- Popularity of coach travel leads to launch of 14 new routes
- St Etienne, Clermont Ferrand, Bourges, Reims, Strasbourg and Metz added to network
- megabus.com now serves 27 French destinations with €10m fleet of 35 coaches
- Boost for economy as new jobs created in France reaches 180
- Tickets from €1 now on sale for new routes at www.megabus.com
Perth, Scotland, 2015-12-7 — /Travel PR News/ — Europe’s leading low-fares coach operator megabus.com today (2 December) announced it has opened its 50th domestic journey in France since the liberalisation of the coach market in the country.
megabus.com revealed it has today launched a further 14 domestic journeys – to begin on 9 December – with almost 30 new domestic journey options having been introduced for customers within the past month.
Prior to the liberalisation of the coach market, megabus.com ran only one domestic journey. The latest announcement means that the company now offers more than 50 domestic journey pairings in France, with fares from just €1*.
Six new locations – St Etienne, Clermont Ferrand, Bourges, Reims, Strasbourg and Metz – have been added to megabus.com’s French domestic network within the past few weeks, bringing low-fares, good quality travel to millions more people across France. It means the company now offers domestic travel between 27 destinations in France.
Also from 9 December, the company is also introducing additional journeys on the existing route between Paris, Le Mans, Rennes and Nantes, and on the route between Paris, Limoges and Toulouse.
The latest new routes are being delivered from megabus.com’s existing Lyon depot, with a new crew base also being established in Tourcoing, near Lille. The company also recently opened an operating base in Bordeaux and a crew base in Nantes, and has so far created employment for around 180 staff in France in total.
Tickets for all journeys are now available at www.megabus.com, with fares from €1*. The most recent routes, including those between Paris, Strasbourg, Lyon, St Etienne, Clermont Ferrand, Bourges, Reims and Metz, begin operating on 9 December 2015. All other journeys are already underway.
To support the latest expansion, a further seven new state-of-the-art leased Scania single deck coaches are in place to operate the new services. The announcement means that megabus.com now has a €10m fleet of 35 coaches operating its services within France.
Domestic travel between the following locations will begin from 9 December:
- Paris – St Etienne
- Paris – Clermont Ferrand
- Paris – Bourges
- St Etienne – Clermont Ferrand
- St Etienne – Bourges
- Clermont Ferrand – Bourges
- Clermont – Ferrand – Lyon
- Bourges – Lyon
- Paris – Strasbourg
- Paris – Reims
- Paris – Metz
- Reims – Metz
- Reims – Strasbourg
- Metz – Strasbourg
megabus.com already offers domestic travel between the following French destinations:
- Paris – Bordeaux
- Paris – Tours
- Paris – Poitiers
- Paris – Le Mans
- Paris – Angers
- Paris – Rennes
- Tours – Poitiers
- Le Mans – Rennes
- Le Mans – Nantes
- Bordeaux – Poitiers
- Bordeaux – Tours
- Paris – Nantes
- Paris – Chatellerault
- Bordeaux – Chatellerault
- Nantes – Rennes
- Paris – Lyon
- Lille – Lyon
- Paris – Limoges
- Paris – Brive-la-Gaillarde
- Amiens – Limoges
- Amiens – Brive-la-Gaillarde
- Amiens – Toulouse
- Limoges – Toulouse
- Brive-la-Gaillarde – Toulouse
- Paris – Lille
- Paris – Toulon
- Paris – Marseille
- Paris – Avignon
- Marseille – Lyon
- Toulon – Avignon
- Toulon – Lyon
- Paris – Toulouse
- Mulhouse – Lyon
- Mulhouse – Avignon
- Mulhouse – Montpellier
- Mulhouse – Perpignan
- Lyon – Avignon
- Lyon – Montpellier
- Lyon – Perpignan
- Avignon – Perpignan
- Montpellier – Perpignan
Legislation agreed over the summer means that people in France can travel more freely by coach between cities in France. The ‘Macron Law’ allows operators to offer domestic services on any routes that are over 100km, including journeys that are part of existing international routes**.
megabus.com Managing Director Edward Hodgson said: “The decision by the French government to open up coach travel is proving to be a massive boost for the country. megabus.com is delighted to be a big part of that by offering new journey options, improving transport connections between towns and cities, cutting the cost of travel for people in France, and helping the economy by creating new jobs.
“The fantastic response to our good value and good quality coach services means we have reached the milestone of 50 routes in France in less than six months. We also have a strong network of international services connecting France with the UK, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain. We look forward to continuing to grow our domestic and international network in the future and welcoming more customers on board.”
Fares on every megabus.com journey start from just €1*. All services operate using state-of-the-art vehicles with free Wifi, power sockets, air conditioning and a toilet.
megabus.com has a base in Belleville-sur-Saône, north of Lyon which opened in May 2015. The company’s operating base near Bordeaux – which was announced last month – is located in Floirac under a partnership with local company Chalavan & Duc. There is also a crew base in central Nantes and the newest crew base is in Tourcoing.
megabus.com, part of Stagecoach Group in Scotland, has operated since 2003. It expanded from the UK to North America in 2006 and has served mainland Europe since 2012. There are now around 160 destinations on the megabus,com network in Europe, including London, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Lyon, Toulouse, Barcelona, Lille, Luxembourg, Cologne, Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, Rome, Milan and Naples.
megabus.com carries more than 15 million passengers a year across Europe and North America. The number of passengers using the company’s growing coach network in Europe is up more than 330% in the past year. The current average fare on the megabus.com network in mainland Europe is around €10*.
megabus.com offers French, Italian, German, English, Spanish and Dutch language websites. Services are popular with families, students and tourists looking to save money on travel and spend extra on entertainment when they arrive at their destination.
All megabus.com drivers undertake a detailed operational and customer service training programme. It includes route familiarisation and driving assessments and this is in addition to meeting all of the EU standard qualifications for professional bus, coach and lorry drivers. megabus.com ensures full compliance with relevant EU working time legislation and has stricter maintenance standards than legal requirements as part of its commitment to safety.
The success of megabus.com’s services has seen it create more than 500 jobs over the past decade in the UK and Europe and a further 1,000 jobs in North America.
megabus.com in France recently revealed an innovative promotional advert which is showing online and has been viewed more than 850,000 times in a week. The advert is available to view here – https://www.facebook.com/MegabusFrance/videos/vb.777799015666060/822097794569515/?type=2&theater
ENDS
For media enquiries, please contact: Stagecoach Group Communications on 01738 442111 or email: media@stagecoachgroup.com
Notes to Editors:
*All bookings are subject to a 50cent booking fee
** Under the new law, less than 50% of seats can be sold for domestic travel on international journeys.
Stagecoach Group
- Stagecoach Group is an international public transport group, with extensive operations in the UK, mainland Europe, the United States and Canada. Stagecoach carries around 3 million passengers a day across its transport businesses. The Group employs around 39,000 people, and operates around 13,000 buses, coaches, trains and trams.
- Stagecoach is one of the UK’s biggest bus and coach operators with around 8,500 buses and coaches. The Group’s business includes major city bus operations in London, Liverpool, Newcastle, Hull, Manchester, Oxford, Sheffield and Cambridge. Low-cost coach service, megabus.com, operates a network of inter-city services across the UK and continental Europe.
- Stagecoach is a major UK rail operator, running the South West Trains, Island Line and East Midlands Trains networks. It has also partnered with Virgin to run the East Coast and West Coast inter-city rail franchises.
- Stagecoach operates the Supertram light rail network in Sheffield.
- In North America, Stagecoach operates around 2,400 buses and coaches in the United States and Canada. megabus.com links around 130 key locations in North America. Stagecoach is also involved in operating commuter, transit, contracted, charter, airport shuttle and sightseeing services.
SOURCE: Stagecoach Group plc.