National Express or Megabus coach journey?

[The Gauge]

Looking for advice on coach providers please, as I haven't travelled by coach for many years.

I'm travelling home by train on 6th Feb London > Sheffield, whilst the strikes end the day before they have announced no overtime for train drivers/staff on 6th Feb, which could impact on my journey...

I'm therefore thinking of booking a couch trip from London to Sheffield purely as a reserve in case my train service gets cancelled.

So far I've found National Express do a service from Victoria coach station to Sheffield for £25, and Megabus do the same for £7.99, so what are the Megabus coaches like to be able to do it so cheap? Are the seats awful, or are they unreliable, or just simply a better price?

Edited by The Gauge on Monday 29th January 15:30

[The Gauge]

Jamescrs said:

Try to find out what route both take before you make your decision, I have heard that Mega Bus can take some very convoluted journeys before getting to their posted destination where as National Express are usually fairly direct, it may not always be the case but worth a check.

To be fair there's not much between the two, both departing at 23:59 from Victoria, with one arriving at 04:05 and the other 04:40..

National Express



Megabus

Edited by The Gauge on Monday 29th January 15:53

[The Gauge]

GliderRider said:

It looks like there are two direct buses Sheffield to London, and the rest take 'scenic' routes:

Megabus Timetables

It's the other way round, I'm going London to Sheffield. I might not know if my train is cancelled until its 20:30 departure time, leaving only the midnight coach service (though Megabus also do a 9:30pm departure).

[The Gauge]

Rick101 said:

Train service will be published in advance with what they can cover.
Can't guarantee there won't be issues on the day that could impact things but that applies to anything.

Depending on your ticket type you may be able to go Kings Cross to Doncaster and onto Sheffield from there.

if your trip is urgent, sensible having a backup but as it's only a backup I'd go with the cheaper option unless you're loaded and like spending.

I'm just going to London for the day drinking, some cracking pubs down there. Might pay the £10 fee and change the train tickets to another day, shame though as I've already changed them once when we were supposed to go last December but the strike put us off going.

[The Gauge]

heisthegaffer said:

If the tickets are only quid, I'd be tempted to book 2 next to each other so you guarantee the space next to you is free

Good idea.

[The Gauge]

Rick101 said:

How did you get on OP?

Just for clarity on train running

1832 St Pancras to Sheffield 2049 - 1 early
1902 St Pancras to Sheffield 2116 - 3 early
1932 St Pancras to Sheffield 2145 - 12 late
2002 St Pancras to Sheffield 2204 - 12 late
2031 St Pancras to Sheffield 2243 - 1 early
2102 St Pancras to Sheffield 2301 - RT
2132 St Pancras to Sheffield 2341 - 2 Late
2232 St Pancras to Sheffield 0039 - 2 late

We decided the night before to pay the £20 admin fee and move our train tickets to another date, it would have cost a similar price for coach tickets that we night not have used, and had they been needed could have been a horrible journey home.

A mate of mine is a train conductor and told me the job runs on overtime to provide normal services. With there being a ban on overtime neither of us wanted to risk having our train home cancelled, or be crammed into an overcrowded 'standing room only' coach. Looking at the info you posted ^ we probably would have been ok, but it's hard to know if the coaches were crowded if any other trains had been cancelled.


If anyone wants to know the dates of the next train strikes, it will surely coincide with our amended travel date next month!!

Edited by The Gauge on Wednesday 7th February 20:45