Chippenham to London

grahame

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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!


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bobm

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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.


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WelshBluebird

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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.


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