johncrossley
Established Member
I'm presuming they use alternative transport (car, taxi, bus) to reach Crewe station. Nantwich is close enough to Crewe to be considered to be part of its catchment area.
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National Express Coaches Discussion
- Thread starter cnjb8
- Start date
I'm presuming they use alternative transport (car, taxi, bus) to reach Crewe station. Nantwich is close enough to Crewe to be considered to be part of its catchment area.
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R
RailUK Forums
With the issues of local buses in Cheshire (see Cheshire Bus Forum) but as Crewe is having a new bus station opening in December 2023, including a dedicated coach bay, it would be nice to see that used for a regular commercial coach service - even if once daily in each direction (be it rerouting an existing Liverpool-Stoke-London service or a service that goes down the M6)
Martin2013
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- 25 Sep 2013
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- 202
The cross country route was 308 Birkenhead to Great Yarmouth run by Ambassador Travel. Got a feeling Crewe subsequently got moved to a 550/551 Liverpool to London service but then got dropped sometime around 2017/18.
A fairly recent feature on National Express coaches is the 'Caution, Vehicle Turning Left' announcement that appears to play whenever the left indicator is selected.
I dont recall the 69 registration coach I was on this morning playing this soundtrack, but the 22 registration coach I am on this evening is playing it.
Is it an option for the coach set up or a fixture on selected vehicles?
I dont recall the 69 registration coach I was on this morning playing this soundtrack, but the 22 registration coach I am on this evening is playing it.
Is it an option for the coach set up or a fixture on selected vehicles?
I heard this in all my recent NX trips. Its the soundtrack to National Express !
MCR247
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- 7 Nov 2008
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- 9,667
Maybe it depends on the operator but around here (Skills holidays) all of their Levante 2s still in use have them. So 65 reg onwards. It’s the same voice as the ‘mind your head’ when the luggage doors go down which I think has always been there
It’s hardly recent. It has been retrofitted onto coaches since 2018.
Yes, but it isn't always noticeable. My question is whether it always plays.
It plays whenever the left indicator is on.
Eyersey468
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- 14 Sep 2018
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It's something NX has been wanting for a while, our coaches got it fitted for the network restart in 2021
winston270twm
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West Midlands Travel Ltd operate the 210, 400, 409 & 777 + provide one coach on each of the 030 & 121 routes.
National Express coaches are longer operated from Walsall depot, they are now operated from National Express Accessible Transport base in Aston where the National Express Transport Solutions Coaches for private hires are also based, all are still on the West Midlands Travel Ltd license.
Do they do the 160 too?
Thanks I do see the coaches on the A34 coming or going to Walsall not in service.
winston270twm
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No, the 160 is operated by 1 x Lucketts & 1 x Travelstar European
Don't forget Travelstar European of Walsall have 12 x National Express liveried coaches, you could be seeing those returning to depot.
Or failing that National Express West Midlands Walsall garage could still have a couple of caoches, I believe 1 is still parked at Wolverhampton garage overnight, but the majority of the fleet of Levante's are based at Aston.
Makes sense now. Thanks for that.
When I took the Southbound morning 160 from Birmingham it was a single rear axle Levante 2 while the Northbound service I seen passing was a two rear axle Levante 3.
Smethwickian
Member
Frome and Sells Green (currently on a daily 401 journey) and Stratford-upon-Avon (460 twice daily) no longer served from April 28.
But from same date, new twice-daily 767, Nottingham - Leicester - Peterborough - Cambridge - Stansted Airport.
But from same date, new twice-daily 767, Nottingham - Leicester - Peterborough - Cambridge - Stansted Airport.
ADB125
Member
Looks like Coventry is being removed from the 210 service and the 460 is re routed via Heathrow instead of direct/Miltom Keynes, presumably so Coventry retains a fast service to Heathrow and not just the 707. Number of journeys on the 460 increasing from 6 to 8, and an extra service on the 707 too.
Has the 767 existed before ? Might be getting confused with a 707 that goes that way to Stansted.
Stratford upon Avon was one of them tags like Salisbury on the 032.
ADB125
Member
I think it did exist a while ago, and it went from Nottingham/Leicester to Stansted like the new 767 will. I don't think it went via Peterborough/Cambridge though, and was probably more than 2 services per day. Back then the 777 went via Milton Keynes / Luton and not Leicester like it does now, and the 707 started from Northampton not Birmingham. I think the 707 and 777 changed to their current routes after the 767 was withdrawn.
Having had a look on the journey planner there appears to be quite a lot of changes taking effect around May, this is what I can see so far (bit difficult because the timetables aren't uploaded yet):
025 - Increased to every 30 mins between London and Gatwick for most of the day (route unchanged - via Heathrow). Service to Brighton remains hourly.
135 - Renumbered to 195 and timings changed (route unchanged).
150 - Increased from 3 to 5 services per day (route unchanged).
170 - Increased from 5 to 6 services per day (route mostly unchanged).
171 - Increased from 4 to 6 services per day with all journeys extended to Manchester Airport and Liverpool.
172 - Increased from 2 to 4 services per day with all journeys extended to Manchester Airport.
196 - New service. Leicester - Nottingham - Derby (2 services per day).
210 - Coventry and Warwick Parkway stops removed, some timings changed (number of services unchanged).
230 - Increased from 6 to 9 services per day. Route extended at both ends to run from Gatwick Airport to Derby.
401 - Daily extension to Frome now diverted to Stroud/Gloucester instead.
451 - Route changed to serve Scunthorpe instead of Lincoln.
452 - New service. Grimsby - Cleethorpes - Louth - Wragby - Lincoln - Nottingham - Marble Arch - London Victoria (1 service per day).
460 - Increased from 6 to 8 services per day. All services re-routed via Heathrow with some also stopping at Warwick Parkway and Earls Court (Milton Keynes, Golders Green and Marble Arch no longer served). Extension to Stratford Upon Avon appears to be removed.
503 - New service. London -Heathrow Airport - Exeter - Newquay - Penzance, not 100% sure if there may be other stops between Exeter and Penzance (1 service per day).
707 - Increased from 8 to 9 services per day. (route unchanged).
767 - New service as mentioned above. Nottingham - Leicester - Peterborough - Cambridge - Stansted Airport (2 services per day).
Smethwickian
Member
Launceston and Okehampton return to the network courtesy of the 503 although there appears to be a delay in uploading them to the stops list on the journey planner.
Apologies if I've missed this somewhere in the thread, but does anyone know why National Express are no longer stopping at Reading on their Bristol - London route? Whenever I use the journey planner at the moment (have checked up to August) it offers me a journey with a change at London Victoria and then back out to Reading on another service (e.g. 403, 508). It seems really odd as all of these buses will pass by on the M4 and yet it offers a 4-5 journey option only. Unless I'm missing something obvious!
I wonder if Reading was well used. Is it the Park and ride or do they go into centre?
ADB125
Member
Thanks. I assume it will be the same route as when the service was first introduced in 2019 then?
Was Reading ever on the 040? I thought it was on one of the Heathrow/Gatwick routes from Bristol. Just my opinion but perhaps it was seen that offering Reading - Bristol would block seats that could otherwise be sold at a higher price from Heathrow to Bristol (Airport bookings seem to have higher fares)? I'm not sure how well used the stop was but perhaps not worth the time penalty to pick up a few passengers when the seats could probably be sold anyway without stopping there.
Was there a gap between Calcot closing and the new park and ride at Mereoak opening? Just wondering when the services were lost as there did used to be a lot more coaches stop there than there are now.
In the end it went from Mereoak Park and Ride (just by Junction 11), having switched from Calcot (just by Junction 12). I'm not aware of the coaches ever having gone into the town centre, except potentially for events like Reading Festival. It never seemed hugely busy at either stop.
I'm not sure what route Reading was on - I think you're right that at least some of them were going to/from Heathrow.
National Express definitely used Mereoak for a while. I'm not sure when it stopped - I generally prefer to use the train and National Express never seemed to be that much cheaper, if at all, so I usually just paid a little bit extra for the train instead. The cost of the train has finally got to the point where I'm willing to try and find alternative ways to travel, and its only now that I've found National Express barely stop there anymore.
My first experience of using Flixbus at the weekend was a good one and it only cost about £8 for the Bristol to Reading leg. I don't recall National Express matching that kind of price very often even if they were still using Reading. Unfortunately by second experience of using Flixbus was much worse - see other thread!
'Ever' is a strong statement - National Express operated to the bus station in Reading in the 1980s but traffic congestion led to that ending, and Calcot being adopted as the call for Reading.
Sorry, you're right. In the context of my message, 'ever' probably actually means about post-2005. So, not quite 'ever' in the traditional sense
.Currently, National Express are running the following routes
timetables.nationalexpress.com