Disappointment as Megabus pulls city services

The scaling back will happen from 4 December

A decision by national coach operator Megabus to stop serving Derby has been met with disappointment by the city council.

The firm has announced it is discontinuing 15 routes across England and Wales from 4 December due to levels of customer demand the company said was "simply too low".

It means the East Midlands cities of Derby, Nottingham and Leicester will no longer be served.

The firm said it would be contacting customers affected by the service change and arrangements were being put in place to ensure customers who had already booked tickets could find alternative transport or receive a refund.

Once the changes take effect, only the following routes will be in operation:

• All services within Scotland (under the Scottish Citylink and Megabus)

• All cross-border services between Scotland and England and Wales

• All Falcon services in the south-west of England

• Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield and London

• Manchester, Birmingham and London

• Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Cardiff

Managing director Simone Walsh described the move as an "extremely difficult decision".

Only a handful of routes will remain

First launched in the UK in 2003, Megabus styled itself as the "market-leading coach operator in England, Scotland and Wales".

Its network linked more than 100 locations and at one point carried more than four million customers a year.

A spokesperson for Derby City Council said: "We're disappointed that Megabus have withdrawn their services from Derby, however there are plenty of other options for passengers wishing to travel by coach.

"National Express will continue to operate out of Derby's bus station.

"We've been working hard to increase the transport choices available to those travelling around Derby and will continue to work with operators to explore additional services."

Megabus managing director Simone Walsh said: "Unfortunately, it is not sustainable for us to continue operating our current network as the customer demand is simply too low.

"So, we are making these changes to ensure that we have a more efficient network going forward.

"We want to thank the many passengers who travel with us every day and will ensure that we continue to operate an affordable and high-quality service on the parts of the network that are unaffected by these changes."