megabus expands in Germany

Stagecoach owned megabus.com is to start coach services in new locations in Germany as the company continues its European expansion. The operator already operates services between Brussels and Cologne. It is to launch an extension to the route on 16 December, which will link Brussels with Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich. Fares on the route start at €1. The new services are being run from the operator’s base near Brussels, which is the company’s first depot in mainland Europe. It will operate twice a day in each direction. Three double deck Astromega coaches will operate on the route. They are among nine vehicles based at the company’s depot in Belgium. More people have already used megabus.com’s existing route between Brussels and Cologne in the first few months of this year than used it in 2013/14. The news comes at an interesting time in the German coach and bus market, as National Express’ venture there has now come to an end, two other operators have gone into liquidation and ADAC have pulled out of the ADAC Postbus venture.

megabus.com MD, Edward Hodgson, said, ‘This is great news for our customers in Belgium, and more widely across Europe, who now have a new low-cost coach link between a number of key cities in Germany. We are also delighted to be offering people travelling between German cities low fare inter-city travel which we believe will open up even more travel opportunities for those on a budget. We are the only coach operator in Europe to offer €1 fares on all services across all routes. We have operated between Brussels and Cologne for the past year now and have seen strong passenger growth across our European services. We look forward to bringing our bargain fares to even more customers through these new services and we will continue to work hard to attract even more people on to our greener, smarter and better value coach services.’