Greyhound UK

Greyhound UK is a low-cost intercity scheduled coach service in the United Kingdom owned by FirstGroup and based on the long-established Greyhound service in the United States.

It began operations in September 2009 as an hourly service between London and Portsmouth or Southampton. In 2010 services were introduced from London to Bournemouth and Poole. These services ceased in November 2012.

In 2010 the Shuttle 100 service between Cardiff and Swansea was transferred from First Cymru. In January 2011 Greyhound UK took over operation of overnight coach services between London and Glasgow that had previously been operated by First Glasgow. This service ceased in September 2012.

Service
Greyhound UK's service is being presented as upmarket, with free wireless internet, extra legroom and reclining seats, using refurbished coaches painted in the same livery as recently introduced by Greyhound in the United States. Greyhound offers cheaper tickets when booked in advance via their website, similar to Funfares on National Express, and Megabus.

Route and destinations
Greyhound UK operates a service between Cardiff to Swansea, with a number of services continuing on to Bristol Airport, calling at Newport, University of West England and Bristol bus station en route.

The extended route to Bristol Airport begun in March 2013, previous to this the service operated between Swansea and Cardiff only.

History of name
The earliest use of the Greyhound name and logo for coach services in England was by Greyhound Motors in 1921. The name and logo continued to be used by Bristol Omnibus Company (which bought Greyhound in 1936) until 1972 when services were coach services were rebranded as National Express. FirstGroup now owns the former Bristol Omnibus Company, but their revival of the name is not connected to the former use of the name by their subsidiary; instead, it follows FirstGroup's acquisition of the owner of the American Greyhound Lines operation in February 2007, with the logo and livery adopted for the United Kingdom. By extension of this acquisition, FirstGroup is now affiliated with Greyhound Lines in the U.S., Greyhound Canada, and Greyhound Mexico, as well as Greyhound UK. It has no ties with Greyhound Australia, Greyhound South Africa, or Greyhound Travels (in India), however, as those remain independently owned. It is also not associated with Western Greyhound, which is based in Newquay, Cornwall. Despite the prevalence of the Greyhound name in English-speaking countries (and Mexico), FirstGroup has no immediate plans to re-brand its Ireland-based Aircoach services under the Greyhound moniker.

Fleet
The Greyhound fleet consists of 11 Scania K114EB/Irizar PB coaches. They are numbered in the same fleet numbering system as other FirstGroup vehicles, and also carry women’s names from popular American songs:

23315 - Sweet Caroline

23316 - Mrs Robinson

23317 - Good Golly Miss Molly

23318 - Mandy

23319 - Sherry

23320 - Billie Jean

23321 - Proud Mary

23322 - Barbara Anne

23323 - Sharona

23324 - Joelene

23325 - Peggy Sue

The coaches originally had 49 seats, and were purchased in 2005/06 for use on FirstGroup's National Express contracted work. They were based at First's depots at Bristol, Cheltenham and Northampton and used on National Express routes 040 Bristol to London Victoria, 200 Bristol to Gatwick Airport, 412 Gloucester to London Victoria, 222 Hereford to Gatwick Airport and 707 Northampton to Gatwick Airport. After refurbishment they had only 41 seats providing extra legroom and a 41" seat pitch, free wireless internet and at-seat power sockets.