Luke Ross wrote

Neil Williams wrote:
Wow, they're brave. Anyone willing to bet on how long it'll be before
Stagecoach (Oxford Tube) run them off the road?

Unlikely, megabus.com is Stagecoach too! The Oxford Bus Company (Oxford
Express) have been sulking about it though.

grin I didn't realise the X90 Oxford Express camp had been sulking.
I agree megabus is trying to syphon passengers from/to the Baker
Street area, but am also inclined to agree with Stagecoach's claim
that megabus isn't intended to compete with either of the existing
services.

Most Oxford--London passengers in my experience fall into one of two
camps: They are either season-ticket commuters, who will have a set
daily travelling pattern and a dim view of megabus; or opportunistic
travellers who decide at zero notice that they want to get to London
NOW and as quickly as possible -- often not knowing whether they're
coming back by bus, let alone on what day or at what hour. Obviously
this is something of a sweeping generalisation! But those in the
Opportunists' camp turn up at one of the bus-stops served by the Tube
and the X90, and just catch whichever comes along first [1], and are
on their phone during the journey, planning the next phase of their
day. Having to pinpoint exact journey endpoints and timings for both
outward and return before leaving the house would be quite impossible.
Oh, and the last megabus leaves Baker Street at 23h -- the established
services run all night.

[1] - but note that Next-Day returns *on the X90* fall to below the
price of a single, at £6, when leaving Oxford between 1600 and
midnight! Normal next-day return on either company is £10.

I can't comment on the Olympian megabuses, but the ex-Hong Kong ones
seem to have similar perfomance to the Oxford Tube. I caught up with
one at Hillingdon on the way in the other night, and without doing
anything illegal I could merely keep it in view. But after Hanger
Lane I was able to pull my favourite sneaky trick at the new Concord
Slip when the lights changed!

(For those wondering: yes, it _is_ the same Richard Griffin as used to
inhabit uk.transport.london up until 2.5 years ago. Still around,
just not following Usenet because (a) lack of free time (driving the
X90 every night!) and (b) lack of available news server. Thanks to
RichardJ for alerting me to this thread, which I'm dealing with via
Google Groups.)

Cheers,
--
Richard Griffin
Oxford, UK
http://www.squarewheels.org.uk/
"Do unto others and run like hell" -- Clement Freud