# Megabus selling Barcelona-Inverness tickets



## Swadian Hardcore (Jan 22, 2015)

Northbound schedule: http://uk.megabus.com/support/viewschedule.aspx?journeyId=*6752552.

Southbound schedule: http://uk.megabus.com/support/viewschedule.aspx?journeyId=*6651766.


----------



## beautifulplanet (Jan 23, 2015)

When I clicked on those links above, only an error message came up.

So here is the southbound schedule that was displayed for Wednesday, March 4:



> Inverness, Bus Station 18:55 Perth , Broxden Park and Ride 21:10 21:15 Kinross, Park and Ride 21:35 21:35 Halbeath Interchange, Park & Ride 21:48 21:48 Edinburgh, Edinburgh Bus Station 22:15 Edinburgh, Edinburgh Bus Station 23:00 Newcastle, John Dobson Street 01:35 01:40 Scotch Corner, Motorway Services 02:30 02:30 Wakefield/Woolley Edge, Wakefield/Woolley Edge Southbound Coach Park M1 03:45 03:45 Sheffield, Meadowhall Interchange 04:05 04:05 London, Victoria Coach Station 08:00 London, Victoria Coach Station 10:30 Amiens, Gare Routiere 16:55 16:55 Paris, Porte Maillot Coach park 19:00 Paris, Porte Maillot Coach park 21:30 Limoges, Benedictins Gare Routiere 02:45 02:45 Brive-la-Gaillarde, Centre Commercial Ouest 04:00 04:00 Toulouse, Matabiau Gare Routiere 06:40 06:40 Barcelona, Estacion del Norte 11:55


The Megabus option has a travel time of 40h. Fare is 32 GBP.

There could possibly be different rail options as well. One could be:

07:55 Inverness15:51 London Kings Cross


7 hours 56 minutes

Fare is 37.50 GBP.

London short layover:

17:31 London St. Pancras

20:53 Paris Gare Du Nord

2 hours 22 minutes

Fare is 46.00 GBP.

London longer layover

20:01 London St. Pancras

23:28 Paris Gare Du Nord

2 hours 27 minutes


Fare is 34.50 GBP.

After a transfer to Gare De Lyon

07:13 Paris Gare De Lyon

13:30 Barcelona Sants

6h 17minutes.

Fare is 58.50 GBP.

Seems like the rail option is feasible as well. With 130.50 GBP in total rail fare cost (booking in advance), it is still more than 4 times the bus fare, at the same time, the travel times are shorter, with spending about 16 and a half hours inside rail vehicles, compared to 37.5h in different buses.


----------



## cirdan (Jan 23, 2015)

You could also consider using one of the night trains going from Paris to either Latour de Carol or Portbou, both connect onto commuter trains going into Barcelona

Paris Austerlitz 21:57

Latour de Carol Enveitg 07:51

Latour de Carol Enveitg 08:50

Barcelona Sants 11:56

-------------------------------------------

Paris Austerlitz 21:57 (same train as above, they split en route)

Port Bou 08:09

Port Bou 08:33

Barcelona Sants 11:09

---------------------------------------------

alternative using night train + high-speed train instead of commuter

Paris Austerlitz 22:43

Tolouse Matabiau 06:48

Tolouse Matabiau 08:11

Barcelona Sants 11:31


----------



## Swadian Hardcore (Jan 23, 2015)

Me? I'm not riding it, I'm just poking around Megabus. You all know I'm no fan of Megabus, right?

LOL, I just realized I spelled it as "Barcelone" instead of "Barcelona".

That's the longest distance that one can book on Megabus.


----------



## beautifulplanet (Jan 24, 2015)

cirdan said:


> alternative using night train + high-speed train instead of commuter
> 
> Paris Austerlitz 22:43
> 
> ...


Of course there might be many options to take rail on that route.

Thank you for posting this, as I was not aware of the daily TGV leaving Toulouse 8.11 a.m. bound for Barcelona.



Swadian Hardcore said:


> Me? I'm not riding it, I'm just poking around Megabus. You all know I'm no fan of Megabus, right?
> 
> LOL, I just realized I spelled it as "Barcelone" instead of "Barcelona".
> 
> That's the longest distance that one can book on Megabus.


First I wondered if there is a "Barcelone" somewhere in the United States (along with some "Inverness"), then I realized, Europe must be meant. 

Many might think it's good to have different transportation options. So when there's bus service on this route, that would be good then. 

It seems that despite growing, Megabus is still a smaller player in Europe, for example when compared with some of the traditional companies of the Eurolines organization. With Eurolines, it's possible to travel by bus from Oslo in Norway all the way down to Lisbon in Portugal. It takes a total of 52 hours though, and requires 3 transfers. And with nearly 300 Euro, it's also not such a bargain anymore.  A friend of mine took an Eurolines overnight service to Paris once, he said it was alright...

 Then again, there's always rail...


----------



## PerRock (Jan 24, 2015)

In parts of England MegaBus also runs "MegaTrain" services. It's not really anything special, they just book you on an existing SWT train service; but it is possible to book a ticket from Portsmouth to London for only £1.

It's mainly possible because StageCoach, the owner of MegaBus is also the owner of SWT (apparently they also do this on East Midlands, again owned by Stagecoach)

peter

PS. for those interested in the US StageCoach operates as MegaBus & Coach USA.


----------



## railiner (Jan 25, 2015)

PerRock said:


> In parts of England MegaBus also runs "MegaTrain" services. It's not really anything special, they just book you on an existing SWT train service; but it is possible to book a ticket from Portsmouth to London for only £1.
> 
> It's mainly possible because StageCoach, the owner of MegaBus is also the owner of SWT (apparently they also do this on East Midlands, again owned by Stagecoach)
> 
> ...


And also Coach Canada in Canada......and all of those are broken down into smaller operating companies that existed long before Stagecoach purchased them....such as Suburban Transit, Hudson Transit ('Shortline'), and Rockland Coaches, etc.....


----------



## PerRock (Jan 25, 2015)

railiner said:


> PerRock said:
> 
> 
> > In parts of England MegaBus also runs "MegaTrain" services. It's not really anything special, they just book you on an existing SWT train service; but it is possible to book a ticket from Portsmouth to London for only £1.
> ...


StageCoach owns a lot more then what I listed (and you added) I just elected to only list the US companies (Coach Canada is Canadian), and the few relevant UK companies.


----------



## Anderson (Jan 25, 2015)

Went in and fixed the title.


----------



## Swadian Hardcore (Jan 25, 2015)

Thanks.


----------



## oiky (Jan 28, 2015)

beautifulplanet said:


> When I clicked on those links above, only an error message came up.
> 
> So here is the southbound schedule that was displayed for Wednesday, March 4:
> 
> ...


The chances of getting those journeys for the fares listed are incredibly low! I travel the east coast main line regularly from London to just North Edinburgh (3hours or so before Inverness) and even when the tickets are released you are lucky to get a single journey for less than £40 however...



PerRock said:


> In parts of England MegaBus also runs "MegaTrain" services. It's not really anything special, they just book you on an existing SWT train service; but it is possible to book a ticket from Portsmouth to London for only £1.
> 
> It's mainly possible because StageCoach, the owner of MegaBus is also the owner of SWT (apparently they also do this on East Midlands, again owned by Stagecoach)
> 
> ...


Stagecoach are going to take over the East Coast Main Line from the Government in March this year, I wonder if they would consider the 'megatrain' for these routes, perhaps slightly long too long distance and not value for money.

Saying that i have done regular megabus overnight from London to Edinburgh for £8 and it wasn't too awful, certainly no different to national express ho offer the same route at almost the same time for more than double the price


----------



## cirdan (Jan 28, 2015)

oiky said:


> Stagecoach are going to take over the East Coast Main Line from the Government in March this year, I wonder if they would consider the 'megatrain' for these routes, perhaps slightly long too long distance and not value for money.
> 
> Saying that i have done regular megabus overnight from London to Edinburgh for £8 and it wasn't too awful, certainly no different to national express ho offer the same route at almost the same time for more than double the price


Back in the 1980s, long before the Britsih railways were privatized, and when Stagecoach was little more than a Scottish bus operator, they did combined bus and train tickets meaning you caught one of their buses to Edinburgh or Glasgow and then the train to London. The tickets were cheaper than regular train tickets. At first they used a dedicated fleet of rail cars that would be attached to the rear of the regular train. They were essentially older cars that British rail no longer needed and the level of comfort was low. I think at the time they were promising to refurbish them but this never happened. Later, instead, they abolished those and had their people sit in normal seats in the normal train under some sort of codeshare agreement. But later again I think it was British Rail who pulled the plug on them as because of increasing demand they became able to sell those seats themselves at a higher price.


----------

