Megabus- have you got the stamina to survive it? (Megabus)

Member Name: theabster

Product:	Megabus
Date:	23/12/08 (779 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very cheap (even last minute), lots of routes, better for environment than planes/cars

Disadvantages: Really uncomfortable for long journeys! No legroom! Toilets always gross.

Any looming trip I want to take is always the same. I am initially excited after trawling the internet for the cheapest way to get somewhere, inevitably ending with, "Oh my god! I can get from London to Glasgow for x quid". Without thinking about anything but pennies, I book it. How bad can it be? It won't be as bad as last time, it was just a one off! But the day comes, and my anticipation of getting somewhere so cheaply is thwarted by dread of the mode of transport. A megabus trip. What was I thinking. It is the worst of the worst.

I generally tend to travel between Glasgow and London on the megabus, and have done so 3 or 4 times now. I am not sure what the other journeys are/would have been like, but they definately offer lots of routes, all at bargain prices. They travel between Aberdeen, Birmingham, Cambridge, Coventry, Dundee, Glasgow, Liverpool, Leeds, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Oxford, Pitlochry, Preston, Ringwood, Rugby, Sheffield, Southampton and many more! Fares start from as little as £1.50 (including booking fee) and can be purchased online or by telephone. Early booking is obviously the best way to get the lower prices, though a week or two in advance before the date you wish to travel is still easily substantially cheaper than any other transport (e.g. train). For example, a week before, I have bough a £12 single from London to Glasgow.

So perhaps I will tell you a little of my experiences.
Firstly, the night bus. I travelled on the Perth-Dundee-Glasgow-Manchester-Preston-London route, getting on in Glasgow and travelling down to London. I think I got on at 22.45, and it was scheduled to arrive in London Victoria Coach station by 07.15, so it was about 9 1/2 hours. Often you will get offered a selection of timings (spread through the day/night) and variations on how long the journey will take. It is rather important to take note of this as every hour counts!

I think the main reason I hate travelling by night on a megabus (or any kind of night travelling) is that I am a terrible sleeper when on the move. Unless I am horizontal, I can't sleep. I chose to sit at the back of the bus on the lower floor (they usually use double deckers at night) where the seats opposite the toilet are more easily tilted without disturbing others. I was travelling with my boyfriend, so we really wanted seats together too. The bus already had lots of people on from its previous stops, but it wasn't too bad, and the toilet didn't reak (quite yet).

So all was well. We tootled along, we giggled and laughed at the prospect of being stuck for 10 hours in what can only be described as a claustrophobic hell-hole. What else can you do, it is "no-frills" for a reason!
That was until two major issues.

1) When you need the loo. Oh god, this is the worst. Before you get on a megabus, got to the loo. Go a thousand times. Don't be a scrouge in the bus station just because they make you pay to use them. Don't drink tons, actually, maybe don't drink at all. You can hold on 10 hours, right?
The light was broken, the toilet was blocked, there was no soap, the floor was wet, the flush didn't work....
Someone told the driver but nothing could be done til we reached the first stop. Even then (4 hours in!) their attempt to get it clean was feeble, if non-existent. It flushed now, but I swear it smelt worse than before they'd fixed it. Reclining in seats near the toilets now seemed like the worst decision we had ever made.

And then someone vomited.

I wanted to kill them.

2) Sleeping on a megabus. My worst nightmare. You can be all giddy until you finally realise that you need to sleep otherwise you will be totally disfunctional when you arrive and probably won't even find your way out of the coach station, let alone home. Insomniacal restlessness ensues, hardly helped by odours of vomit and urine that seem to be all pervasive even when you breathe through your mouth. I bring out my neck pillow which seemed so plush and soft prior to the trip but contortioned around my neck, I can't stop rearranging it. At times, I think it is strangling me- perhaps fate knows I should probably give up now.

Somehow, the morning comes, and you awaken, as always seems to happen, about an hour before you are due to arrive. This is just enough time for the repititive bus motion combined with super-tiredness to make you want to vomit yourself, but somehow I refrain. My boyfriend and I grumpily leave the confines of the bus and see sunlight. Never has a coach station been so welcoming, never has the next night's sleep been more appreciated.

Go for the day bus, it is a much less disturbing experience, except perhaps leaving you a little crooked and dazed.

Inevitably, despite the harrowing experiences of frequent long bus trips, I continue to choose Megabus. They are cheaper than National Express, Scottish citylink have combined routes/are considering a merger and thus I feel I am left with no choice but to continue to use them for their cheap fares. If you aren't organised enought to use cheap train fares efficiently, Megabus is the way forward.

I can't believe after all that, I am still saying this!

Summary: You get what you pay for!