New
coach-rail services are launched to help storm-hit communities in the
south-west of England, Stagecoach Group announced on 26th February 2014.
The
integrated service provide a seamless link between London and the West
Country using a combination of South West Trains rail services and megabus.com
coaches.
It provides significant extra public transport capacity to keep communities in
Devon and Cornwall connected while one of the main railway lines is closed
following the collapse of the sea wall and damage to the track at Dawlish.
The
new services use a rail hub at Honiton providing onward coach connections
to a number of destinations in the south-west.
From
Honiton there are three routes: Cullompton-Tiverton-Barnstaple; Newton
Abbot- Torquay-Paignton-Totnes-Plymouth; and Launceston-Bodmin-St
Austell-Truro-Penzance.
The
coach-rail services operate Mondays to Fridays. On Saturdays and Sundays,
there is one departure in each direction on the Plymouth and Barnstaple
routes only.
A
fleet of five double-decker coaches are used for the operation, offering
4,000 seats a week. Prices start from £1 (plus 50p booking fee) and most
passengers pay less than £28, with the network offering journeys of up to
around 300 miles.
Seats
can now be booked online at www.megabus.com and services will start running on Monday
3rd March.
Stagecoach
also confirmed that it has increased capacity on its megabus.com services to
Cornwall by 50% from around 400 seats a day to nearly 600.
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Whether the deckers referred to are as illustrated below, remains to be seen
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