Christmas Day travel: more options than ever with long-distance buses

As usual, no trains will run in the UK on 25 December.

But from Aberdeen to the Isle of Wight and South Wales to East Anglia, many of the 20 million Britons who have no access to a car will be able to access better public transport on Christmas Day 2023 than ever before.

Thriving competition between coach companies means record long-distance services will run on 25 December.

On the Cardiff-Bristol-Heathrow airport-London route, Megabus passengers can choose from four departures each way.

In Scotland, Glasgow is connected with Edinburgh by a dozen Citylink buses in either direction.

Passengers between Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, Stirling and Glasgow are offered a lunchtime or evening departure on Citylink.

FlixBus will be running an extensive network in Scotland on Christmas Day, connecting Dundee, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dunfermline, Stirling and Perth. Cross-border services between London and Scotland, and from Bristol, Birmingham and Manchester to Scotland will also be running as usual.

New overnight services connecting Scotland’s two biggest cities with London will also be running. Travellers can choose from three services from Glasgow and two from Edinburgh on 25 December.

National Express plans almost 500 journeys across 34 routes on Christmas Day.

Coaches from Liverpool, Sheffield, Bradford, Manchester, Nottingham and Birmingham will run to and from London.

The highest numbers are between central London and the capital’s airports – with 50 round-trips to and from Heathrow, and almost as many serving Luton and Gatwick.

Coaches from Cambridge, Great Yarmouth and Norwich will call at London Stansted airport en route to London.

FlixBus is offering London-Paris services departing from or returning to Victoria Coach Station throughout the day. The Birmingham–London–Brussels route will be running as usual.

Megabus says of its Christmas Day schedule: “We operate over 7,000 miles and serve the majority of our destinations to offer transport choices to our customers.”

The surge in the number of long-distance coaches running on Christmas Day reflects a general move towards a 24/7 society. The UK is still far behind Continental Europe, where many countries offer near-normal rail services.

The Isle of Wight’s bus company, Southern Vectis, has long operated a big network of buses on 25 December. Five routes will criss-cross the island, with hourly services from 8am to almost midnight.

Very few domestic flights will operate on Christmas Day. Those that do are mainly to connect with international services at London Heathrow.

British Airways is operating three flights each way between Edinburgh and Heathrow, and four each way linking Glasgow and Manchester with Heathrow.

Most fares are very high, but the 6.15am from Glasgow to London Heathrow is selling at only £55.