Firm axes coach service from Southampton to London (From Daily Echo)

Greyhound axes coach service from Southampton to London

5:17pm Thursday 18th October 2012 in News By Jon Reeve, Education Reporter

A Greyhound coach in London

Greyhound is to axe its coach services from Hampshire to London next month.

The firm has revealed it is cutting all routes between the county and the capital on November 17 because not enough people are travelling on them.

Greyhound UK was launched with great fanfare three years ago, promising a brand new fleet of coaches with greater legroom and comfort than rivals, free wi-fi and newspapers on board, as well as cheap tickets.

Initially, the service ran only between London and Southampton or Portsmouth, but routes were extended to take in Fareham, the New Forest, Bournemouth and the Isle of Wight.

But parent company FirstGroup said it would now be pulling the plug on four daily return services.

Marc Reddy, Regional Commercial & Business Growth Director for First Bus in the South West and Wales said: "We'll be ending our Greyhound UK services between London and the Solent on November 17.

“Unfortunately, these services are not seeing sufficient passenger numbers and therefore we've reached the difficult decision to withdraw the buses from the routes.

“I'd like to thank our Solent customers for travelling with Greyhound UK and can assure them that they will continue to enjoy the same quality service right up until we stop operating.

“Greyhound UK will continue to operate its successful and popular services between Cardiff and Swansea and will look at any other new opportunities as they arise.”