Stagecoach Group PLC

Sale of megabus Europe retail operations

29 June 2016

Stagecoach Group plc ("Stagecoach") is pleased to announce that yesterday it agreed the sale of the retail operations of its megabus Europe business to FlixMobility GmbH ("FlixBus").  Only those megabus.com retailing operations involving mainland Europe are part of the agreed sale.  

The megabus Europe business comprises both retailing activities and coach operating activities.  The retailing activities involve the design of inter-city coach services, including their timetabling, co-ordination and marketing, as well as the pricing and sale of journeys on those services.  The coach operating activities encompass the day-to-day operation and staffing of the coach services.  We have agreed the sale to FlixBus of the retailing part of that business.  We will continue to operate a number of European inter-city coach services as a contractor to FlixBus and we look forward to building on our relationship with it.

The sale of the megabus Europe retail operations will complete on or around 1 July 2016.  In addition, Stagecoach has agreed that it will dispose of a number of vehicles to FlixBus or its nominee at a future date.

The agreed amount of the consideration for the sale of the retail operations will be satisfied by the issue of a loan note from FlixBus to Stagecoach at completion.  Stagecoach expects the loan note to be fully settled by the end of 2017.   Payment of the loan note is not subject to any conditions or performance criteria which need to be fulfilled.

Stagecoach expects to report a gain on disposal in respect of the sale in its consolidated financial statements for the year ending 30 April 2017.

Existing customer bookings for megabus.com Europe journeys remain valid and these services are continuing to operate as normal.  FlixBus is a leading retailer of inter-city coach travel in Europe - more information on it can be found, and travel can be booked, at www.flixbus.com.

A number of changes are happening in the not too distant future around Great Park such as the following:
Bollards removed from Brunton Lane bus link bridge and cameras are to run 24/7
New bus link between Sir Bobby Robson Way and the SAGE Park & Ride
Q3 is to be re routed running anti clockwise around Great Park from the 4/9/2016 doing the following route:
Rosedon Way Current Stop-Sir Bobby Robson Way-SAGE via New bus link-Wagonway Drive-Rosedon Way Hail & Ride past the community centre then over the bus link bridge

I recently headed off to the real Costa del Sol, not to be confused with the Easington Lane variation.
The management is typically Spanish; lazy and over-bureaucratic. There are no timetables stuck to shelters or anything at all. The buses don't have any branding or anything at all to indicate even what company they belong to. The LED display simply displays the destination, with no route number or via points, yet each takes a hugely varying route to its destination. This means having to board the bus to asatain where the bus is actually going. This only stands for half of the fleet of B9 style triaxial coaches.

The other half is a collection of battered blue unidentifiable tin boxes, far too boring to deserve a place in this post. These buses don't have any destination board, only "Line A" painted on the side, almost obscured with age. The seats were almost identical to GNE's classic mosaic seats.

These buses run half hourly via wherever, but if you can cut through all the astranged organisational features - you have yourself a speedy ride on what is effectively a brand new coach or a washing machine. Every trip is packed, somehow everyone copes.

The clear message I've learned is that however bad GNE/SNE/ANE may appear to us through bad customer service or late workings or whatever it is you may have issues with, this isn't much compared to the horribly disorganised (yet functional) system employed by ALSA, where you have to dig through horrible websites to dig up any idea of a timetable and beg the driver to establish where it is you are actually going to.

If you are planning any trips to South Spain - make sure you do your own research online to since this is almost certainly the expectation!

Just got taken over by a page saying my phone was 28.2% infected by 4 viruses from recent viitd to ault sites. Complete with fake old Google logo.

Time to give up and install an ad blocker, I'm afraid.

Fixtures out in the next few weeks...

Here is a change for the new season.

The Football League has agreed in principle to a change in what will be called the EFL Trophy formerly known as the Johnstones Paint Trophy

Premier League Academy Teams will be taking part...A compromise for no B Teams in an expanded Football League I think.

AFC Wimbledon wroteLeague announces Premier League trial for 2016/17
English Football League clubs have agreed, at their 2016 summer conference, to pilot a new format for the EFL Trophy as part of their ongoing commitment to creating more and better home grown players.

The one-season trial for season 2016/17 will include 64 teams made up of EFL League One and Two clubs, plus an additional 16 category 1 Premier League academy/under-21 sides.

Central to the competition (formerly known as the JPT Trophy) will be the introduction of a new group stage format with 16 regional groups of four teams. The top two teams will progress to the knockout stages of the competition with the final staged at Wembley Stadium in April 2017.

Full details for 2016/17’s competition will be finalised within the next 14 days.

The Football League was officially rebranded as the English Football League (EFL) yesterday.

From AFC Wimbledon website

Plans for EFL Trophy

Thread to discuss the Euro 2016 instead of using the 2015/2016 football season one which is quite through now.

So what do people think about Englands chances of even getting to the last 16 now?

Here is a random user's post source:

I assume the text is autogenerated around the submission of a flickr link, but how do I achieve this?
It shows the title of the flickr picture and the flickr name of whoever submits it.

Might be flying with Wizz Air in the summer, has anyone ever flown with them? Thoughts/opinions? I've only flown with Easyjet so far, so have yet to experience a low cost airline

I was just interested to know what your favourite display/blind from Hanover Displays is. Mine is a Colour RN (Route Number)

Was there a South Shields Rally on today? Knew nothing about it