Easy Expansion

There’s life in the great white (orange?) hope of the bus industry yet. Just when we’d thought the easyBus dream had gone belly-up (if dreams can do that), comes a £3mil potential order for up to 50 vehicles. Expansion’s in the air again.

Admittedly, easyBus is being slightly coy about it all. The size of the order will depend on the size of the buses purchased. easyBus is currently looking for a supplier to manufacture vehicles of between 17 and 32 seats – somewhat bigger than its existing 16 seat Mercedes minibuses. Expect delivery as soon as January 2007. Also expect some of the vehicles to replace the existing 10 Mercedes.

When easyBus first came on the scene, there were rumours of low cost services between London and Birmingham. Perhaps because NatEx and Megabus.com have effectively sown up more conventional markets, easyBus states it wishes to concentrate on the city to airport market – serving both London and regional airports. The company will continue to use contractors, with easyBus providing the brand and website, which remains the principal sales channel.

easyBus’ ride has been anything but, well, easy. Launching in August 2004 between Milton Keynes and Hendon on the Northern Line, it promised “more and more towns along the M1 corridor, competing with Virgin trains as well as other train services, buses and cars.” A month later, easyBus started from Luton airport to Hendon. easyBus now refers to these services as its “pilot phase”. It found itself in a bit of a tussle with National Express, following NatEx’s decision to cut its Milton Keynes - central London fares to by up to 90 per cent. Other M1 services failed to materialise. It abandoned Hendon for central London in February 2005 and abandoned the initial Milton Keynes route altogether in early 2006 because the contractor “declined to continue the service.”

It never became the promised “eayJet of the road.” Perhaps it will, now.