A brand new Megabus service from Carlisle to London is to begin from September.

Two services a day are set to leave Carlisle for the capital, including an overnight service which arrives in London at 6:30am.

The route, which goes via Lancaster, Preston, Manchester and Birmingham, is part of a new timetable from Megabus designed to “better match services with customer demand”.

Some services from Carlisle will also travel direct to Newcastle before heading down to London.  

Direct services from Carlisle to Glasgow will also come in as part of the new services.

“These timetable changes are good news for the vast majority of our customers and mean we have more services to more locations at peak times,” said the managing director of Megabus, Simone Walsh,

“It’s vital that we keep up with customer demand and focus on delivering most of our services when and where demand is highest.

“We’re delighted to be adding new routes to the network and look forward to welcoming even more customers on to our great value services in the coming months.”

  • Regular Midweek Timings - Carlisle to London: 12:45pm – 9:25pm – 8hr 40
  • Carlisle to London: 23:15pm – 6:30am – 7hr 15
  • London to Carlisle: 11pm – 6:15am – 7hr 15

A single ticket starts from £11.90. Different times and routes are available on Fridays and the weekend.

The announcement comes just weeks after a report suggested that a new coach network across the north of England would help ‘reconnect’ Cumbria.

Carlisle and other locations across Cumbria are already on the networks of various coach companies including National Express and FlixBus and the arrival of Megabus will be welcomed by passengers.

The report, written by climate group ‘Possible’, proposed a sleeper coach service from Carlisle to London which would ‘transform’ regional connectivity.

READ MORE: Cumbria: Trains replaced by buses due to engineering work

“At a time of constrained public finances, coaches are a great opportunity for private investment into sustainable travel, though changes will be needed to how we allocate space on major roads to make this attractive,” said the report.

The report also suggested a series of ‘X’ services between Sunderland and Barrow-in-Furness and Workington and Middlesbrough which the group said could ‘transform’ regional connectivity.

The first Carlisle to London services is at 12:45pm on Monday, September 2.