17/03/2006

Stagecoach Group’s innovative budget rail service, megatrain.com, has proved a huge hit with customers, with the website clocking up more than 250,000 hits in just over four months.

megatrain.com, which is being piloted at South West Trains, the UK’s biggest rail franchise, offers passengers tickets for as little as £1 – the lowest fares on the UK rail network for decades.

Since the service was launched on two initial trial routes on 31 October 2005, customers have made more than 22,000 bookings.

Ian Dobbs, Chief Executive of Stagecoach Group’s rail division, said: “We are extremely pleased that thousands of passengers are taking advantage of this innovative concept and if the success of megatrain.com continues I am looking forward to being able to extend this scheme in the near future.

“If we are to encourage more people to use rail as their first mode of transport it is important to be able to offer enticing, value for money deals.”

megatrain.com offers seats through a dedicated website and phone hotline, with the cheapest fares available the earlier customers book.

More than 3,000 seats a week are available through megatrain.com on a number of off-peak services Monday to Saturday on the Portsmouth to London and Southampton to London routes.

The new budget rail service follows the huge success of Stagecoach’s market-leading low-cost inter-city coach service, megabus.com, which now has a national network covering 40 UK cities and carries around 2 million passengers a year.

ENDS

For further information, please contact South West Trains’ Press Office on 020 7620 5229.

Note to Editors:

• All megatrain.com reservations are subject to a 50p booking fee