\u00a0 \u00a0 The move comes not long after the global intercity coach service brand celebrated two anniversaries \u2013 its second anniversary in the UK market and the tenth since it its creation.<\/p>\n The expansion in Scotland, undertaken in partnership with operator McGill\u2019s, Scotland\u2019s largest independent bus operator, marks a five-fold expansion. <\/p>\n The partnership between McGill\u2019s and fast-growing FlixBus began in 2021, fuelled by a joint ambition to disrupt the coach market. McGill\u2019s has added 18 high specification Volvo 9700 coaches to its FlixBus services, in addition to the existing seven vehicles. <\/p>\n Across the whole of the UK, Flixbus will have twice as many services this summer as it did last summer, when it celebrated its one millionth UK customer<\/p>\n Across the whole of the UK, Flixbus will have twice as many services this summer as it did last summer, when it celebrated its one millionth UK customer, and is being promoted with \u00a32 tickets to mark the two-year UK anniversary. FlixBus has outperformed its forecasted UK figures this year, almost doubling passengers (94% increase) carried in April-September 2022, compared to the same period in 2021.<\/p>\n Globally, FlixBus is already the world\u2019s largest intercity coach provider. It is present across Europe and the purchase of Greyhound last year made it the largest in North America. It is already operating in Brazil and Chile is next. So it has plenty of experience of running large scale networks, and the company is not short of ambition.<\/p>\n Speaking at the Edinburgh bus station launch last week, Andreas Sch\u00f6rling, managing director of FlixBus UK told Passenger Transport<\/em>: \u201cWe were very clear when we entered the UK market that we are here to build the largest intercity coach network in the UK. It\u2019s going to be a five-year project. We are \u2026\u00a0strategically patient, but that is the clear vision that we have.<\/p>\n The first two years have been, I would argue, almost beyond expectation. We\u2019ve seen phenomenal uptake from passengers. There is massive demand<\/p>\n \u201cThe first two years have been, I would argue, almost beyond expectation. We\u2019ve seen phenomenal uptake from passengers. There is massive demand.\u201d<\/p>\n The striking FlixBus brand is backed up by sophisticated online retail channels and a marketing message that focuses on coach as an affordable, reliable and sustainable mode of transport. Born in the digital era, the company has created from scratch an offering that appeals to new demographics.<\/p>\n Sch\u00f6rling said: \u201cThe mission that we have as an organisation is to provide\u00a0smart and green transportation to everyone, everywhere \u2026\u00a0I think, as an industry, coach has not made a strong enough case for how good a solution it is. I think that is something that we at FlixBus have an opportunity and the tools to change.\u201d<\/p>\n In the UK there has been a bit of a mindset that it is just certain demographics that travel with coac<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cIn the UK there has been a bit of a mindset that it is just certain demographics that travel with coach, and what we are seeing across Europe,\u00a0across the US and all our other markets is that by being a digital native, being able to use marketing channels, communication channels where a broader proportion of the population is, actually attracts them into coach because \u2026 it\u2019s affordable, reliable and sustainable. When people know about it they come.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reason we don\u2019t have such a diversified demographic in the UK is a failure of communication.\u201d<\/p>\n Sch\u00f6rling spoke of the importance of the partnerships with Volvo and McGill\u2019s (an announcement about a further partner operator will be made soon). All three of these companies agree that coach is an unsung hero of transport and that government could do more to support the sector.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we are looking for is a level playing field,\u201d said Sch\u00f6rling. \u201cThere is so much support coming into the trains and to the railway system in terms of infrastructure, in terms of tax subsidies, in terms of financial subsidies, and coach really gets nothing.<\/p>\n \u201cSmall and medium-sized coach operators are the unsung heroes of the transportation industry. Whenever something goes wrong people always look to coach.\u201d <\/p>\n \u00a0 DON\u2019T MISS OUT \u2013 GET YOUR COPY! \u2013\u00a0click here to subscribe!<\/a><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The post FlixBus launches major network expansion<\/a> first appeared on Passenger Transport<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u200b\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u2018We are here to build the largest intercity coach network\u2019 \u00a0McGill\u2019s has added 18 high specification Volvo 9700 coaches to its FlixBus services, in addition to the existing seven vehicles \u00a0 FlixBus launched its expanded Scottish network last week with celebrations and free cake at Edinburgh bus station. The move comes not long after the global intercity coach service brand…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-camcab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2670"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
McGill\u2019s has added 18 high specification Volvo 9700 coaches to its FlixBus services, in addition to the existing seven vehicles<\/em><\/p>\n
\nFlixBus launched its expanded Scottish network last week with celebrations and free cake at Edinburgh bus station.<\/p>\n
This story appears in the latest issue of\u00a0Passenger Transport<\/em>. <\/strong><\/p>\n