Easybus - what next ?

[Beach Hut]

Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of Easyjet, has set his sights on shaking-up the bus industry.

Easybus aims to provide "intercity, point to point" minibus services, with prices varying according to demand.

A report in the Sunday Telegraph said Mr Haji-Ioannou is currently in talks with bus manufacturers and operators about buying a fleet of vehicles.

The service is expected to initially carry passengers between London and Birmingham at a cost of £1.

In a statement, the company said it expected to launch its service "in the following months".

Easybus explained that by using minibuses its service would have "greater flexibility" in choosing its pick-up and drop off points.

Efficiency

The move will also allow the service to fill its vehicles more efficiently, and therefore keep down costs.

It added that bookings - as is usual for all Easygroup companies - will be made over the internet.

The service is expected to rival Stagecoach's Megabus which offers various routes - such as Dundee to Perth or Oxford to London for as little as £1.

In an interview with Channel 4 News on Sunday, Mr Haji-Ioannou will say: "I believe Easybus could become the Easyjet of the road.

He will add that the lack of competition means intercity coach market has "had it too good for too long" - much like the airline industry before Easyjet arrived on the scene.

This latest venture plan comes just six months after the launch of Easycinema.

The 10 screen cinema in Milton Keynes has no box office or food stalls and tickets start at 20p.

 

[berkshire seagull]

Will the drivers be on 5p an hour

 

[fatboy]

This is a good thing.

 

[Safeway]

Sounds good but they'll do well to beat Stagecoach, the biggest bus operator in the world.

If it brings down my weekly ticket (£9.50 between Eastbourne and Brighton) then I'll be happy.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Stella El-Lard-Bucket had one good idea ever - the airline. Everything else he ever attempted turned to shit.

Just like Richard Branson. airline & megastores - brilliant! Trains - crappy as every other privatised railway company. Not his fault entirely. At least he tried - and his trains would be just hunky-dory if they were cheap and ran on time. As it is, it's much cheaper and more reliable to FLY to Liverpool or Edinburgh. He just doesn't understand that the railway industry CANT be turned around in this country. He'll always be at the mercy of tracks he don't control and replacement bus service. He'd bale out if he had any sense and a bit of a smaller ego. But applause due for trying to take that deeply shitty industry on

 

[Beach Hut]

Sounds good but they'll do well to beat Stagecoach, the biggest bus operator in the world.

If it brings down my weekly ticket (£9.50 between Eastbourne and Brighton) then I'll be happy.

£9.50 for a weekly season ticket from Eastbourne to Brighton on a bus ?

That is very cheap.

 

[Safeway]

£9.50 for a weekly season ticket from Eastbourne to Brighton on a bus ?

That is very cheap.

It is very cheap. Certainly better than the £40 or so it would cost on the train. Takes a while and you're at the mercy of the bastard Coast Road, but I don't mind it. Just put my CD player on and fall asleep.

Also get to go through Cuckmere Valley everyday, which is nice.

 

[Beach Hut]

Quite a few people in our office in London commute by bus as it's much cheaper than the trains.

 

[marvin]

Some have tried to take on the might of National Express before on the Birmingham - London route before.

the last were West Midlands Travel and LondonTransport (not two small companies and joined together they have considerable might). The London Liner it was called. Better busses (pic hopefully works, there are some sad websites you know!)

(The pic is of a LT London Liner the WMT ones were blue and had the WMT logo on them)
and cheaper than NE. LT pulled out after it made big losses for the first couple of years and the service was squashed when Birmingham based NE bought out the biggest Bus opperator in the Midlands, West Midlands Travel. This just after the service started breaking even for the first time.

 

[bhaexpress]

What amazes me is that living in Worthing to buses are run by Stagecoach (the same muppets who run SOuth Worst Trains) and this is the first place I've lived where it's cheaper to use the train rather than the bus.

Easybus can start up here anytime they like.

 

[Soton Seagull]

What is next? Easywhores?

 

[marvin]

What is next? Easywhores?

Thought they existed already!

 

[MRRF 10]

the busses round lancing are terrible, expensive, and a long wait, trains round here are a lot better idea

 

[Zeitgeist]

What amazes me is that living in Worthing to buses are run by Stagecoach (the same muppets who run SOuth Worst Trains) and this is the first place I've lived where it's cheaper to use the train rather than the bus.

Easybus can start up here anytime they like.

When the Thatcher government de-regulated the bus industry in the eighties, they said it would produce more competition etc...all the usual Tory rhetoric. All it has suceeded in doing is create a few large private cartels with a monopoly. Any small operator who dared to start up in competition to the likes of stagecoach were soon "dealt with". More than once, Stagecoach has found itself in the courts for unfair competition. Their favourite trick was flooding routes with loss leader fares where they had competition, until their rivals went to the wall. Guess what happened as soon as they had the route all to themselves?

It'll be interesting to see how the likes of Stagecoach react to Stavros's latest venture? As he's likely to only be interested in long distance travel, rather than shipping old ladies with trolleys to the shops, I suspect they'll not worry too much.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

What I just LURVE is the 'smart' arses who bought a home in someplace like Clermont Ferrand and expected Ryanair to provide 'em with ticket for one pound fifty for the duration of their second-home mortgages. Only Ryan Air's laughing. Or going bust.


Wankers!

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Interesting to see the opinions about Branson's railway - "Crappy" (Tom Hark Preston Park) - and Stagecoach's buses - "nice" (Safeway).

How many people realise that Stagecoach own 49 per cent of Virgin Rail?

As for Stelios and Easybus and his plans to charge £1 for a minibus journey between London and Birmingham ... look at the economics of this.

Allow for 22 passengers on a large minibus. Stelios has £22 to spend on providing the journey and making a profit. Assume 115 miles between London and Birmingham. Assume 18mpg fuel consumption. Therefore Stelios has to pay for 6.4 gallons of diesel @ £2.71 per gallon (total cost = £17.35). Assume the journey takes 2 hours 40 minutes. A driver has to be employed for 3 hours @ £8 an hour (total cost = £24).

Without spending a penny on purchasing the vehicle, maintaining it, or marketing the service, let alone allowing for any profit margin, Stelios will spend at least £41.35 on providing the journey.

At £1 a passenger, he will be at least £19.65 per journey out of pocket.

Therefore ... this won't happen. Unless the whole racket is funded from some other source of money. Or the £1 fare is mysteriously "not available for that particular journey, I'm afraid".

Realistically, Stelios will need to design a very efficient operation to keep his total running costs (including profit margin) below £2 a mile. That means he'll need to collect £230 in fares for every minibus he runs between London and Birmingham. At 80 per cent seat utilisation, that means an average fare of £13 per passenger.

National Express (who run bigger, more efficent coaches) currently charge £12.50 for an economy single, booked in advance, from London to Birmingham (with a £1 special promotional fare available on some journeys).

Conclusion ... Stelios is bullshitting. What he is promising is already available. And he won't achieve anything better by introducing minibuses instead of coaches.

 

[Beach Hut]

How many people realise that Stagecoach own 49 per cent of Virgin Rail?

I do - currently delivering a major contract for them

 

[marvin]

Interesting to see the opinions about Branson's railway - "Crappy" (Tom Hark Preston Park) - and Stagecoach's buses - "nice" (Safeway).

How many people realise that Stagecoach own 49 per cent of Virgin Rail?

As for Stelios and Easybus and his plans to charge £1 for a minibus journey between London and Birmingham ... look at the economics of this.

Allow for 22 passengers on a large minibus. Stelios has £22 to spend on providing the journey and making a profit. Assume 115 miles between London and Birmingham. Assume 18mpg fuel consumption. Therefore Stelios has to pay for 6.4 gallons of diesel @ £2.71 per gallon (total cost = £17.35). Assume the journey takes 2 hours 40 minutes. A driver has to be employed for 3 hours @ £8 an hour (total cost = £24).



Without spending a penny on purchasing the vehicle, maintaining it, or marketing the service, let alone allowing for any profit margin, Stelios will spend at least £41.35 on providing the journey.

At £1 a passenger, he will be at least £19.65 per journey out of pocket.

Therefore ... this won't happen. Unless the whole racket is funded from some other source of money. Or the £1 fare is mysteriously "not available for that particular journey, I'm afraid".

Realistically, Stelios will need to design a very efficient operation to keep his total running costs (including profit margin) below £2 a mile. That means he'll need to collect £230 in fares for every minibus he runs between London and Birmingham. At 80 per cent seat utilisation, that means an average fare of £13 per passenger.

National Express (who run bigger, more efficent coaches) currently charge £12.50 for an economy single, booked in advance, from London to Birmingham (with a £1 special promotional fare available on some journeys).

Conclusion ... Stelios is bullshitting. What he is promising is already available. And he won't achieve anything better by introducing minibuses instead of coaches.

Actually it shows a lack of understanding on how the "easy" pricing philosophy works.
Seat 1 £ 1 seat 2 £2 seat 3 £3 seat 4 £4 seat 5 £5 seat 6 £6 seat 7 £7 and so on to a maximum price. This maximum price will be somewhere just below the competitions price. this currently £12.50 without any reductions for students etc so say £10 max fare so the fares would be £155 on this model.

Its a similar philosophy to Virgin, come into a market just below the price now soak up a lot of good publicity about being the consumers champion by lowering prices.

It is likely that most seats would be at £10 not £ 1 and the cost of the buses will peared to the bone including paying his staff low wages and making them dress in orange, cruel bastard)

 

[Beach Hut]

I commend all those low cost airlines who have proved what a massive profit was made of flights previously.

I suspect the same may happen in the bus market - why do so many people resent others trying to get into a market ?

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Interesting to see the opinions about Branson's railway - "Crappy" (Tom Hark Preston Park) - and Stagecoach's buses - "nice" (Safeway).

How many people realise that Stagecoach own 49 per cent of Virgin Rail?

As for Stelios and Easybus and his plans to charge £1 for a minibus journey between London and Birmingham ... look at the economics of this.

.

Hardly worth discussing innit? Costs a fiver from Brighton station to Preston Park in a cab. One pound twenty on the 5B. A quid from London to Birmingham is simply a joke. Yeah, OK you make the headlines til a bigger story comes along - but you ain't gonna make any profit in a million year - and precious few punters gonna pay a quid either if you look beyond the small print. It's an insult to the intelligence to think otherwise aye? Stella El-Lard-Bucket is Fat and he knows he is