesn't have a "Metro" in the Tyne and Wear sense and it
doesn't have trams either. Perhaps you meant Nottingham?

If you were referring to the Merseyrail train services then I don't
think Birmingham is in any way inferior. Liverpool is probably just
as dependent on bus services for its public transport as Birmingham.

Liverpool used to have an excellent network of tram services but that
system was closed in the 1950s. There was a proposal for a tram
system a few years ago but it foundered because of high costs, and the
fact that the local council would have to take all the risk of
construction cost overruns.

Even after being offered central government funding, the council
withdrew the proposal because the risk was considered unacceptable.
Shades of Edinburgh? But Edinburgh foolishly went ahead.

[Charles Ellson]

On Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:46:43 +0100, Bruce <docne...@gmail.com>
wrote:

Also in most cases the bus is now a competing service not a
complementary one so if they can make money by running a service
duplicating the railway then they will.

[Bruce]

Charles Ellson <cha...@ellson.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>On Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:46:43 +0100, Bruce <docne...@gmail.com>
>wrote:
>>
>>

>>There seems to be strong resistance in Britain to the idea of using
>>bus feeder services into rail services. Similarly, people don't like
>>changing trains so direct services are de rigeur.
>>
>Also in most cases the bus is now a competing service not a
>complementary one so if they can make money by running a service
>duplicating the railway then they will.

Sadly true. Not only has rail privatisation has been a disaster for
Britain, so has bus deregulation.

Neither works in and of itself. Put them together and we have
dysfunctional public transport.

[Neil Williams]

On Sep 21, 9:56 am, Bruce <docnews2...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Neither works in and of itself.  Put them together and we have
> dysfunctional public transport.

Indeed.

The one thing that *might* have worked would be wholesale
privatisation (a BR plc with the right to run connecting buses as well
- think something like Translink in Northern Ireland - yes I know it
isn't privatised, but it *could* be). But the way we went made no
sense at all.

Yes, service has improved over BR in lots of ways. But had BR had its
subsidy increased as the privatised railway has, BR would also have
improved massively.

Neil

[The Real Doctor]

On 21/09/11 09:14, Neil Williams wrote:
> Yes, service has improved over BR in lots of ways. But had BR had its
> subsidy increased as the privatised railway has, BR would also have
> improved massively.

It would be nice to think so, but the marginal productivity improvements
for vast increases in real-terms expenditure on the health service
suggest otherwise.

Ian

[Alex Potter]

On Monday 19 Sep 2011 19:43, allantracy wrote:

> I'm guessing that city isn't Birmingham then, where far too many have
> to rely on buses.
>
> Some routes operate every four minutes, a worst nightmare addition to
> what is already chronic traffic congestion.
>
> In the peak, a journey of six or seven miles into the city can easily
> last an hour, on schedule, let alone with the inevitable delays.
>

Funny, isn't it, that in the 1950s, when almost nobody had cars, we all
managed to get to work/school/the shops by tram, and no-one thought
anything of it. From Selly Park, near what is now the Nature Centre, it
used to take 20 minutes into the city centre, 30 in rush hour. It takes
much longer than that now.

--
Alex