Flixbus (Whippet Coaches) FX23 - BL17 XBB
Acting on your best behaviour, turn your back on mother nature, everybody wants to rule the world...
And there it is. My first Flixbus photo. The way things are looking, it might not be the last time I see them about. Forget Megabus these days - it's this German giant coming in and competing with National Express. A short view back to the past: in 2013, Germany had it's own moment of Thatcherite deregulation and after a long policy of banning intercity coach services in favour of the railways, opened up the intercity coach market and made it competitive. Flixbus, founded two years prior, swallowed everything up, then it came for everywhere else in Europe. They even got Megabus in the EU! And in the middle of 2020, Flixbus intercity operations competing with National Express and Megabus commenced.
I won't hide my tistate for Flixbus being in the United Kingdom. Why? I'm not entirely sure. It's not like Flixbus and Flixbus only run the service - just like National Express and (in part) Megabus, independent coach firms are contracted to run the service. Perhaps it's my faintest bit of nationalism in favour of National Express, or maybe, I'm just no fan of seeing one big corporation sweep up the intercity coaching market. But that can easily be applied to National Express, so...
Ah, I have it. There's a bus simulator Flixbus partnered with named 'Fernbus', and for some reason, I found the 'welcome aboard' CD the driver can play very irritating.
Right, there's that long, long essay out of the way - seen here departing from Meadowhall Bus Station with a not-too-impressed driver at the wheel is Whippet Coaches' Flixbus-contracted FX23, a 2017 Scania K410EB6 Caetano Levante 2 new as NX23 for National Express services(!). Note one of it's former family parked up in the background.
Flixbus (Whippet Coaches) FX23 - BL17 XBB
Acting on your best behaviour, turn your back on mother nature, everybody wants to rule the world...
And there it is. My first Flixbus photo. The way things are looking, it might not be the last time I see them about. Forget Megabus these days - it's this German giant coming in and competing with National Express. A short view back to the past: in 2013, Germany had it's own moment of Thatcherite deregulation and after a long policy of banning intercity coach services in favour of the railways, opened up the intercity coach market and made it competitive. Flixbus, founded two years prior, swallowed everything up, then it came for everywhere else in Europe. They even got Megabus in the EU! And in the middle of 2020, Flixbus intercity operations competing with National Express and Megabus commenced.
I won't hide my tistate for Flixbus being in the United Kingdom. Why? I'm not entirely sure. It's not like Flixbus and Flixbus only run the service - just like National Express and (in part) Megabus, independent coach firms are contracted to run the service. Perhaps it's my faintest bit of nationalism in favour of National Express, or maybe, I'm just no fan of seeing one big corporation sweep up the intercity coaching market. But that can easily be applied to National Express, so...
Ah, I have it. There's a bus simulator Flixbus partnered with named 'Fernbus', and for some reason, I found the 'welcome aboard' CD the driver can play very irritating.
Right, there's that long, long essay out of the way - seen here departing from Meadowhall Bus Station with a not-too-impressed driver at the wheel is Whippet Coaches' Flixbus-contracted FX23, a 2017 Scania K410EB6 Caetano Levante 2 new as NX23 for National Express services(!). Note one of it's former family parked up in the background.