FIERCE competition in the budget bus market last night led to Stagecoach announcing a 575-mile trip for less than the price of a cup of coffee and a newspaper.
Stagecoach launched "Brit-ain's cheapest bus ride" - from Inverness, in the Highlands, to London - a day after the founder of easyJet entered the bus industry.
Stagecoach subsidiary megabus.com will operate the trip twice a day each way, with tickets starting from £1 one-way.
Stelios Haji-Ioannou, entrepreneur and easyGroup chairman, is offering the same fare on his easyBus service from Milton Keynes to Hendon, in north London, which went into service yesterday.
A day earlier, National Express said it would match the £1 easyBus fare on its route from Milton Keynes to London.
EasyBus said earlier this week it would file a complaint with the Office of Fair Trading about National Express, claiming the bus operator has abused its dominant position in the UK intercity bus market, cutting prices by up to 90 per cent since the launch of the easyGroup bus venture.
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