Megabus vs National Express

rebeccak

I need to travel from Manchester to London on 3rd May (the Sunday of the Bank Holiday weekend) but, unfortunately, there are major engineering works on the line and Virgin aren't running any trains to London so I'm looking at coaches and have a few questions:

1) Are National Express and Megabus my main options or are there any other coach companies I should look at?

2) Are Megabus pretty much always cheaper than National Express? (National Express are already selling tickets for that date with the warning that the lowest price tickets will sell out if I don't buy soon but Megabus don't appear to start selling tickets until nearer the date so I can't really compare the two!)

3) Is one better to travel with than the other? (National Express's coach station in Manchester is a bit more convenient for me. The journey lengths of the fastest journeys both look okay to me. Does one have better coaches? Is one more reliable etc? As it'll be a lot cheaper than travelling by train anyway, I don't mind paying a bit more for a better service but I don't want to pay extra money needlessly.)

Thanks.

jbuchanangb

The odd thing about your question is that the Virgin Trains web site shows a service operating between Manchester and London on 3rd May, and the National Rail web site does not list any engineering works affecting that route on that date.

What is your source of information that the train service will be disrupted?

rebeccak

That's strange! When I first searched for train times (knowing the cheap fares wouldn't be available yet anyway), the websites I tried (thetrainline and at least one other) didn't show any journeys on the Sunday and were suggesting early morning journeys the following day - and I'm sure I read that there was some engineering work going on so thought that was the reason. However, I can now see journey times on thetrainline.com for the Sunday so either engineering works been cancelled or they have only just added journey information for that date. Oh well, that solves that problem! Thanks!

David147

To be honest with you I have used both National Express and Megabus and there's really not a lot in them. Megabus is the cheapest of the two but they tend to have just the standard seats and their overall journey time is longer than National Express. However National Express tends to be quicker and you get nice leather seats compared with standard seats on Megabus.

As for standards I do remember one time catching a National Express coach back from Stansted Airport, a drunk got on and the driver threaten to turn around and drop him back off again at the airport which delayed my journey slightly. Another time I was catching an overnight coach back to London from either Glasgow or Edinburgh, this Asian couple where the last to get on and they kicked up a fuss because they wanted to sit next to each other and the only two seats next to one another that were free was reserved for additional drivers or something like that, so this couple sat there and refused to move.

I can't really say I have ever had any problems with other customers on Megabus though.

C_Mababejive

And now a musical interlude..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3NVPOedkEk

marky_p

Megabus tickets go on sale 45 days before the dtae of travel and start from £1 but with very few seats available at that price - if you book ASAP you should be able to get one for £5-10 - less if you're very quick.

I've travelled extensively on both and much prefer Megabus, far more comfortable and far more likely to be on time in my experience.

If you're happy with National Express price I'd book it now - they usually do pretty decent advance fares and its a superior service.

If you really want to just save money - get on megabus 45 days before the date you want to go and book it.

Be warned that both services will probably see pretty dramatic price rises if you leave it until the last minute.

trukdiver

David147 wrote: »

To be honest with you I have used both National Express and Megabus and there's really not a lot in them. Megabus is the cheapest of the two but they tend to have just the standard seats and their overall journey time is longer than National Express. However National Express tends to be quicker and you get nice leather seats compared with standard seats on Megabus. .

I used Megabus at Easter (as there were no trains to London) and found it to be pretty much the same as National Express. I've never travelled on a National Express coach with leather seats! The overall journey time was governed by the amount of traffic. The total journey time from London to Manchester was 4 hours 40 minutes, which was 30 minutes quicker than advertised. They didn't stop apart from a quick driver change. On the way down to London, it ran late but it was 20 minutes less late when it arrived than when it had started (bank holiday traffic)

[Deleted User]

I had terrible experiences with Megabus. The good news is that I complained twice and twice they have refunded me, but I won't use them again. Megabus is Stagecoach, the worst bus company in UK. However they tend to be better abroad. I took a Megabus from Stuttgart to Cologne last year and it was ok.

davey4444

David147 wrote: »

As for standards I do remember one time catching a National Express coach back from Stansted Airport, a drunk got on and the driver threaten to turn around and drop him back off again at the airport which delayed my journey slightly. Another time I was catching an overnight coach back to London from either Glasgow or Edinburgh, this Asian couple where the last to get on and they kicked up a fuss because they wanted to sit next to each other and the only two seats next to one another that were free was reserved for additional drivers or something like that, so this couple sat there and refused to move.

I can't really say I have ever had any problems with other customers on Megabus though.

Why is the fact that they are Asian important for a couple wanting to sit together? Would non-Asians not have an issue with this?

lisyloo

Certainly things about people will get noticed.
Black/white, tall/short, fat/thin, man/woman
Is is racist merely to mention someone's race now??
I personally don't think it is unless it's in a derrogatory context purely based on race which this wasn't.
A tad oversensitive?

Why have an issue with someone else noticing someone else's race?
Are we supposed to pretend we haven't noticed these days?

duchy

Relevancy perhaps ?

The ethnicity of the couple added nothing to the story

In fact if you refer to a couple not everyone will assume you mean a man and a woman - a couple could be a same sex couple - but the point of the story was that they caused disruption on the bus not their nationality or gender.