In response to the latest national coronavirus restrictions, major coach operators National Express and megabus have announced full and partial suspension of services across Great Britain.
megabus has announced that in England and Wales its services are suspended from Sunday 10 January. Services within Scotland will continue to run, along with one cross-border route.
In a statement, megabus said@ “Following the government’s guidance to stay at home and stop all non-essential travel, we’ve taken the decision to temporarily suspend our megabus services in England and Wales, with no journeys running after Sunday 10 January. But we’ll still be continuing to run our megabus services within Scotland and a service from Glasgow to London (with intermediate stops at Manchester and Birmingham). These services are for essential travel only, in line with the latest government guidance.
“Customers with a booked ticket to travel on our megabus services who have been affected by this will receive an email to either amend their booking or request a refund. If this affects you and haven’t received an email from us in 5 days, please contact our Customer Services Team on [email protected] who will be able to help.
“We’re sorry for the inconvenience this will cause you and hope you understand the reasons for our decision. We continue to be on sale for travel from 26 March onwards and are continuing to offer flexible tickets – so you can book with confidence knowing you can amend your ticket up to 24 hours before you’re due to travel. We look forward to welcoming you back on board very soon.”
National Express has said that it will fully suspend its network of scheduled coach services across the country with effect from 2359hrs on Sunday 10 January. The operator said that all customers whose travel has been cancelled will be contacted and offered a free amendment or full refund.
Chris Hardy, Managing Director of National Express UK Coach, said in a statement: “We have been providing an important service for essential travel needs. However, with tighter restrictions and passenger numbers falling, it is no longer appropriate to do this.
“As the vaccination programme is rolled out and Government guidance changes, we will regularly review when we can restart services. We plan to be back on the road as soon as the time is right and have put a provisional restart date of Monday 1 March in place (subject to change).
“The whole team at National Express worked incredibly hard throughout 2020 and I want to thank them for their efforts as we pause our services. We will now make sure we are ready to get back behind the wheel as soon as the nation needs us again.”
