Sightseeing With Sid

Open top bus tours are something I rarely have much interest in – either as a transport professional, transport enthusiast or tourist.  They are most definitely for ‘normals’!  However the arrival of Stagecoach in to the London open top marked piqued my interest.

The London tour bus market is a crowded one.  The ‘hop on hop off’ model is employed by four competing operators, two long established operators Big Bus Company and The Original London Sightseeing Tour (‘TOLST’), and two more recent entrants to the market, Golden Tours and The London Tour.  All operators are present around the world, TOLST being the London franchisee of City Sightseeing and the only other London open top operator owned by a regular London bus operator (indeed changing hands from Arriva to RATP Dev a couple of years of ago).

The hop on hop off model generally charges £25-£35 per day and is a fiercely competitive market employing a substantial number of staff on-street fighting for business, as well as tie ups with hotel, cafes and other tourist attractions.

There are also more specialist London tours available, generally around £40-£50 for a tour.  Such operators include B Bakery (which looks stunning), See London by Night, and Ghost Bus.  Until recently the amphibious Duck Tours was also an option.  At the other end of the price scale, TfL bus route 11 serves many tourist attractions and historic sites!

Stagecoach have long used 'Mega' branding across their various markets, such as megaday and megarider tickets on local bus services.  About fifteen years the blue Megabus brand started inter-city coach operations and has grown from a small collection of inter-urban point to point services operated by elderly tri-axle buses to a smart competitor to National Express.  For a short time Megabus was operating regularly to Spain, France, Germany and the Benelux although such operations have such ceased, with the best bits now operated by Flixbus.  Megabus USA operates a dense network across the north-east of the United States too.

So, enter Megasightseeing....Stagecoach are dipping their toe in the water of the London tourist market by offering a tour lasting 1 hour 50 minutes adopting the Megabus branding and booking engine.  And just as Megabus was started with older (no, old....) buses, Megasightseeing is a use of some double deckers that have otherwise reached the end of their career in London.  Megasightseeing started operations on Monday 23rd April 2018, and with fares from £1 (+50p booking fee, of course) it seemed rude not to give it a go.

Megasightseeing operates a 1hr50 minute tour, on the hour every hour, starting from three locations around London.  One such location is next to the London Eye taking advantage of space no longer needed by Duck Tours.  On the first day of operations there were staff at stop (in the yellow tee shirts), handing out leaflets. 

Megasightseeing is operated by Dennis Trident/Alexander ALX400 buses previously used in local buses in east London.  They have been converted to be full or partial open toppers.  The chap on the side is Sid.

Interior lower deck has been fully reupholstered.  Looks as good as new!

Upper deck finished in corporate trim.  Travel is by pre-booking only (although you can buy the ticket on-line just before boarding) which guarantees every customer an upper deck seat.

The driver's cab has lost it's TfL equipment such as assault screen, ticket machine and iBus, and gained a PA system to control the tour commentary as well as provide traffic information.

The Megasightseeing drivers are 'ambassadors' and apparently have applied to transfer from regular buses to the sightseeing route. On day one our driver, who may or may not actually be named Lancelot per his name badge, was welcoming passengers at the door. To be fair, he did seem to know we were coming and I can't imagine he'll be shaking hands with every customer!  Another benefit of the first day was cupcakes.  The leaflets also include a map but I can't show any of that as I gave my copy away in the pub later!  We were promised that goody bags, available earlier, would somehow be delivered...we'll see...

Speakers have been added below the seats.  A pre-recorded tour commentary is played, which seemed to be based quite precisely on the location of the bus and it's speed/delay in traffic.  The other hop on hop off operators use an individual ear phone system to provide commentary in multiple languages.

Being a tourist! Picture up the Thames.

The tour commentary specifically highlights this dreadful tourist trap of a pub. But it's been a pub for 500 years or somesuch!

Approaching St Pauls. Not being one for religion I wonder if the view is improved with half of a twelve year old Trident in the foreground?

Heading up Threadneedle Street this new building is quite imposing.

A helmet. According to the commentary. Not the only time I thought that a slightly more adult version of the narrative might exist somewhere.....

Tower Bridge, probably not improved with half a Trident in the foreground.  We were delayed by the bridge being opened, should we pay more for that?

Big Ben.

Another Trident-meets-tourist-attraction moment approaching Trafalgar Square.

Piccadilly Circus, always impressive.

Hard Rock Cafe. Apparently one of the first in the world, and where a queue can often be seen, but the commentary asks if we can see one today? No. As the Megasightseeing product matures maybe product placement will become more common.

So after two hours on the bus, slightly longer than planned due to Tower Bridge we returned to the Eye.  So, what of Megasightseeing?  Well they are entering a crowded market, but offering a very different product.  I do wonder how many customers of the hop on hop off tours actually do the hopping, and how many take a single trip around London.  If the latter, then the Megasightseeing product is going to be a very attractive option.  I thought it would actually be a really good introduction to London for a visitor, or for someone with only a very limited amount of time.  Just add on a walk down Oxford Street and buying the cheapest thing possible in Harrods just for the carrier bag and that's London done!!  The question I suppose is, can the city stand five open top operators?

One last view of that cupcake.  Well, the first one......