Europe’s leading low-fares coach operator megabus.com doubles the number of its employees in France

• 17 new domestic journey options, including first services from Marseille and Toulon
• €2.7m fleet of 10 new coaches to run new services from 30 September
• More than 75 employees now located at megabus.com base near Lyon
• Tickets from €1 now on sale at www.megabus.com

Perth, United Kingdom, 22-9-2015 — /EuropaWire/ — Europe’s leading low-fares coach operator megabus.com today (22 September 2015) announced that it is doubling the number of its employees in France as the company launches a new wave of expansion at its growing inter-city coach network in the country.

Only a month after the market was liberalised by the French government, megabus.com has revealed it is launching 17 new domestic journey options for customers, including its first services from Marseille and Toulon, from 30 September.

To support the latest expansion, a €2.7million fleet of 10 new state-of-the-art coaches will operate the new services and the number of employees at megabus.com’s base near Lyon will double to more than 75.

It means that megabus.com now offers a total of 27 domestic journey pairings in France, covering 13 locations, with fares from just €1*.

By the beginning of 2016, megabus.com expects to have a fleet of 35 vehicles based in France offering more than 50 journey options across the country.

Tickets for the new routes are on sale now at www.megabus.com.

From 30 September, domestic travel will be available between the below locations:

Paris – Lyon
Lille – Lyon
Paris – Limoges
Paris – Brive-la-Gaillarde
Amiens – Limoges
Amiens – Brive-la-Gaillarde
Amiens – Toulouse
Limoges – Toulouse
Brive-la-Gaillarde – Toulouse
Paris – Lille
Paris – Toulon
Paris – Marseille
Paris – Avignon
Marseille – Lyon
Marseille – Avignon
Toulon – Avignon
Toulon – Lyon

megabus.com already offers domestic travel between the following French destinations:

• Paris – Toulouse
• Mulhouse – Lyon
• Mulhouse – Avignon
• Mulhouse – Montpellier
• Mulhouse – Perpignan
• Lyon – Avignon
• Lyon – Montpellier
• Lyon – Perpignan
• Avignon – Perpignan
• Montpellier – Perpignan

New legislation agreed over the summer means that people in France can travel more freely by coach between cities in France. The new ‘Macron Law’ allows operators to offer domestic services on any routes that are over 100km, including journeys that are part of existing international routes**.

megabus.com Managing Director Edward Hodgson said: “The French Government has taken a forward-looking decision to open up the market and these new journeys are further evidence that this change in the law is already benefitting consumers in France by delivering improved connectivity, great value travel and by creating jobs”.

“As Europe’s leading low fares inter-city coach operator, we are well placed to help the government meet its objectives to grow what is a key sector of the economy.”

“We believe our services will help grow the overall public transport network in France by complimenting the existing travel options. In the UK we have seen a large rise in passenger numbers in both the rail and coach sectors since the liberalisation of the market, proving that both modes of transport can co-exist successfully.”

“We look forward to welcoming customers on to our new domestic network in France and have plans to expand our operations further in the future to benefit even more people across the country.”

Fares on every megabus.com journey start from just €1*. All services operate using state-of-the-art vehicles with free Wifi, power sockets, air conditioning and a toilet.

megabus.com previously announced the opening of a base in Belleville-sur-Saône, north of Lyon, with the creation of 35 jobs. The latest network development announced today, takes the total number of employees based in France to more than 75.

17 vehicles are now parked, fuelled and cleaned at the base under a partnership with local company Autocar Maisonneuve. The coaches – a mixture of Van Hool double deck vehicles and leased Scania single-deck Touring coaches – are worth more than €5.5million.

megabus.com, part of Stagecoach Group in Scotland, has operated since 2003. It expanded from the UK to North America in 2006 and has served mainland Europe since 2012.

There are now almost 150 destinations on the megabus,com network in Europe,  including London, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Lyon, Toulouse, Barcelona, Lille, Luxembourg, Cologne, Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, Rome, Milan and Naples.

megabus.com carries more than 15 million passengers a year across Europe and North America. The number of passengers using the company’s growing coach network in Europe is up more than 330% in the past year. The current average fare on the megabus.com network in mainland Europe is around €10*.

megabus.com offers French,  Italian, German, English, Spanish and Dutch language websites. Services are popular with families, students and tourists looking to save money on travel and spend extra on entertainment when they arrive at their destination.

All megabus.com drivers undertake a detailed operational and customer service training programme. It includes route familiarisation and driving assessments and this is in addition to meeting all of the EU standard qualifications for professional bus, coach and lorry drivers. megabus.com ensures full compliance with relevant EU working time legislation and has stricter maintenance standards than legal requirements as part of its commitment to safety.

The success of megabus.com’s services has seen it create more than 500 jobs over the past decade in the UK and Europe and a further 1,000 jobs in North America.

ENDS

For media enquiries, please contact:  Stagecoach Group Communications on 01738 442111 or email: media@stagecoachgroup.com

Notes to Editors:

*All bookings are subject to a 50cent booking fee
**Under the new law, less than 50% of seats can be sold for domestic travel on international journeys.

Stagecoach Group

• Stagecoach Group is an international public transport group, with extensive operations in the UK, mainland Europe, the United States and Canada. Stagecoach carries around 3 million passengers a day across its transport businesses. The Group employs around 39,000 people, and operates around 13,000 buses, coaches, trains and trams.
• Stagecoach is one of the UK’s biggest bus and coach operators with around 8,500 buses and coaches. The Group’s business includes major city bus operations in London, Liverpool, Newcastle, Hull, Manchester, Oxford, Sheffield and Cambridge. Low-cost coach service, megabus.com, operates a network of inter-city services across the UK and continental Europe.
• Stagecoach is a major UK rail operator, running the South West Trains, Island Line and East Midlands Trains networks. It has also partnered with Virgin to run the East Coast and West Coast inter-city rail franchises.
• Stagecoach operates the Supertram light rail network in Sheffield.
• In North America, Stagecoach operates around 2,400 buses and coaches in the United States and Canada. megabus.com links around 130 key locations in North America. Stagecoach is also involved in operating commuter, transit, contracted, charter, airport shuttle and sightseeing services.