In yet another innovation from do-no-wrong Stagecoach (and in partnership with ComfortDelGro), from 12th July new Citylink Gold will offer Scottish travellers what amounts to the antithesis of Stagecoach’s own Megabus brand. Aimed squarely at the rail market, the concept offers non-stop “first class” at-seat coach travel at prices considerably cheaper than Scot Rail, though with fewer departures.
Will this ever arrive south of the border, to add to the competitive express market mix? To a degree it already has, in the shape of Greyhound, the Oxford Tube, Oxford Espress, the King’s Ferry and many a National Express operation—all without the one key ingredient that marks out Citylink Gold: what Citylink is calling a “coach attendant”.
Attendants welcoming passengers and serving snacks & beverages are new. Yet, they’ve also been tried before. In 1981, NatEx responded to both market deregulation and particularly actual competition by introducing Rapide. For 20 years, in addition to food & drink and what was termed a “hostess” (in airline style uniform), Rapide was first to feature a lavatory, crude video system and early air-con. Food options were initially poor.
The first Rapides were between London & Exeter/Plymouth, in response to an earlier launch of a Rapide-style product by Trathen’s. Soon, NatEx and Trathen’s were to collaborate and by 1983, the 500-series Rapide routes expanded between London and major cities, some less expected destinations such as North Devon, and a smattering of cross-country routes.
It proved that the nationalised industry wasn’t so slow in responding to new markets, after all. Just like today, in fact, though today life moves quickly on. With leather and wi-fi now increasingly common, Citylink Gold’s USP reverts back to the attendant. No doubt, one of their duties will be to clear up the free on-board ice cream should it find its way to the leather seats.
Reflecting the additional crew member, Citylink Gold fares are at a premium. Indeed, standard adult return tickets between Glasgow & Aberdeen at £45.10 are just 70p shy of Scot Rail’s, though yield management comes into play for online bookable Citylink Gold single fares, starting at £4. A return trip on Megabus will cost no more than about £22, comparable to NatEx’s own three return journey fares between Glasgow & Aberdeen.
With Scottish Citylink, Megabus and now Citylink Gold products all available via Stagecoach, plus NatEx, passengers might be forgiven for getting confused.
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
Attendants
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10 comments:
Don't forget Ribble's "Gay Hostesses" of the swinging sixties. These were double deck coaches running between Lancashire and London with uniformed young ladies serving light refreshments.
Scottish over-60s get to travel long distance for just the 50p booking fee, so I guess this would be attractive to them.
What does the operator get for concessions where there are variable fares - two-thirds of the 'standard' single fare of £26 or two-thirds of the £4 being quoted on the website for travel today?
By the way, going by the website, the service has started already. And the journey times are virtually the same as on the train.
Stagecoach appearing to compete with itself is not new, either in the coach or urban bus markets.
With properly segmented and directed marketing there is no reason for most travellers to even be aware of the connection. Stagecoach also operate NatEx contracts alongside their own Megabus without a problem.
In Anderson's history of Royal Blue he quotes the passenger who complained about having to travel in a green and cream Western National coach instead of a Royal Blue one, the latter "being much more comfortable".
Anonymous said...
'In Anderson's history of Royal Blue he quotes the passenger who complained about having to travel in a green and cream Western National coach instead of a Royal Blue one, the latter "being much more comfortable".'
Eventually, WN painted all of their front-line coaches in Royal Blue livery (even if some of them had WN/SN fleetnames). They presumably recognised the value in the name/image - NBC didn't.
Anonymous said...
'In Anderson's history of Royal Blue he quotes the passenger who complained about having to travel in a green and cream Western National coach instead of a Royal Blue one, the latter "being much more comfortable".'
Later on WN painted all of their front line coaches in RB livery (even if some had WN/SN fleetnames). They clearly recognised the value in the RB brand - unfortunately, NBC didn't.
"do-no-wrong Stagecoach"
That one must be tongue-in-cheek, even if the post on short trousers wasn't!!
Sorry about the duplicated comment - Blogger seemed to be playing up yesterday!
Do have a look at the Citylink Gold website, to me it seems to have a very art deco - 1920/30s - look about it which I found very reassuring and calming.
Another comment was made about Stagecoach competing with itself. Do not all supermarkets by offering various (e.g.) baked beans including their own label compete with themselves? Different passengers have different expectations so why not try and carry them all by offering different products?
On an historical note Black & White operated coaches with "facilities" in the 1930s, the various Scottish companies were running to London for many years with toilets and with deregulation don't forget Cotters, also from North of the border, were an early provider of hi-spec services.
Who agrees that any good manager should know the history of his business?
My cousin was a Rapide hostess for a few years. When my dad worked for NatEx back in the 80's we used to get either free or very cheap travel to visit relatives in Leeds.
I'd be very happy with Megabus if it was all those nice air-conditioned double deckers that I once travelled from Perth to Manchester on 5 years ago. The trouble was that the lead-in services from Inverness and Edinburgh, on the limited number of occasions we used them back then, ranged from converted urban double-decker boneshakers to smelly and old single-deckers.
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