Megabus was an operator of intercity bus services in Europe and the United Kingdom. It was founded in August 2003 by the Stagecoach Group through its Stagecoach Midlands division, and subsequently expanded across the United Kingdom by the end of the decade, competing with National Express.
In August 2022, Megabus was sold to Scottish Citylink, with all Megabus services in Scotland adopting the Citylink brand. All services in England and Wales were withdrawn from October 2024 in the face of increased competition from market newcomer FlixBus, with the final two England–Scotland cross-border services withdrawn in December 2025.
History Formation
Services from London to Oxford commenced on 4 August 2003, and from Edinburgh to Glasgow and Perth and Glasgow to Dundee were added one month later.No-frills travel hits roads BBC News 29 August 2003Timetables Megabus 27 September 2003Now it's click and go with UK internet first On Stage issue 52 October 2003 page 1 During November 2003 routes from Manchester to Liverpool and Leeds were added, but these ceased on 27 June 2004 and 3 October 2004 respectively.
On 1 March 2004, a network of routes from London's Green Line Coach Station, a short distance from Victoria Coach Station, to Brighton, Portsmouth, Southampton, Bournemouth, Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth, Cardiff, Swansea and Birmingham were added.On board the £1 intercity bus BBC News 1 March 2004Megabus increases competition in London Bus & Coach Professional 5 March 2004
On 28 June 2004, routes from London to Milton Keynes, Leicester, Chesterfield, Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester and Glasgow were added and within two months these were followed by the expansion of the Scottish routes to include Aberdeen and Inverness. Stagecoach West lost the contract to run the National Express route between London, Cheltenham and Gloucester, prompting it to introduce competing Megabus services from 5 September 2004.
On 6 September 2004, Stagecoach took over the Motorvator service between Edinburgh and Glasgow. This enabled Stagecoach to cancel the dedicated Megabus service between the two cities. Routes between London and Liverpool, and London and Newcastle started on 10 October 2004. On 15 November 2004, the Oxford to London service was replaced by seats on the Oxford Tube. From 6 December 2004, the Megabus service between Cheltenham, Gloucester and London also called at Swindon.
On 31 January 2005, Stagecoach X5 between Oxford and Cambridge became part of the Megabus network, selling a number of seats per journey in the same way as the Oxford Tube and Motorvator. From 18 April 2005, Nottingham, Worthing and Winchester were added to the network by slight extensions/modifications to existing routes, but rationalisation of the rest of the network took place, with some early morning and late evening services were withdrawn. From 13 June 2005, the Liverpool to London service called additionally at Stoke-on-Trent and a new service was introduced between Coventry and London. However, the London-Cardiff-Swansea service was withdrawn between Cardiff and Swansea.
The joint venture between Citylink and Megabus led to a co-ordination of services in Scotland. On 21 November 2005, the 900 Motorvator service was replaced by an enhanced Citylink service. However, the facility to buy seats through the Megabus website was retained. The next week, most of the faster Citylink services between Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth and Glasgow, and Inverness, Perth and Edinburgh were replaced by a more frequent, combined Megabus/Citylink service.
Following the loss of National Express contracts at Rugby depot, on 5 December 2005, the London to Birmingham service was increased in frequency to every two hours. However, an additional stop was introduced at the outskirts of Coventry, with the withdrawal of the direct once a day Megabus service to Coventry city centre. One journey a day in each direction was extended to Wolverhampton. The stops in the south of Birmingham were no longer served. Further changes on this day were the doubling of the London to Nottingham service to twice a day with one journey extended to Chesterfield, which regained its Megabus service lost in April 2005, and the introduction of a new once a day service from London to Norwich.
From 16 February 2006, a slower Citylink service between Dundee, Perth and Glasgow became available to book through the Megabus website, restoring Perth bus station to the Megabus network. The same day of the Citylink service modifications, the London to Manchester route was extended to Preston, with certain journeys extended further to Blackpool or Lancaster. This coincided with the loss of National Express work at Preston depot. The extensions to Blackpool and Lancaster were short lived, and were withdrawn in February 2006, citing low passenger numbers.
A number of changes to routes were made on 27 March 2006. A new direct service was introduced between Ferrytoll Park and Ride in Fife, Edinburgh and London via Newcastle and Sheffield. Together with changes to the Leeds to London services meant that changes at Tibshelf services were no longer needed. In addition, many routes had timetable changes. In particular, the London to Southampton and London to Portsmouth routes became feeders to the London to Bournemouth service, meaning that passengers were required to change at Winchester. Some London to Bristol journeys were extended to Cwmbran. The London to Norwich service was withdrawn on 14 May 2006, as were the services from London to Wolverhampton and Chesterfield, while the London to Cheltenham service introduced an extra stop at Reading Coachway on 20 November 2006.
Early in February 2007, it was announced that the service between London, Milton Keynes, Leicester and Nottingham would be withdrawn on 11 March 2007. These services would later be restored weekdays and Saturdays following the acquisition of the East Midlands Trains franchise by Stagecoach, to and from London by Megatrain. From 21 May 2007, services between London and Leeds were extended to include Middlesbrough, Sunderland and Newcastle. Services from Green Line Coach Station moved to Victoria Coach Station in a deal with Transport for London on 1 October 2007.
From October 2009, Megabus started a "cross-country" Cardiff to Newcastle service, the M35.
In May 2011, services were introduced between London and Norwich, Leeds and Edinburgh, and London and Swansea and Pembroke Dock with through ferry fares to Rosslare Europort in Ireland. Additional journeys were added to several existing routes.Stagecoach expands megabus.com services Bus & Coach Professional 26 April 2011
International expansion
From April 2012, Megabus began cross-nation services linking the UK to continental Europe, from Birmingham and London to Paris and from Leicester and London to Brussels and Amsterdam.Stagecoach launches low cost coaches to continent Today's Railways Europe issue 198 June 2012 page 49 This was announced a month prior to the introduction of the services. A third route, which operates entirely outside the UK, links Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.Stagecoach expands budget coach network to Continental Europe Stagecoach Group 7 March 2012Megabus launches £1 coach tickets to Europe – if you can get them The Guardian 17 April 2012 From October 2012, Megabus extended the M92 Edinburgh to Dundee service to terminate at Aberdeen giving Dundee and Perth an every 30 minute frequency during the day to Aberdeen which interworks with service M9, and giving Aberdeen a direct service to Edinburgh which had previously been missing.
In 2013, Megabus started a route between Cologne, Brussels, Gent and London.
In 2014, Megabus launched a route between London, Paris, Toulouse and Barcelona. In Germany, as megabus.com GmbH, they also launched a route between Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich.
On 24 June 2015, Megabus launched first intercity bus services in Italy with 22 coaches out of a depot in Bergamo.Megabus sets up domestic and international services in Italy Buses issue 725 August 2015 page 22
On 8 July 2015, a service commenced from Milan to London.
On 29 June 2016, all operations in the European mainland, as well as those services linking London with Europe, were sold to Flixbus.Stagecoach sells Megabus Europe to FlixBus Route One 29 June 2016 This left only domestic UK operations under the control of Stagecoach.
On 1 May 2017, Megabus commenced operating five services from London, Gatwick Airport and Heathrow Airport to the West of England. These were operated by South Gloucestershire Bus & Coach.Megabus.com Launches Services to Heathrow & Gatwick Airports Megabus 19 April 2017New Airport Routes for Megabus Route One 20 April 2017 Stagecoach purchased the South Gloucestershire Bus & Coach business in September 2019 and integrated it into its Stagecoach West subsidiary.Stagecoach buys South Glos Buses issue 776 November 2019 page 16
In October 2017, Megabus began the M39 service, running from Aberystwyth to Birmingham, via Welshpool and Shrewsbury. This service is operated by Mid Wales Travel.
Decline and closure In March 2018, the Advertising Standards Authority banned Megabus from using adverts promising £1 fares as few seats were available at this price. Megabus' response was to withdraw the £1 fares altogether, leading some passengers to note that the ASA's decision has worked to the detriment of Megabus customers.
In August 2022, as part of the Stagecoach Group sale to DWS, it was agreed that Megabus' retail activities (the sale and marketing of tickets) would be sold to Scottish Citylink. An earlier proposed sale of Stagecoach to National Express would have seen Megabus sold in its entirety to ComfortDelGro. Scottish Citylink is a longstanding joint venture between Stagecoach Group and ComfortDelGro, which also took over Falcon at the same time. Contracts to operate Megabus services are still held mainly by Stagecoach subsidiaries.
In October 2024, Megabus announced that it was ceasing all routes running within England and Wales from 4 December due to low passenger demand, with only England-Scotland cross-border services, as well as the Falcon coach route from Bristol to Plymouth, being retained.
In December 2025, Megabus's two remaining long-distance routes in England, services M11 (Glasgow – London via Manchester) and M20 (Glasgow – London via Edinburgh, Newcastle, and Leeds) were withdrawn without explanation, with Megabus now linking customers to purchase National Express tickets on these routes.
Other operations Megabusplus
Megabusplus services combined Megabus and Megatrain for through journeys. It was launched on 30 March 2009.From Park & Ride to Coach & Train Today's Railways UK issue 96 December 2009 pages 54–56
North of England As at August 2019, Megabusplus services use coaches to East Midlands Parkway station, then Megatrain (East Midlands Railway) services to London St Pancras. Even though Stagecoach ceased operating rail services in August 2019, when East Midlands Trains was superseded by East Midlands Railway, services continue to operate as of May 2021.Hull – London St Pancras Megabus 21 May 2021
Services previously operated from York but ceased in 2017 when Megabus entered a through ticketing agreement with Yorkshire Coastliner.Students celebrate as Megaplusbus extend London route York Vision 1 April 2014Megabus and Transdev in tie-up Route One 9 October 2017
South West England Megabusplus services also used coaches to Southampton Airport Parkway station, then Megatrain (South West Trains) to Bournemouth.Cheap travel between Dorset and The Midlands Dorset Transport and Travel 19 December 2012
In 2014, further Megabusplus services were launched using South West Trains services between London Waterloo and Honiton, then the following four coach routes from Honiton: Honiton – Okehampton – Bude Honiton – Collumpton – Tiverton – Barnstaple