Carlisle to Glasgow Airport – This Just Proves My Point!

Last week I travelled from Carlisle to Glasgow with Avanti West Coast before finishing my journey by bus to Glasgow Airport. Normally I would just write a review of the train and bus separately, and since I have already made my opinions clear on the Glasgow Airport Express I would likely skip the bus review.

This journey is different, mainly because I couldn’t actually believe what I was seeing with my own eyes. If you want to know my views of the Glasgow Airport Express you can do so here.

Am I seeing this right?

I booked my train ticket just two days before travel through the Avanti West Coast App (screenshot of the basket below), and with a railcard this journey cost me £10.95. What makes this article so shocking is that my ticket from Buchanan Bus Station to Glasgow Airport was £11.

By train the journey from Carlisle to Glasgow Central is approximately 104 miles, the journey from Buchanan Bus Station to Glasgow Airport is approximately 10.5 miles.

On a per mile basis the train cost me 0.105288 pence (for simplicity lets call it 11p), and yet the bus costs approximately £1.05 per mile – helped only by one way systems in Glasgow City Centre on journeys to the airport increasing the distance.

Was the service any good?

In a word – no.

Disclaimer time, there was filming for the latest Spiderman filming closing a number of roads in Glasgow City Centre causing increased congestion in the city at rush hour when I was travelling, but that would be the same for a tourist so my point still stands.

I arrived at the bus station at 1743 just a 500 bus was leaving, meaning theoretically I should have a 12 minute wait for the next service (ha, how naive of me).

As I walked through the bus station I noticed there was a 500 bus sitting at a different stance than normal, so I double checked the board to see if this bus was in service.

To my surprise, the 500 bus didn’t show on the screens. The AIR service operated by CityLink to Edinburgh Airport was showing and the Flixbus UK91 service to “Terminal Building” was showing – ironic as you can’t travel on this service to the airport.

Ember’s E5 service departing over 2 hours later was also showing, yet the premium priced service didn’t.

I made my way to stance 46 which is branded in Glasgow Airport Express colours with slogans such as “Get your journey off to a flyer”…I would if I could First.

There was already a number of passengers waiting here, and more arrived expecting a bus in 10 minutes, especially as that is what the display at the stop showed.

Ten minutes came and went as did several other buses, just not mine, something was clearly not being communicated to passengers.

Ah, that explains it, although it would have been nice to have that information on display at the bus station, you know, I am paying a premium price so asking for information on a 40 minute delay to be available isn’t all that earth shattering if you ask me.

Finally, at 1815 a bus arrives at the bus station from Glasgow Airport…only to immediately go out of service, but not before most passengers walk over to the stance its parked on, only to be turned away by the driver, it’s not his fault as he is entitled to breaks and may have been finished for the day.

A minute or so later a second bus arrives and drops off passengers from the airport, it was a pretty full bus suggesting the stop at the airport would be busy as well.

After a driver change we were able to board and at 1818 I had the pleasure of handing over £11 for my ticket (that still hurts even 3 nights later as I type this). The service was pretty full departing here although that’s hardly surprising as some of us had been waiting 35 minutes.

At 1821 the service departed Buchanan Bus Station bound for Glasgow Airport, although thanks to multiple road closures the service would be taking a different route through the city, adding more time onto the journey.

More passengers boarded across the city and the service eventually made its way onto the M8 with 45 passengers onboard.

I should probably clarify at this point what your £11 get you on a 10.5 mile journey,

One single journey on Service 500 and one single connecting journey on any First Glasgow service.

That seems fair enough if travelling from the airport to Glasgow, but I do question why those who are not taking a connecting bus i.e. those buying a ticket at the bus station should pay for it.

Other highlights from the First Bus website include;

• Journey Time: “Travel to Glasgow Airport from Glasgow city centre in as little as 15 minutes”
• Electric buses: “Bolt to and from Glasgow Airport on out electric buses. Making every journey better for the planet”
  • That’s not really a selling point, I mean its nice having electric buses, but was this decision by choice or forced upon them?
• 24-hour service: “Service 500 operates 24 hours of the day, frequent departures you can count on – morning, day and night”
  • During the day sure, but it’s hourly at night which isn’t really frequent.
• Free Wi-Fi: “Check emails, post pictures or grab your podcasts on the free WiFi”
• Charging: “Get charged up with USB and wireless charging on board. Last call for full battery!
• Luggage space: “From carry-ons to suitcases, we’ve got the room to store your luggage for the ride”
  • Yes…really…a space for suitcases on an airport bus, what next, water in a swimming pool?

Thanks to the diversions in the city we arrived at Glasgow Airport exactly 37 minutes after leaving the bus station, and my gut feeling of a big queue at the airport was bang on, and the ticket window at the airport stop was closed so there was no staff to answer questions.

Compare that to BrightBus and Lothian who operated equivalent services at Edinburgh Airport, both of whom have staff available at all times at the airport to sell tickets and help with journey queries passengers may have.

Bright Bus/Lothian vs First Bus – Lets compare

For context, Bright Bus is a private operator providing an express service between Edinburgh Airport and the city, and Lothian is a publicly owned bus company providing the same service.

First is a private operator operating a contracted service between Glasgow Airport and the city, and First has this contract until 2030 according to Glasgow Airport (source).

With that in mind, lets do a couple of quick comparisons;

Price

	Single Ticket	Return Ticket	Day Ticket
Bright Bus	£5	£7.50	N/A
Lothian	£6	£9 – return to be used within 28 days	£12.50 – also allows travel on all Lothian Buses and Edinburgh Trams
First Bus	£11	£17.50 – return to be used within 28 days	£16.50 – can be used on any First Glasgow Service

On price alone, both operators at Edinburgh Airport come out on top, especially Lothian and their day ticket which can very useful for those arriving early who will be travelling around the city later in the day.

Frequency

	Day Frequency	Night Frequency	Additional Notes
Bright Bus	Every 15 Mins	Every 30 Mins	Does not operate 24 hours
Lothian	Every 10 Mins	Every 20 Mins	Service Operates the same frequency regardless of day
First Bus	Mon-Fri – Every 10 mins Sat/Sun – Every 12 mins	Every 60 Mins	Day services can vary between every 15 and 10 mins depending on time

Lothian are the clear winner here with a substantial improvement in night services to Edinburgh Airport.

On the two most important factors for passengers – frequency and price, equivalent services at Edinburgh Airport are much better than those at Glasgow Airport.

Both operators at Edinburgh Airport seem more focused on operating a bus service, First seems more focused on extracting every penny it can from a captive market, knowing full well the only other direct bus from the city to the airport is also operated by First and takes over an hour.

Lets sum up

I had planned to write a review of Avanti West Coast, which I will publish in a week or so, but I feel this post was more important.

Overall, First Bus appears to be charging a premium price for a fairly average service that offers far less value for money compared to equivalent services at Edinburgh Airport.

Now I am willing to bet that a chunk of the ticket price is taken from the airport as a charge for using facilities at the airport – this isn’t that uncommon, it does seem weird though that prices are so much higher at Glasgow compared to other UK airports.

Ideally, another operator would launch a similar service to lower prices and attract more passengers, potentially also connecting the SEC and Hydro to Glasgow Airport, even if the journey time is slightly longer I am sure people would use it to save money.

It may also be worth looking at services that run to areas close to the airport that can be routed to the airport, for example, could Stagecoach extend their X19 service from Easterhouse to the QEUH out to Glasgow Airport via the M8.

I really do hope that something changes, although if history has taught us anything I do not have high hopes.