Over 21 years, megabus has been built up to become a big household name in the express coach market, but this month saw huge changes to the network. Richard Sharman takes a look at where the Stagecoach-established brand has been, and where it is going
It is hard to believe that it has been 21-years since the megabus brand first appeared and ‘Sid’ and his blue-liveried coaches started plying the motorways throughout England, Scotland and Wales.
megabus was the brainchild of Sir Brian Souter, the founder of Stagecoach and operator of coaches and buses across the globe, but the origin story of megabus has already been covered by myself in these pages before; the next chapter of this story relates to the major changes that have occurred in recent years to the brand both at home and abroad.
The Citylink connection
Coming off the back of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021, huge changes occurred throughout the bus and coach industry, and those changes extended to megabus. In the December of that year, the Singapore-based international transport group ComfortDelGro (CDG) announced that it was to become ‘the United Kingdom’s second largest inter-city coach operator’ following an £8.75 million deal with the Stagecoach Group, which had held a 35% stake in Scottish Citylink Coaches since 2005.
To give a some clarity to the various phases of ownership, looking back to 1998, Scottish Citylink was then part of National Express, but the latter was ordered to dispose of the business by the Monopolies & Mergers Commission in order to retain a further seven years of operating the ScotRail railway franchise, which shared many similar route corridors.
At the time, Go-Ahead Group and FirstGroup had bid for the business, but it was to be London-based Metroline that won the day. Interestingly, the company’s expansion north in 1998 could be compared to now, as we are about to enter 2025, and it is again expanding north from its London roots with the formation of Metroline Manchester, commencing its Bee Network contracts from the 5 January.
By the year 2000, Metroline had been purchased by CDG. In March 2006 CDG and Stagecoach entered into a joint venture agreement following Stagecoach’s purchase of Edinburgh-Glasgow rival Motorvator and the launch of megabus the previous year.
In September 2005, Stagecoach transferred certain rights to provide intercity coach services in or into Scotland under the megabus and Motorvator brands to Scottish Citylink Coaches Limited (SCCL), the new name for the joint venture. In return, the Stagecoach Group acquired a 35% holding in SCCL through its wholly owned subsidiary, Stagecoach Bus. In return, SCCL appointed Stagecoach as sub-contractor to provide services under the transferred brands.
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