 | This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information.(February 2025) |
This article contains detailed information about the history of Megabus coach routes in the United Kingdom.
| This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information.(February 2025) |
This article contains detailed information about the history of Megabus coach routes in the United Kingdom.
Services from London to Oxford commenced on 4 August 2003, and routes from Edinburgh-Glasgow, Edinburgh-Perth and Glasgow-Dundee were added one month later. During November 2003 routes between Manchester-Liverpool and Manchester-Leeds were added, these ceased on 27 June 2004 and 3 October 2004 respectively. The most significant development of the Megabus network came on 1 March 2004 when a whole network of routes from Green Line Coach Station (Bulleid Way), a short distance from Victoria Coach Station, in London were added. Services have since moved to Victoria Coach Station in a deal with Transport for London [1] These new services served Brighton, Portsmouth, Southampton, Bournemouth, Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth, Cardiff, Swansea and Birmingham.
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 lost the contract to run the National Express route between Gloucester, Cheltenham and London, prompting Stagecoach to introduce Megabus between Cheltenham, Gloucester and London from 5 September 2004. The next day, Stagecoach took over the Motorvator coach 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.
Routes between London and Liverpool, and London and Newcastle started on 10 October 2004. On 15 November 2004, the Oxford to London service was replaced by seats on the Oxford Tube. From 6 December 2004, the Megabus service between Cheltenham, Gloucester and London also called at Swindon.
On 31 January 2005, the Stagecoach Express service 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), however rationalisation of the rest of the network also took place. In particular, some early morning and late evening services were withdrawn. From 13 June 2005, the Liverpool to London service called additionally at Stoke-on-Trent [2] and a new service was introduced between Coventry and London. However, the London-Cardiff-Swansea service was withdrawn between Cardiff and Swansea.
The joint venture between Citylink and Megabus led to a co-ordination of services in Scotland. On 21 November 2005, the 900 Motorvator service was replaced by an enhanced Citylink service. However, 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 and 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 conflicting 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 certain journeys extended further 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 Rugby depot), on 5 December 2005, the London to Birmingham service was increased in frequency to every two hours. However, an additional stop was introduced at the outskirts of Coventry, with the withdrawal of the direct once a day Megabus 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 its Megabus service lost in April 2005) and the introduction of a new once a day service from London to Norwich.
A number of changes to routes were made on 27 March 2006. A new 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 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, meaning that passengers were 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. [3]
From October 2009 Megabus started a "cross-country" Cardiff - Newcastle service, the M35. [4]
From October 2012, Megabus extended the M92 Edinburgh to Dundee service to terminate at Aberdeen giving Dundee and Perth an every 30 minute frequency during the day to Aberdeen which interworks with service M9, and giving Aberdeen a direct service to Edinburgh which had previously been missing.
All services are operated by Megabus unless otherwise noted. Services for special events (such as the British Grand Prix) are not included. Some stops are bypassed at certain times of the day. Not all stops or variations are listed. For further information, see timetables.
| Number | Route | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| M3 | London - Heathrow Airport - Bournemouth - Poole | Operated by AirSym |
| M7 | London - Heathrow Airport - Cardiff - Swansea | Some journeys operated by Watts Coaches and Adventure Travel |
| M8 | Glasgow - Cumbernauld - Stirling - Perth - Dundee Glasgow - Cumbernauld - Stirling - Dunblane | Operated by Scottish Citylink and Megabus |
| M9 | Glasgow - Perth - Dundee - Forfar - Aberdeen | Operated by Scottish Citylink and Megabus |
| M10 | London - Heathrow Airport - U.W.E - Bristol - Newport - Cardiff | Some journeys operated by Watts Coaches Some journeys operated by Stagecoach South Wales extend to Cwmbran |
| M10 | Glasgow - Perth - Pitlochry - Dalwhinnie - Aviemore - Inverness | Operated by Scottish Citylink and Megabus |
| M11 | London - Birmingham - Manchester Airport - Manchester - Preston - Lancaster - Glasgow | Some M11 services extend to Edinburgh |
| M11X | London - Glasgow - Edinburgh | |
| M12 | London - Leicester - Nottingham - Sheffield - Leeds - Middlesbrough - Sunderland - Newcastle | Some journeys operated by Hodgsons to/from Darlington |
| M15 | London - Heathrow Airport - Reading - Birmingham - Manchester - Leeds - Middlesbrough - Sunderland - Newcastle London - Heathrow Airport - Reading - Birmingham - Manchester - Leeds - Goole - Hull London - Heathrow Airport - Reading - Birmingham - Manchester - Liverpool | Some journeys operated by AirSym and Orion Travel |
| M20 | London - Sheffield - Leeds - Durham - Newcastle - Haggerston Castle - Dunbar - Edinburgh - Glasgow | |
| M20X | London - Edinburgh - Glasgow | |
| M22 | London - Northampton - Leicester - Loughborough - Nottingham | Some journeys operated by Prospect Coaches |
| M31 | Cardiff - Bristol - Manchester - Leeds - Middlesbrough - Sunderland - Newcastle | |
| M34 | Cardiff - Newport - Bristol - Swindon - Oxford - Birmingham - Manchester - Leeds - Middlesbrough - Sunderland - Newcastle Portsmouth - Southampton - Oxford - Coventry - Birmingham - Manchester - Leeds - Middlesbrough - Sunderland - Newcastle | |
| M35 | Tibshelf - Sheffield - Leeds - Middlesbrough - Sunderland - Newcastle | |
| M36 | Cardiff - Newport - Bristol - Birmingham - Manchester - Leeds - Middlesbrough - Sunderland - Newcastle Cardiff - Newport - Bristol - Birmingham - Manchester - Leeds - Goole - HullLeeds - Manchester - Birmingham - Bristol - Weston-super-Mare - Taunton - Barnstaple | |
| M37 | Birmingham - Coventry - Cambridge - Norwich | Operated by Prospect Coaches |
| M38 | Cardiff - Newport - Bristol - Birmingham - Nottingham - Sheffield - Leeds - Middlesbrough - Sunderland - Newcastle Barnstaple - Taunton - Weston-super-Mare - Bristol - Birmingham Birmingham - East Midlands Parkway - Sheffield - Huddersfield - Bradford | Some journeys operated by Stotts Coaches |
| M45 | London - Northampton - Derby - Newcastle-under-Lyme - Manchester | Operated by Linburg and AirSym |
| M90 | Edinburgh - Dunfermline - Kinross - Perth - Pitlochry - Aviemore - Inverness | Operated by Scottish Citylink and Megabus |
| M91 | Edinburgh - Dunfermline - Kinross - Perth - Birnam - Pitlochrie - Bruar - Dalwhinnie - Kingussie - Kincraig - Aviemore - Inverness | Operated by Scottish Citylink and Megabus |
| M92 | Edinburgh - Dunfermline - Kinross - Perth - Dundee - Forfar - Aberdeen | Operated by Scottish Citylink and Megabus. |
| 900 | Edinburgh - Glasgow | Operated by Scottish Citylink and Megabus |
| AIR | Edinburgh Airport - Ingliston - Ratho Station - Harthill - Eurocentral - Glasgow | Operated by Scottish Citylink and Megabus |
| FALC | Plymouth - Exeter - Cullompton - Wellington - Taunton - Bridgwater - Bristol Airport - Bristol | South West Falcon - operated by Stagecoach South West |
| Oxford Tube | Oxford–London | Operated by Stagecoach in Oxfordshire; numbered M8 until 5 September 2004, and a joint service with Motorvator until 20 November 2005, when the Motorvator brand was withdrawn. |
| Route | Served | Start date | End date | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M3 | Southampton - Winchester - London | 1 March 2004 | 26 March 2006 | Winchester added from 18 April 2005. Renumbered to M4. | |
| M5 | Worthing - Brighton - London | 1 March 2004 | 18 May 2008 [5] | Extended to Worthing from 18 April 2005. Withdrawn due to insufficient ridership. | |
| M13 | Chesterfield - Nottingham - Leicester - Milton Keynes - London | 28 June 2004 (first time) 1 August 2007 (second time) | 11 March 2007 (first time) 13 November 2007 (second time) | Extended to Nottingham from 18 April 2005 and extended to Chesterfield from 5 December 2005. Chesterfield service withdrawn on 14 May 2006. Now served by Megatrain on East Midlands Trains weekdays and Saturdays (excluding national holidays) with the Chesterfield stop restored, but excluding Milton Keynes. | |
| M14 | London - Swindon - Gloucester - Cheltenham - Worcester | 2005 | 2015 | ||
| M16 | Coventry - London | 13 June 2005 | 4 December 2005 | Added to M1 route. | |
| M17 | Lancaster - Preston - Manchester - London | 28 November 2005 | 2010 | Lancaster Withdrawn due to insufficient ridership. Rest of route now part of New M17, enhanced M11. | |
| M17 | Manchester - Chester - Holyhead | 2010 | 2015 | ||
| M18 | Blackpool - Preston - Manchester - London | 28 November 2005 | 26 February 2006 | Blackpool Withdrawn due to insufficient ridership. Rest of route now part of M17, enhanced M11. | |
| M18 | London - Swindon - Chippenham - Corsham - Bath - Wells - Glastonbury - Bridgwater - Taunton - Exeter | 2010 | 2015 | ||
| M18 | London - Heathrow Airport - Chippenham - Corsham - Bath | 2017 | 2019 | Withdrawn due to insufficient ridership. | |
| M19 | Norwich - London | 5 December 2005 | 14 May 2006 | Withdrawn due to insufficient ridership. | |
| M19 | Leeds - Manchester - Norwich - Preston - Lancaster - Glasgow | ? | ? | Withdrawn due to insufficient ridership. | |
| M37 | Norwich - Norwich (UEA) - Cambridge - Birmingham - Bristol - U.W.E - Cardiff | ? | 2015 | Did not call at Birmingham Airport as previously listed. | |
| X61 | Manchester - Chorley - Preston - Blackpool | Route still exists as a Stagecoach Lancashire service but Megabus tickets no longer available. | |||
| M62 | Manchester - Leeds | 17 November 2003 | 3 October 2004 | Withdrawn due to insufficient ridership. Reinstated on M34 from 19 May 2008. | |
| M63 | Manchester - Liverpool | 17 November 2003 | 27 June 2004 | Withdrawn due to insufficient ridership, now part of routes M11 and M15. | |
| M91 | Operated by Scottish Citylink and Megabus | 26 September 2003 | 2015 | Withdrawn due to insufficient ridership. | |
| M92 | Edinburgh - St. Andrews | 26 September 2003 | 20 September 2004 | Withdrawn due to insufficient ridership. | |
| M93 | Edinburgh – Kinross – Perth | Operated by Scottish Citylink and Megabus | 26 September 2003 | 2015 | Withdrawn due to insufficient ridership. |
| G6 | London - Plymouth | Megabus Gold | ? | 2015 | |
| G7 | London - Bristol - Cardiff - Cwmbran | Megabus Gold | ? | 2015 |
Stagecoach Group is a transport group based in Perth, Scotland. It operates buses and express coaches in the United Kingdom.
Scottish Citylink is a long-distance express coach operator in Scotland and Ireland and formerly England. The company was formed as a subsidiary of Scottish Transport Group in March 1985. It is operated as a 63/37 joint venture between ComfortDelGro and Stagecoach.
Stagecoach Bluebird is a Scottish bus company which operates bus services in the areas of Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Moray. It is a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group.
Stagecoach West Scotland is an operating region of Stagecoach UK Bus, comprising Western Buses Ltd based in Ayr, Scotland.
Stagecoach East Scotland is a bus operator providing services in eastern Scotland, with its regional base in Dunfermline, Fife. The company is a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group.
Broxden Junction is one of the busier and more important road junctions in Scotland. It is located on the outskirts of Perth, and is one of the city's two major roundabouts – the other being Inveralmond Roundabout, where the A9 meets the A912 Dunkeld Road, 2.3 miles (3.7 km) to the north-northwest. The roundabout, oval in shape, is an important hub of the Scottish road network, a major junction on the A9 north–south route, and the UK's northernmost motorway junction, being junction 12 of the M90 motorway. Prior to Dunfermline's ascension to city status, all of the seven cities in Scotland were signposted from its exits.
Inverness railway station serves the Scottish city of Inverness. It is the terminus of the Highland Main Line, the Aberdeen–Inverness line, the Kyle of Lochalsh line and the Far North Line.
Transport in Scotland is facilitated by road, rail, air and water networks. The Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament has control over most elements of transport policy within Scotland, with the Cabinet Secretary for Transport holding portfolio responsibility within the Scottish Government. Transport Scotland is the Executive Agency responsible for the Scottish transport network.
Seagate bus station serves Dundee, Scotland. It has eight stances. The Seagate Bus Station is the main stop for journeys leaving the city, while in-town services are operated by Xplore Dundee and do not stop at Dundee Seagate Bus Station.
The network of transportation in Aberdeen is extensive and diversified, like that of many comparably sized cities.
Inchture is a village in Scotland between Dundee and Perth on the northern side of the Firth of Tay. It is approximately nine miles (14 km) from Dundee city centre and 13 miles (21 km) from Perth. The village is bypassed by on the A90 trunk road and benefits from a flyover (grade-separated) junction onto the road making it popular with commuters working in Dundee and further afield.
West Coast Motors is a bus, coach and ferry operator, based in Campbeltown, Scotland. The company also operates under the name Borders Buses in the Scottish Borders and formerly under the Glasgow Citybus brand in Greater Glasgow.
South Gloucestershire Bus & Coach Company Ltd was a bus and coach operator operating school bus services under contract to Bristol City Council and South Gloucestershire Council and coach services under contract to Megabus.
The United Kingdom has a number of intercity coach services.
Stagecoach Gold is a luxury bus sub-brand used by various Stagecoach bus subsidiaries in the United Kingdom.
Megabus is an operator of intercity bus service in the United Kingdom, primarily from/to Glasgow or Edinburgh. It is owned by Scottish Citylink and was founded by Stagecoach Group in August 2003.
McGill's Bus Services is a bus operator based in Greenock, Scotland. The company has grown to operate a network of routes covering much of the council areas of Inverclyde, East Renfrewshire, Renfrewshire, North Lanarkshire, Glasgow City, North Ayrshire, West Lothian, Falkirk and Dundee City. McGill's have several depots based in Greenock, Inchinnan, Johnstone, Edinburgh, Bannockburn, Balfron, Larbert, Livingston and Dundee. McGill's also formerly had depots in Dumbarton, Barrhead and Coatbridge.
The 900 is a bus service, operated by Scottish Citylink, which runs between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Ember is a coach operator based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It operates the first electric intercity coach services in Scotland.
Public transport in Perth and Kinross is available for two main modes of transport—bus and rail—assisting residents of and visitors to the Perth and Kinross council area to travel around much of its 2,041 square miles (5,290 km2).