Whilst driving home from work one evening, I heard an advert on my local radio station for easybus.co.uk. It offered bus fares to North London from Milton Keynes for £1 each way. As I was due to meet an old school friend in London in a few weeks time, I thought Id look into it, as the return trainfare including Underground is normally about £15.
The Services Before you get all excited about cheap fares all around the country, at the moment Easybus is only offering fares between Hendon and Milton Keynes, and Luton Airport and Hendon, with no stops on route, but if all goes well they do have plans to expand.
The Site The home page of www.easybus.co.uk looks very familiar with the now infamous orange logo. It is a very simple home page, with places to enter your journey requirements and various other links/tabs. At the bottom there are links to all the other Easy websites did you know that there is an Easypizza and even an Easycruise?
To get a price for a ticket, simply choose your destination and departure points from the pick lists, choose your travel dates and pick the number of seats. Please note that if you have any luggage, you need to book a seat for it, as the bus has no space for luggage. I had a rucksack with me, and it was fine to carry on my lap, but anything bigger would probably require a seat.
You will be given a list
of possible times and prices, from which you pick the required journey. The earlier you book, the cheaper the prices. I managed to get both my journeys for £1 each, but looking today, the fares range between £1 and £4 for a Saturday two weeks ahead.
To book and pay for the ticket you have to register with the site, which is simple and requires you to think of a password for future use. You then give your credit card details over a secure server. It is VITAL that you print the confirmation screen, as this acts as your ticket. The site clearly states that you will have to pay full fare if you do not have this print out, and on the day I travelled this happened to a couple behind me - the driver would not make any exceptions.
The site also has links for an overview of the timetables, details of the pick up and drop off points (more on this later), latest news about the company, a photo gallery of the Easybuses (!), jobs available, Terms & Conditions, About Us and a privacy statement. There is a Help link too, which take you to a new window full of further links, including a knowledge bank of previously asked questions. You can also send a question to the support team, but as I have not done this, I cannot say how efficient they are.
Please note that you do not have to book Easybus in advance, you can pay a walk up fare of £5 in cash on the day, but obviously this is subject to there being space on the bus. Also, you cannot cancel or change tickets once booked, apart from in exceptional circumstances such as bereavement, when you would be required to provide evidence for a refund against future journeys but get charged a £5 administration fee (for a £1 fare?!?).
Overall, it is a easy to use site with good navigation (apart from the fact that you cannot get to the home page by clicking on the Easybus logo like most sites).
My Experience I really was not sure what I was letting myself in for by catching a bus to London for £1, so with some trepidation I headed off to Milton Keynes shopping centre, booking confirmation in hand. It is worth stating at this point that parking all day at MK is not cheap, so you would have to take this cost into account, but as I have a pass due to my work, it did not cost me anything.
The ticket said that the bus stop was on Midsummer Boulevard, and I managed to find it easily, as it had sign for Easybus on it. At the correct time a cute little Mercedes orange Easybus pulled up (see website photos to get an idea of the size). About 10 of us got on, having shown the driver our booking confirmation. As mentioned previously, one couple did not have theirs due to a printer problem, and even though they showed the driver their credit card printout, they still had to pay another £5 each for the fare.
The bus seats 14, which includes 2 in the front with the driver, so it is smaller than normal buses. There were no seat belts, and the seats were either single or in pairs. The published time for the journey to Hendon was 1 hour and 5 minutes, but we travelled down the M1 and it actually only took 55 minutes. It was a smooth journey with no mishaps.
We were dropped off on a main road in Hendon, which turned out to be Watford Way. One of the other passengers asked the driver the way to the Underground, as we could not see it from the bus stop, and it is only about a minute's walk down the road. I checked the booking confirmation, and both the drop off point and pick up point said Hendon Central so I carefully took a note of where I was to make sure I could find the bus stop again, although there were no Easybus markings on the bus stop.
Hendon Central underground station is on the Northern Line, eight stops up from Euston and a daily travel card including all Underground on a Saturday costs £3.80 from this station, so this should be taken into account when working out the overall price for the trip.
I had a great day out with my friend and arrived back at the drop off bus stop at Hendon with quarter of an hour to spare. At exactly the time I was supposed to catch the bus, I saw one go up the road on the opposite side without stopping help! In a panic I rang my partner at home and asked him to go onto the Easybus website to check the exact pick up point. Unfortunately it turns out that the pick up point from Hendon is in a completely different place than the drop off point. It is actually on Hendon Way outside a garage showroom, which is about the same distance form the Underground as from the drop off point, but down a different road. I know that it is detailed on the website under a separate link, but I do think that it should also be included in the booking confirmation (e.g. Hendon Way, Hendon and Watford Way, Hendon), and the driver could have mentioned it, as he was aware we were new to the service, as we asked him the way to the Underground. As the next bus was not for another hour and a half and I had no guarantee of getting on it, I had no choice but to catch the tube back into Central London and get a train home, making me an hour late. My bargain £2 fare ended up costing me £18!
Benefits Some great prices Single seats offered, so you do not necessarily have to sit next to strangers Easy to use website Services also run on Sundays and Bank Holidays
Disadvantages Journey times are subject to traffic conditions, which is particularly important if you are going to LutonAirport to catch a plane Only two routes currently offered No space for luggage, so you have to pay for extra seats The drop off point in Hendon is about 25 minutes from Euston, so taking that into account, the journey time is generally longer than the train There are no late services, which would be useful for nights out in London (the last one leaves London at 7.20 p.m.) Confusing bus stops in Hendon Unable to change or cancel tickets once booked
Suggestions for Improvement Enable the home page navigation when you click on the Easybus logo at the top of each page Give the address of the Hendon bus stops on the ticket, like it is for the Milton Keynes bus stop, to avoid any confusion Encourage the drivers to offer directions on the drop offs, e.g. to the Underground or to the pick up points if different, rather than wait to be asked. Include the Easybus logo on the Hendon bus stops Offer more destinations
Conclusion I think I will use Easybus again, but probably only if I am going to North London, as otherwise the journey times are just too long. Even at £5 for a ticket, it is much cheaper than the train for a one way ticket, so is definitely worth considering for single journeys. It was very easy to book the tickets from the simple to use website, and from what I saw the buses were clean and reliable. I hope they add more destinations soon, as it would be great for students going home or visiting friends for the weekend. If I do use the service again, I now know where the pick up point is at Hendon, so I will not make the same mistake again!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Seems like a strange journey - MK to Hendon! Shame it didn't work out for you on the way home, though.
Pumpkin 27.10.2004 18:01
Up to your usual excellent standard! Sounds like a bit of a performance, what with one thing and another, and sorry to hear you didn't get the bargain promised! Did you complain about the lack of clarity with the bus stops? I would have! Hannah
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