National Express and Megabus are NOT the same company.
Megabus started with double-decker buses offering cheap fares to a few cities to and from London. They were bought by Stagecoach and now operates from a much larger number of UK destinations and in the USA and Canada.
See right of page here
http://us.megabus.com/stagecoachLaunchesMegabusinCanada.aspx . . .
National Express is a franchise based at Digbeth in Birmingham.
The company must own more than one coach by law to operate the business so it owns......one and a half coaches,haha.
Got round that one then.....
The routes are coordinated by National Express and operated by coach companies from all over the UK but in National Express livery.
Look at the bottom right of the door and you'll see the name of the company operating the coach, and it's address. Anything you leave on the coach goes to that depot when the coach gets back there which could be a few days later. Drivers can be away from home for a week sometimes, staying in hotels at cheap rates organised on a commercial basis by National Express.
If your coach came from Edinburgh that's where any forgotten bags or dropped spectacles will end up. though you may have got the coach from Norwich to London.
National Express are very reliable. I've never had a single problem with them in over thirty years of using them all over the UK and for a few trips in Europe.
I've never seen anyone turned away through having too much baggage and you should see the huge bundles of stuff some people have.
I took a big telescope mounting weighing 120lbs in a 5 feet long canvas bag, plus my normal big rucksack and the guy just said with a laugh
" Aww...third body I've put in here this morning......feels a bit solid though. Been dead long?"
Megabus isn't quite as reliable and friendly but they are a good company, not a sloucher. I've used them around twenty times and had a couple of late ones. Mostly they're fine but don't turn up with a wad of suitcases.
Both companies offer cheap fares, as low as £1. Available if you book far enough ahead, or they've all gone. Get on the National Express email list for news of cheap offers.
On National Express you get discounted fares if you are under 25 or over 60, normally around half price, but they are not available on Fridays. If you travel on Friday you pay the full fare.
Both companies have comfortable modern coaches and a some middling-class ones which are mainly used for shorter journeys of 150 miles or less.
On long coach journeys you get breaks. A nine hour journey will have at least one break and might have two, as well as the journey breaks you get by changing coaches eg Carlisle to Bristol , changing at Birmingham where you might have a few minutes or over an hour to wait. You can leave the bus station and go sightseeing if you have time as long as you're back in time for the connection.
I quite often see Birmingham at night, go to Brindley Place and see the bridges lit up, or occasionally go into a niteclub or a late bar for an hour...plenty around Digbeth bus station.....but watch the clock,haha.
My choice is the bus for £16.
Then I've got more to spend when I get somewhere.
The train is a crazy time unless you've got somewhere to go, like a friend's house or a hotel or all-night gig, , and the £65 option costs you £49 extra for only 2 1/2 hours gained if it leaves around the same time as the cheaper bus.
If so I don't mind saving £20 an hour....sitting on a bus dozing, or looking out of the window, reading, or listening to the CD or MP3.
If you can find a train fare that's close enough to the cheap coach fare but has a better arrival time, take it. However most cheap fares on the trains are cheap for a reason. It puts people on trains that would otherwise be running mostly empty.
The last cheapo train I got, a couple of weeks ago, was a £13 single from London to Liverpool at two days notice but it meant leaving home at 0530.
Next train an hour later was £65.....
It got me to Liverpool earlier (0810) for a cheaper price and it made a pleasant change from my normal overnight coach arriving at 0620 after a seven hour journey from north London including 1 1/2 hours waiting at Birmingham and another night-time walkies, which is fine when I'm traveling light.
Enjoy the trip. Take some drinks and biccies or cakes with you and something to read or listen to.. All helps on a long journey.
You can take a shoulder bag or a small rucksack on board with you plus a carrier bag or two. Most folks do.