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National & International Coach Services To London

National Express , Megabus , Eurolines Long Distance Coach Services

Victoria Coach Station

There is a very good network of national coach services to London in comfortable coaches that are worth anyone's consideration. The network hub in London is Victoria Coach Station, where all the main coach operators start their London services.

The big attraction of coach travel is the low price compared with the main rail alternative. Prices can be astounding, its often cheaper to take a coach to the other end of England than just getting to one of London's airports. Downside is that trains are invariably faster.

The two dominant companies are National Express and Megabus. National Express are the largest operator with a network reaching just about every town and city in England of any consequence. Megabus are the young upstart that burst onto the scene offering dramatically low fares and competing directly with National Express on all the major trunk routes out of London. On these routes fares are incredibly low.

Both National Express and Megabus use comfortable, modern coaches with air conditioning and washrooms on board. Both companies have very large global parent companies, they are not fly by night, run on a shoestring type outfits.

Victoria Coach Station

Victoria Coach Station is just a like a busy regional airport. Coaches leave every couple of minutes, there are airport style departure screens and departure gates where you board the coach.

There is a full list of facilities including a useful left luggage office.

The dominant national operators at Victoria, National Express and Megabus have a stranglehold on services. The European scheduled bus operator Eurolines also has its terminus at London Victoria. The most busy European routes are relatively short distance routes to Paris, Dublin, Amsterdam and Brussels but you can go to the far side of Europe using Euroline services.

Directly opposite Victoria Coach Station is the Green Line Coach Station where an assortment of smaller companies offer services to London's airports and regional cities.

Note: Victoria Coach Station is about 600 yards from the rail and underground stations at Victoria.

Victoria Coach Station - Full Details

National Express

National Express is the benchmark national carrier offering services to nearly all towns and cities in England and Wales and to the main cities in Scotland as well.

Cheapest promotional fares are available online in advance. Normally a return fare is much, much cheaper than two single fares.

Tickets bought online are true etickets, visitors from overseas can pay by credit card and have their tickets delivered by email in a couple of minutes.

Formally the baggage allowance that goes into the hold is 2 cases, neither of which should be heavier than 20kg. Drivers load the bags and they are not weighed, most drivers are very flexible as long as you are not taking obvious advantage.

Things like bikes and other outsize luggage are carried subject to the discretion of the driver and them being properly packed so they do not damage other peoples luggage. (Check the National Express web site for a full list of banned items).

Megabus

Megabus are part of the Stagecoach group, a very large international bus and rail operator that only started long distance services in 2003. Megabus operate similar vehicles to National Express but their network is not as extensive as National Express operating only on the busiest routes in direct competition with National Express.

The UK network stretches from the Highlands of Scotland to south-west England, connecting some of the UK's most popular destinations, including London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Cardiff.

As the young upstart Megabus tend to be more innovative. They operate a sleeper bus overnight between London and Scotland and have also introduced services to Europe

You can usually book megabus tickets up to 6 weeks in advance and from time to time earlier. National Express tend to have ticket availability much further forward.

Megabus luggage allowance is up to one piece of luggage per passenger, no more than the size of a standard suitcase and should not weigh more than 25kg. Passengers can also take on board one small piece of luggage that must fit either on your lap or under the seat in front of you.

Eurolines

If you want to go further afield to Europe, Eurolines are a one stop solution that covers most of the key cities in Europe from London.

Most popular routes are probably the relatively short trips to Paris, Amsterdam or Dublin, normally the cheapest way of making this journey. But the Eurolines network interconnects 29 European countries so you can go much, much further.

Eurolines is an umbrella brand for a network of bus companies across Europe that work together to offer an integrated system. They are associated with National Express in the UK and as a result you can get combined ticketing coupling Eurolines European journeys with National Express services through out England and Wales.

London to Amsterdam and Paris are the busiest routes and these services have free wi-fi available too. Some services use the ferry, others use the tunnel to get to Europe.