Low Cost Buses & Coaches in Europe
- The dawn of low cost buses
- Complete Index of European Low Cost Buses by Country
- Complete Index of European Low Cost Buses by City & Airport
- Complete Index of European Low Cost Buses by Bus Company
The dawn of low cost buses
"If there is a demand for cut-price, no-frills travel, why stop at low cost airlines?"
This question has already been asked by at least two companies in Europe, Terravision and megabus, who have come up with their own solutions. Now two more companies, National Express and easyBus, are hot on their heels.
The most obvious place for low cost bus services to start providing their services is arguably on routes from city centres to airports serviced by low cost airlines. After all, it's common enough when flying no-frills to consider the fact that the ticket to the airport will cost more than the international flight. So travellers looking to minimise their cost of air transport will certainly be keen to get to the airport as cheaply as possible.
Evidently this is the thinking behind Terravision's strategy. The Italian bus company has now established low cost routes connecting four European city centres to surrounding low cost airports - including a route from central London to Stansted airport, the most heavily serviced no-frills airline hub in the world. For passengers flying into an aiport on no-frills airlines, this is a useful complementary service - especially when tickets can be bought online at the same time as the flight is purchased. Graz-based low cost operator, Fairline has already partnered with the Italian bus company on its flights from Graz to Rome. Passengers can now purchase one way or return tickets on the Terravision Express Shuttle from Ciampino airport to Stazione Termini in the centre of Rome from the Fairline website.
Anticipating the potential boom in low cost airport shuttle buses, the innovative Bulgarian low cost airline, bexx, has decided to set up its own VIP coach service for passengers - sometimes for €10 on top of the price of the flight and sometimes included at no extra cost - from the airports it serves to surrounding city centres.
Initially bexx created the "low cost airline plus low cost coach" concept in order to create point-to-point travel between Sofia in Bulgaria and Vienna in Austria. But with the success of ferrying low cost travellers from the city centre of Vienna to Bratislava airport, just across the Slovakian border, bexx went on to introduce a similar service to connect Germany's Niederrhein airport with the cities of Düsseldorf, Cologne, Münster and Bonn, respectively 60km, 90km, 110km and 120km distant. Now the airline has announced plans to provide additional low cost bus services to the Dutch city of Nijmegen, only 35km north of Niederrhein, as well as to Utrecht and Amsterdam - resulting in the first point-to-point low cost fly-drive transport between the Bulgarian and Dutch capitals.
In the UK, megabus has yet to set up any airport shuttle services. Instead it is working on the basis that since it's now possible to take low cost flights from one end of the UK to the other - or even for a weekend on the Mediterranean - it ought to be possible to travel between cities in the UK by bus for an even cheaper price, something like £1.50. This looks pretty much like the last nail in the coffin for the popularity of hitch-hiking in the UK.
Not to be outsmarted by arch-rival StageCoach, National Express has decided to meet megabus' challenge head on with a new funfare tarriff, providing return trips from city to city across the UK in exchange for two pounds of spare change. (Less than a pint of beer).
