Megabus coach services in England and Wales will be suspended by Sunday, owner Stagecoach has announced.

Services are “temporarily winding down” and will stop by the end of the week, the Perth-based transport group said.

Coaches will continue to operate within Scotland.

A Megabus spokesman said: “A number of customers use Megabus services within Scotland to travel to and from essential work, for example NHS workers. Therefore, in Scotland, an agreement has been made with the Scottish Government to continue running coach services.”

We hope to be able to welcome you back on board very soon

Passengers whose journeys have been cancelled will be refunded, Megabus told passengers.

Megabus managing director Mark Venables said: “We’re sorry for the inconvenience this will cause you.

“We firmly believe that the decision to temporarily suspend services is the right one based on the current unprecedented circumstances, and I hope you understand the reasons for our decision to stop running services in England and Wales.

“We hope to be able to welcome you back on board very soon.”

Megabus, launched in the UK in 2003, links 90 UK locations and carries more than four million passengers per year.

National Express, the UK’s largest operator of scheduled coach services, announced on Thursday that its operations will be suspended after Sunday.

It said it had kept a limited network of services running to help people with essential travel but it is “no longer viable to continue to do so”.