National Express

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This article is about the company responsible for most long distance bus and coach services in the UK and the brand it uses; for information on the owning group, see the National Express Group article.

National Express is the brand under which the majority of long distance bus and coach services in the United Kingdom are marketed, and also the company that manages this network and operates some of the services. Many other services are subcontracted to local bus companies throughout the UK.

The brand and company are based in Birmingham and are owned by the National Express Group, a group of diverse transport interests also including passenger rail operators and local bus operators.

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[edit] History

A Scania K124 EB Irizar of National Express pictured in Cambridge
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A Scania K124 EB Irizar of National Express pictured in Cambridge

The National Express brand was created in 1972 by the state-owned National Bus Company (NBC) to bring together the express bus and coach services operated by companies within the NBC group. The National Express network was largely a branding and management exercise, with services continuing to be operated by the individual companies.

With the privatisation of the NBC in the 1980s, National Express was subject to a management buy-out in 1988. In 1992, National Express Group plc was floated on the London Stock Exchange with a remit to acquire new businesses in the passenger transport market, with National Express as a subsidiary company.

For most of its existence National Express has had little competition from coach operators, with few running long-distance coach services. However, in 2003 Stagecoach Group introduced a "no-frills" service, Megabus, whose GBP £1 fares sparked a price war with National Express in autumn 2004.

[edit] Service Brands

Shuttle

Frequent services from London operate as National Express Shuttle services. Most of these services operate at least once an hour and operate over direct routes - some other services deviate to serve smaller destinations. The London - Birmingham and London - Bristol services are marketed as NXL (National Express London) services and operate with attractive Irizar PB / Scania K124 coaches. Unusually, the London - Birmingham service is operated directly by National Express and is not franchised out.

Shuttle services:- From / To London

  • 010 - Cambridge
  • 025 - Gatwick Airport and Brighton
  • 032 - Southampton
  • 035 - Bournemouth
  • 040 - Bristol (NXL Shuttle)
  • 420 - Birmingham and Wolverhampton (NXL Shuttle)

Non-London Shuttle services

  • 060 - Leeds - Manchester - Liverpool


Airport

National Express Airport services operate to a variety of destinations from London Gatwick, Heathrow, Luton and Stansted. The Airport brand was created in 2003 when the National Express image brand was updated - it merged the former Airlink, Flightlink and Jetlink brands, which were confusing, especially to passengers travelling between Heathrow and Gatwick airport. Most coaches on these services operate with the National Express Airport brand, the airport being in white inside a red box below the 'National Express' name on the side of the coach. The exception to this is the 210 service between Wolverhampton and Gatwick Airport, operated by National Express Group company Travel West Midlands, for which new vehicles purchased in early 2006 carry the standard National Express livery. It is not unusual to see 'Airport' coaches on other services.

Selection of Airport services

  • 200 Gatwick Airport - Heathrow Airport - Reading - Bristol
  • 205 Gatwick Airport - Heathrow Airport - Southampton - Bournemouth - Portsmouth
  • 201 Gatwick Airport - Heathrow Airport - Newport - Cardiff - Swansea
  • 210 Gatwick Airport - Heathrow Airport - Banbury - Birmingham - Wolverhampton
  • 230 Gatwick Airport - Heathrow Airport - Milton Keynes - Leicester - Nottingham
  • 240 Bradford - Leeds - Sheffield - Chesterfield - Nottingham East Midlands Airport - Coventry - Warwick Parkway - Heathrow Airport - Gatwick Airport
  • 707 Gatwick Airport - Heathrow Airport - Hemel Hempstead - Luton Airport - Luton Bus Station - Milton Keynes - Northampton
  • 777 Stansted Airport - Luton Airport - Birmingham

[edit] Discount Fare Brands

Coachcards National Express offers a range of coachcards to customers which allows discounts on National Express tickets. At one point this consisted of a Student, Young Persons and Advantage 50 coachcards which allowed the holder upto 30% of the price of coach tickets. This has since been rationalised with the company only offering an NX2 card, offering the same discount to Students and Young Persons cards. Since the introduction in 2004 of half price fares for the over 60's the Advantage 50 card to scrapped, although cards are still valid until expiry. A Family coachcard is also offered and is cheaper than the NX2 card and allows the holder of the card to take one child free with them, in many cases the cost of the Family Coachcard is cheaper than the fare for a child.

Brit Xplorer This is a card valid for a set period of time which allows non-UK residents (a passport of another country is needed to purchase this) travel as a standby passenger on all National Express services, the holder does however for a small fee have the option to reserve a seat.

Funfares

Launched as a result of impending competition from easyBus and Megabus, funfares are cheap single fares, some as low as £1, purchased only on the internet as an 'e-ticket', similar to low-fare airlines, thus reducing overheads. Further restrictions are put on these tickets such as the inability to change the time on the ticket or to travel on a different coach. Funfares were launched on Shuttle services but have since been rolled out across the network. A percentage of seats on off-peak services can be booked in this way.

[edit] Major Destinations

[edit] External links

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