Flibco

[greataj]

https://www.busandcoachbuyer.com/flibco-partners-with-tctg-for-stansted-service/

Flibco now have a timetable for their Stansted Airport-Stratford-Liverpool St service starting 1 April. It appears they will replace Airport Bus Express.

It will run half-hourly, 24/7, so little overall change for daytime operations but better night service than currently. They also state that AI scheduling will allow capacity to be ramped up at peak times, aligned with flight operations. I'm interested in the logistics of that... Does that mean they'll have a surplus of bus capacity they can throw in last minute with flexible ticketing, or a planned timetable uplift which may come in future?

They seem quite a reputable provider in various European airports/cities. Will be interesting to see how this compares to NatEx.

 

[RS465]

Disappointing Airport Bus Express is coming to an end. They provide a great reliable service and it’s hard to say if Flibco will replicate that. The new timetable appears to be a lot more inconvenient aswell.

I think the National Express buses to Stansted are changing as of the 1st April aswell. No timetables have been uploaded but, according to bus times.org, the A9 service to Stratford is getting extended with branches to Canary Wharf and Liverpool Street, the A8 will be rerouted to Waterloo and London Victoria and the A6 will receive a stop at Tottenham Hale.

 

[Smethwickian]

I think the National Express buses to Stansted are changing as of the 1st April aswell. No timetables have been uploaded but, according to bus times.org, the A9 service to Stratford is getting extended with branches to Canary Wharf and Liverpool Street, the A8 will be rerouted to Waterloo and London Victoria and the A6 will receive a stop at Tottenham Hale.

As far as I know the National Express A7 is dropped from May 19. A8 will no longer serve Kings Cross but will serve Tottenham Hale to Liverpool Street as at present, then serve Southwark, Waterloo and Victoria Coach Station, and still to the same frequency. That will likely mean instead of A7 being full out of VCS and leaving behind passengers at other stops on its present route, it will instead leave behind many intending passengers (large numbers of which travel on unreserved standby tickets or Ryanair coupons or pay on the coach) at Liverpool Street and Tottenham Hale. So any alternatives will probably do well.

 

[Teds]

It will be interesting to see where the coaches come from. The tie-up is with the Coach Travel Group but they don't seem to have any operators in the area of Stansted. The nearest seem to be south/south west London (the Ready Group).
There is an application from a company called Flibtravel International UK Ltd for an operating centre for 5 vehciles at the long stay car park on the airport. Tobias Stuber is one of the directors of Flibtravel and CEO of Flibco (N&P dated 12 March 2025)

 

[stadler]

What is happening to the Arriva Greenline route 720 service? I remember back in February 2020 they announced a new London to Stansted Airport express coach would start in April 2020 to compete with the Airport Bus Express and National Express services. Then suddenly covid and lockdown happened and they said it was temporarily suspended until further notice so it never ended up starting. But i have heard nothing since. They never mentioned it again and removed the page from their website. Is this idea completely scrapped now?

 

[route101]

As far as I know the National Express A7 is dropped from May 19. A8 will no longer serve Kings Cross but will serve Tottenham Hale to Liverpool Street as at present, then serve Southwark, Waterloo and Victoria Coach Station, and still to the same frequency. That will likely mean instead of A7 being full out of VCS and leaving behind passengers at other stops on its present route, it will instead leave behind many intending passengers (large numbers of which travel on unreserved standby tickets or Ryanair coupons or pay on the coach) at Liverpool Street and Tottenham Hale. So any alternatives will probably do well.

Always thought the Stansted routes apart from the A9 are a bit long winded.

 

[stadler]

Has anyone seen this new Flibco operation yet? There are no timetables on the Bus Times website or the Traveline website or any other website that i can find. There is almost no evidence of it existing online other than their own website which does not even have a timetable. Have they actually failed to properly register the route?

What route number are they using? Oddly their website gives very little information. It seems like the setup was all rushed with no proper publicity. Also do they have new vehicles or are they using old Airport Bus Express vehicles?

Also i notice that Airport Bus Express has now changed from a bus operator to a ticket seller. They now sell tickets for National Express coach routes from Gatwick / Heathrow / Luton / Stansted airports to London and vice versa. I am surprised they are now selling tickets for their former competitor. I would have expected them to sell Flibco tickets at least for the Stansted route.

 

[duncombec]

Has anyone seen this new Flibco operation yet? There are no timetables on the Bus Times website or the Traveline website or any other website that i can find. There is almost no evidence of it existing online other than their own website which does not even have a timetable.

Their website does have a timetable. https://www.flibco.com/en/timetable, scroll down to Stanstead Airport <> Stratford Westfield <> Liverpool Street Station, and select the day. Suggests half-hourly 24/7 on the xx00 and xx30 from both ends. Also available from https://www.flibco.com/en/london-stansted-airport via the "Shuttle Bus Connections" section. The website has all the signs of having been translated by a native French/Luxembourg speaker and not localised.

It's listed on the Stansted Airport website, too: https://www.stanstedairport.com/getting-to-and-from/by-bus-and-coach/.

Have they actually failed to properly register the route?

That's quite a suggestion - does it need to be registered? (e.g. Flixbus/Nat Ex style). Worth noting that N&P continues to be quite substantially behind in listing paper registrations.

What route number are they using?

I assume you mean to satisfy TfL (although they don't actually seem to require a route number in all cases). Whilst there is no LSP showing under an easily spottable name, if the service has started, it would seem unlikely that TfL have allowed it to without the rules being followed. I notice there is no LSP for Flixbus, for example.

Oddly their website gives very little information. It seems like the setup was all rushed with no proper publicity. Also do they have new vehicles or are they using old Airport Bus Express vehicles?

Not sure this is quite true.

One example in livery, albeit on rail replacement, is this from JH Coaches: https://www.flickr.com/photos/189859696@N04/54391135878/, and in the Bus & Coach Buyer press release: https://www.busandcoachbuyer.com/first-glimpse-flibco-launches-in-the-uk/.

Reports also this week that they are partnering with Flixbus to sell tickets.

 

[RT4038]

Has anyone seen this new Flibco operation yet? There are no timetables on the Bus Times website or the Traveline website or any other website that i can find. There is almost no evidence of it existing online other than their own website which does not even have a timetable. Have they actually failed to properly register the route?

Would it need to be registered? Presumably it could be an unregistered long distance service not conveying locally? Don't need a LSP (London Service Permit) if not carrying locally within London

That's quite a suggestion - does it need to be registered? (e.g. Flixbus/Nat Ex style). Worth noting that N&P continues to be quite substantially behind in listing paper registrations.


I assume you mean to satisfy TfL (although they don't actually seem to require a route number in all cases). Whilst there is no LSP showing under an easily spottable name, if the service has started, it would seem unlikely that TfL have allowed it to without the rules being followed. I notice there is no LSP for Flixbus, for example.

 

[RS465]

The route number Flibco are using is FL1. The timetable remains unchanged from Airport Bus Express.

 

[broadwater]

On the day before they started, a Scania Touring of Readybus in Flibco livery was at Stansted, together with a group of Flibco hi-viz-clad drivers from Johnsons of Henley-in-Arden. Both Readybus and Johnsons are member sof Coach Travel Group.

 

[Teds]

I saw a couple of Fibco vehicles in Bishopsgate yesterday. Both were Scania/Higer vehicles. The picture shows ND23 APU which is (was?) operated by JH Coaches of Birtley County Durham although I could not see the legals. Are JH part of the Coach Travel Group? The other coach, heading south was operated by Readybus, Slough a 25 plate vehicle in Fibco livery.

 

[GusB]

I saw a couple of Fibco vehicles in Bishopsgate yesterday. Both were Scania/Higer vehicles. The picture shows ND23 APU which is (was?) operated by JH Coaches of Birtley County Durham although I could not see the legals. Are JH part of the Coach Travel Group? The other coach, heading south was operated by Readybus, Slough a 25 plate vehicle in Fibco livery.View attachment 178162

JH Coaches is part of The Coach Travel Group, as is readygroup. There is a page on TCTG's website that shows the constituent companies (and links to their individual websites:

Meet Our Operators | The Coach Travel Group

Explore the trusted local coach companies that make up The Coach Travel Group — delivering quality travel services across the UK.

coachtravelgroup.com

I was slightly amused by your minor typo of Flibco, by the way. It is a somewhat unfortunate name!

 

[markymark2000]

Has anyone seen this new Flibco operation yet? There are no timetables on the Bus Times website or the Traveline website or any other website that i can find. There is almost no evidence of it existing online other than their own website which does not even have a timetable.

Bustimes and Traveline both get their coach data from what is called NCSD (National Coach Services Database). This is now in the hands of KPMG as part of the Bus Open Data contract, and sadly KPMG are shocking at maintaining the database. I have been reporting issues to them since the first day that KPMGs database came out and still issues are going unresolved. It's too much manual data entry for them and if they don't know something, they just guess (such as Airport bus Express was listed as ABE1 rather than A21 which it actually operated as) rather than getting actual information.

Until Flibco provide their own data to the NCSD, or KPMG scrape the website (which I presume won't be quick), they are unlikely to appear on Traveline or Bustimes.

Have they actually failed to properly register the route?

Doesn't need to be registered.

It seems like the setup was all rushed with no proper publicity.

Because it was. It took Flibco a long time to appoint their operator it seems.

Also i notice that Airport Bus Express has now changed from a bus operator to a ticket seller. They now sell tickets for National Express coach routes from Gatwick / Heathrow / Luton / Stansted airports to London and vice versa. I am surprised they are now selling tickets for their former competitor. I would have expected them to sell Flibco tickets at least for the Stansted route.

Bitter perhaps that they lost the contract to Flibco so now doesn't want to support them?

Would it need to be registered? Presumably it could be an unregistered long distance service not conveying locally? Don't need a LSP (London Service Permit) if not carrying locally within London

No, it doesn't need registering.

The timetable remains unchanged from Airport Bus Express.

Timetable is changed as Airport Bus Express stopped in Bethnal Green and they had some random gaps in service and timetable variations but Flibco is standard every 30 minutes and every journey takes the same time.