Chippenham to London

grahame

Administrator
Hero Member

Posts: 40830

Chippenham to London - coaches

« on: August 03, 2018, 07:24:44 »

First there was National Express. Then they moved to an out of town stop to avoid the town centre. Then they moved back in.

Second there was Megabus who started a service but have now, I understand, pulled back out - certainly didn't "Chippenham" in their booking pulldown menus when I looked yesterday.

Not sure of the chronology of services coming, changing, going ... but it's hardly been a model of stable growth. As the Chippenham coach market probably doesn't include too many daily commuters, I suspect the changes aren't going to be hitting people's livelihoods, but it does seem to be a model that does little for stable co-ordinated corridor growth.

Can anyone help fill in the chronology / synchronisation between the National Express and Megabus changes?

Illustration - at a time that both services were running into the town centre. Town Centre, you will note - NOT the bus station which is 5 to 10 minutes away in one direction, and not the railway station which is 5 to 10 minutes away in the other. Good for taxi transfers from bus to residences, but rather tight for space!


	Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep

bobm

Administrator
Hero Member

Posts: 9841

Re: Chippenham to London - coaches

« Reply #1 on: August 03, 2018, 08:58:04 »

Judging by a review on Trip Advisor Megabus were still running to Chippenham last October.


	Logged

WelshBluebird

Transport Scholar
Sr. Member

Posts: 158

Re: Chippenham to London - coaches

« Reply #2 on: August 03, 2018, 10:45:37 »

This also affects Bath (as Bath is where the coaches through Chippenham used to go to and from). This happened a couple of years ago too when Megabus started running the services then dumped them after about a year. The services were reintroduced last year and until reading this post I wasn't aware they had stopped again. I suspect they see initial high usage (with the service being "new" and getting media publicity etc) and then it probably drops off pretty quickly (thanks to competition from National Express and the railway) to a point where they give up again.


	Logged

Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

Pages: [1]

« previous next »