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And they're off...Greyhound UK coach services launched today
Monday 14 September 2009
Greyhound, the world’s most famous bus brand, celebrated one of the most important landmarks in its 95 year history when services in the UK began today.
Greyhound UK, a subsidiary of transport giant FirstGroup, began running services in the UK this morning. At 5.30am (Monday, 14 September) the first ever Greyhound UK bus, called Peggy Sue, departed Southampton heading for London. The first service hosted a mix of regular passengers, bus enthusiasts and media.
Greyhound UK, will operate regular, direct, high quality, low cost services between London and the two cities of Portsmouth and Southampton with the company hoping to add further destinations from 2010. Fares start at £1 plus 50p booking fee from www.greyhounduk.com.
Alex Warner, Managing Director of Greyhound UK, said he was ‘delighted’ with the level of interest and the number of bookings. “As we had hoped, brining Greyhound to the UK seems to have captured the public’s imagination. We are delighted with public response to our new services.
“We are particularly encouraged by the number of bookings we have received from commuters who are reserving a seat on multiple services well in advance of their journeys. We are also noticing a real demand for bookings at weekends as customers look to take advantage of sporting and entertainment events and weekends away in the Solent and London. Theatre goers, football, rugby and other sports fans already seem to have cottoned on to our frequent, high quality, low cost services.
He continued: “So far today all our Greyhound UK services ran flawlessly. Passengers, as we hoped, seemed to be very impressed the features on board, such as wi-fi, plug sockets, leather seating and complimentary newspapers. They were also very impressed with the leg room. Greyhound coaches have 41 seats rather than the 50 or so typically operated by other coach companies meaning 20% more leg room for customers. The real draws however were the direct route – under two hours – and the competitive prices. Between 10-15% of all seats are sold for £1 plus 50p booking fee with an average fare of around £7.
“I have every confidence that passenger numbers will grow quickly and customers will continue to be impressed by our service offering. Judging by the level of interest and the number of bookings in Greyhound UK, we could have a real winner on our hands.”
Two passengers on the first ever service were Southampton students, Kimberley Parsons (18) and Lucy Taylor (18). The pair were on the first leg of their journey to Paris for a holiday before returning to University. Lucy said: “What you get for the price is brilliant. More leg room, free wi-fi, newspaper and a comfortable two hour trip to London – we even got free champagne because it was the first ever service- a great start to our holiday to Euro Disney.”
Kimberley added: “We saved around £60 travelling by Greyhound – more money to spend on rollercoasters and good wine!”
Greyhound UK provides regular services each way between London and Portsmouth and London and Southampton. These services are provided with convenient kerb-side pick ups at a number of locations in both south coast cities with all services in London arriving and departing from Bulleid Way, Victoria Railway Station, London. Greyhound services also integrate with ferry services to and from the Isle of Wight. All services are non-stop between the two cities, taking under two hours and providing a journey time advantage up to 40% over other coach operators whose services typically stop a number of times at intermediate locations including Heathrow.
FirstGroup is Britain’s largest bus and rail operator and is already one of Britain’s biggest scheduled coach operators with over 250 vehicles operating under a variety of brand names. It purchased Greyhound in 2007 and has been operating the company in the US and Canada since then.
All the Greyhound UK coaches have names with the theme being women’s names from popular American songs. The coaches are called: Sweet Caroline, Pro