Megabus Plus

Yesterday I reported that a new Megabus Plus service would be launched from Hull to East Midlands Parkway station, for connections to London St Pancras on East Midlands Trains, the rail franchise run by Stagecoach, who also operate the Megabus network.

These new services went on sale today. There are two services a day on three routes, from Hull, Harrogate and Huddersfield to East Midlands Parkway, and Stagecoach's Hull depot will operate all these services, albeit with some coaches spending the night at Stagecoach Yorkshire's Barnsley depot.

The Hull service stops at Scunthorpe Tesco Extra and Doncaster Lakeside - these out of town stops fit the Megabus profile well, though in Hull the Interchange will be used. Departures from Hull are at 0640 and 1250 (0945 and 1610 Sundays) and returns from East Midlands Parkway at 1005 and 1605 (1320 and 2010 Sundays). However passengers can't use the service for either local travel, or just to East Midlands Parkway, which is a shame as some custom could have been picked up for East Midlands Airport.

The online timetable also shows one 'coach only' (as opposed to 'coach and train') service a day through to London St Pancras, not the Megabus terminus at Victoria Coach Station. Mistake maybe?

Overall great to see more innovation from Stagecoach, though one wonders what will happen if/when Stagecoach loose the East Midlands Trains franchise.