Greyhound to start running coaches in the UK next month
August 20th, 2009 by Tim Uden
Starting on September 14, Greyhound coaches will start operating from London to Portsmouth and Southampton.
The new coach service will feature complimentary newspapers, air conditioning, toilets, free wireless internet, power sockets at each seat and a frequent rider programme. Greyhound’s UK coaches will have leather seating that promise to be more spacious than rival coach companies with 41 seats to a coach as opposed to the usual 50 seats.
Greyhound UK will adopt a yield-management pricing model like those used by low-cost airlines and rival coach operator Megabus. If you book in advance you will be able to get fares with low prices starting at £1 (plus a 50p booking fee).
From what I have seen, it looks like it will be a top quality coach service with nice little extras that will make it a great travel option.
Services from Portsmouth to London will depart from the Hard Interchange in Portsmouth with a pick-up on Edinburgh Road in the city centre and then run express toBulleid Way near Victoria Station in London. The trip will take two hours with 10 services per day. Portsmouth to London services will run from 6am to 6pm and London to Portsmouth services will run from 9am to 9pm.
Coach services from Southampton to London will depart from Southampton Town Quay with pick-ups at Southampton West Quay and Southampton University and will run express to London, terminating atBulleid Way near Victoria Station. The trip will take two hours with nine services per day.
Greyhound’s new coach services will be timed to met Isle of Wight ferry services.
The relatively recent resurgence in coach travel in the UK started with Megabus, whose £1 fares forced Scottish Citylink and National Express to become more competitive. Now with Greyhound entering the UK coach travel scene, it looks like low cost UK coach travel will be with us for a while.
This is good news for travellers fed up with Britain’s expensive rail services, although with Megatrain and some inexpensive deals offered by the likes of Chiltern Railways, East Midlands Trains, London Midland and Virgin Trains it looks like competition from cheap coaches is also starting to bring down the cost of rail travel, particularly on more competitive routes.
I think it is great that there is more competition and more cheap travel options in the UK, but I don’t really think that the Greyhound brand is worth all that much. In Australia, Greyhound have a relatively good reputation but in the United States they have a reputation as transport for the lower classes (although I would suggest that the riff-raff that hang around some US coach terminals would have a lot to do with this image). Greyhound is trying to capitalise on their American heritage – and the livery on their coaches suggests that they are trying to recreate a nostalgic image. In my opinion, that image works well in the US where you want to ride an American institution to get the full American experience; but that’s not what you want when you visit any other country. Greyhound coaches in Australia have a much more modern image than in the US and they’re not trying to be American – and why should they, Greyhound Australia has been around longer than Greyhound in the USA.
Unfortunately I get the feeling that Greyhound UK is trying to be too American. That is not going to appeal to many international tourists that come here to experience British culture and I expect it won’t appeal to too many British passengers either. An article in The Times says that “each coach will have names based on classic American songs such as Barbara Ann, Jolene and Peggy Sue” and one of the first Greyhound coaches in the UK will be named Sweet Caroline. It all sounds too American for a coach that will be travelling down the M3 to Southampton. I would prefer to ride a coach named Fluorescent Adolescent, Wonderwall or Sorted for E’s and Wizz than a coach named Sweet Caroline.
I get the feeling that this American branding will plant an image in peoples’ minds about the old Greyhound from American films. That is an old coach with uncomfortable seats and broken air conditioning where you sit next to some smelly passenger who hasn’t showered since she got on the coach two days ago in Tuscon and after 20 hours on the coach you pull into some awful terminal that is inhabited by the homeless. It’s not a good image and it is something that Greyhound is working hard to dispel. In the north-eastern United States Greyhound have introduced some excellent new services that have been re-branded with names like Bolt Bus and Neon. This new branding is necessary to appeal to a younger market that is turned off by the Greyhound brand. It is a shame really as Greyhound does have a good product that has evolved beyond the image that most people have.
FirstGroup, who took over Greyhound in 2007, shouldn’t try so hard to play up on Greyhound’s American heritage. After all it is a British company that I would assume it looking to the future. Rather than slapping a retro 1950s paint job on a modern coach, they should adopt a more modern brand like Greyhound have done in Australia (note that Greyhound in Australia are not related to Greyhound in North America and the UK). From what I have read about Greyhound’s new UK service, I get the impression that it will more closely resemble theBoltBus and Neon brands. This is what Greyhound should be aiming for.
England destination guide updated
August 7th, 2009 by Tim Uden
We’ve just updated all the England destination guide content on BUG. That’s around 200 pages of up-to-date travel information including updated content from the England chapters of the BUG Britain & Ireland guidebook. Click here to read the BUG destination guide to England.