Victoria Coach Station — Local services in London

Terrible first-time experience of using public Coaches for travel, first time ever getting a coach from Victoria Station. Upon arrival (20mins before coach departure time) I approached the ticket desk as I could not see any other approachable staff, to enquire where to go to catch my coach. The ticket officer attendant was very helpful and signposted me to Gate 4, which was a short 3min walk from the desk. I confirmed with other passengers that we were waiting for the same coach. Our coach was scheduled to leave at 2:30pm, We waited until 2:50pm, before finally finding a member of staff. The lady insisted she had called for our coach, but at no time had anybody on our coach heard her call, and so were confused.. she assured us with attitude that she did call. As a result we had to purchase another set of tickets with no refund for the coach that never came or left from somewhere else!, and to top it all off, there were no coaches with enough spaces for us to our destination until after 8pm! We managed to get seats on another coach going close to our destination, but still further out which would entail a further 35mins in a taxi. Our replacement coach was scheduled to leave at 5pm, but was delayed by 1hour and 20mins because the driver had to take a break. We left Victoria shortly after the scheduled 6pm coach. We were travelling for a funeral, hence why we booked the early coach, but we didn't get to our destination until it had finishes, whichever we were unable to pay our respects to my loved one... I will like to say however, that there were three members of staff from flixbus who really helped to keep us from exploding with frustration, and They definitely deserve a Medal- So THANK YOU SO MUCH ERIC, RUKIA & ZARA- We APPRECIATE you. Other staff need to take a Leaf out your book when it comes to communicating with empathy and consideration. efficiently and respectfully...

Horrible Service and Experience at Victoria Coach Station

Today was incredibly stressful. Our bus from Edinburgh arrived in London an hour late, and I needed to catch a connection to Swindon. I deliberately avoided booking a direct ticket to allow for flexibility—according to the schedule, I would’ve had to wait 1.5 hours at the station for the next bus.

Once at Victoria Coach Station, I couldn’t find any information about buses to Swindon. The large departure board showed nothing. I ran from screen to screen, scanning all the destinations—none listed Swindon. Not a single staff member was around to help. Desperate, I approached a cleaning staff member, who directed me to a man at a nearby desk.

I asked him where I could find a bus to Swindon. His only advice: “You need to buy a ticket at the ticket office.” So I rushed there—only 7 minutes left until departure. At the ticket office, I was told to use a ticket terminal.

Under intense stress, I tried to navigate the touchscreen, which ended up showing a fare that was double the normal price. Hands shaking, I opened the app to buy a ticket there instead. It showed a lower fare, so I purchased it—but then the app froze. The confirmation email didn’t come through.

With just 4 minutes left, I ran back to the desk and asked, “Where is the FlixBus to Swindon?” One of the men told me to “go check the FlixBus board”—offering no real help. Another finally told my friend it was platform 17. We rushed there—only to find the actual departure was from platform 18. There were no signs, no announcements, and no indication a bus to Swindon was leaving from there. The bus ended up being 10 minutes late.

This station is pure chaos. Zero organization, no helpful staff, and no clear signage. It’s no place for someone unfamiliar with the system—or anyone in a hurry. Absolutely...

Been here once before but I didn't wait long so never got to truly experience this station in full.

But, oh my god this place was a living nightmare.... aside from the dingy smelly atmosphere (and the birds sleeping in the Starbucks defacating on the tables, well that can't be helped I guess).

If you have never been here before, I will tell you that theres two separate parts to the station. I am here basically at midnight to 1am. One half was not in use but there was a Starbucks there so I went there to wait with many others who were (the platforms 9 and 10 have NO seating areas available). About 20 minutes later, someone in their wisdom decides, even with a lot of people waiting in this Starbucks, to shut off access to the first half of the station. This left me confused, but I had an hour to wait so I thought not much of it. Anyway, I observed as people decided to walk into the first half through the side entry doors to the coaches and staff simply told them they werent supposed to enter that way. So they were deterring people and asking people with their piles of luggage to go all the way round to enter back in again, despite being able to simply unlock the doors and let them in. I luckily slid myself into an open door after avoiding the heckles from a homeless man sitting by the coach exit and then a staff told me off for doing so???

How lovely to be treated like a piece of crap citizen!!!

Absolute jobs worth

Then I went to my lovely platform with no seats to sit on the floor only to be told to move it rather unpolitely by the cleaner so he could clear up an extra square foot of floor.

Toilets were also disgusting, but I never expected more than that.

The station could potentially have a nice feel with some redecorating and I like the way it was built but its run awfully, at least from when...