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National Express - Joining one stop Late

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Butts

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I think I'll have to grin and bear the weather - I only paid £6.80 return so it is almost a "disposable ticket"

Can anyone clarify if the return portion is still valid if you don't use the outward leg ?
 
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Deerfold

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They would be asked to wait until the driver was going to close up at departure time, then sold one at that point.

Indeed.

I used to regularly pay on NX from Cambridge to Hitchin and, later, a few trips from to High Wycombe from Stokenchurch - before Carousel started running the 40 on a Sunday, NX provided around half the trips between the two on a Sunday. Anyone who'd prebooked was allowed on first before those paying there and then were allowed to board. I never failed to get on a coach.
 

Deerfold

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I think I'll have to grin and bear the weather - I only paid £6.80 return so it is almost a "disposable ticket"

Can anyone clarify if the return portion is still valid if you don't use the outward leg ?

Did you actually get a return? Most NX fares sold now are singles, even when sold together. I've had no problems only using the second portion of a ticket - I sometimes book more than one coach if they're really cheap so I can decide which to get on the day.
 

Butts

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Well I've just found a flight option for £90 for tomorrow evening, admittedly via Tenerife if you don't mind leaving at 17:35, waiting for an hour and a half there then getting into Birmingham at 03:05.... ;)

Thinking chocolate teapots !!! - thanks anyway !!
 

Butts

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Did you actually get a return? Most NX fares sold now are singles, even when sold together. I've had no problems only using the second portion of a ticket - I sometimes book more than one coach if they're really cheap so I can decide which to get on the day.

It is two singles bundled as a return. The price of return is only revealed when you select your outward journey on the NE website.

Journey Refs are different on ticket for the two legs.
 

Deerfold

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Well I've just found a flight option for £90 for tomorrow evening, admittedly via Tenerife if you don't mind leaving at 17:35, waiting for an hour and a half there then getting into Birmingham at 03:05.... ;)

Saw a fun one of those when looking for Manchester to Prague. Cheapest service found took nearly 2 days Manchester - Dublin - Liverpool - Prague. Liverpool - Prague was slightly more, but unless you really like air travel probably paying the extra tenner so as not to waste an extra day and a half.
 

Mal

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I use NX quite a lot and from what I see, the driver has a list of stops where he will pick up or set down passengers. For example a coach from Birmingham to Liverpool will not call into Stoke if there is no-one booked to join or leave there. Similarly, I have booked Liverpool Coach Station to Gloucester return and on the return journey got off at Queens Drive (a nominated stop 4 miles from the coach station) even though my ticket was to the city centre, but it's best to check with the driver as you get on.
 
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Butts

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I have decided to get the Train from Cwmbran to Old Hill £23.70 Anytime Day Single as I can go straight from work in the Morning.

Just hoping the return portion of my coach ticket will be okay on Monday.
 

221129

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I use NX quite a lot and from what I see, the driver has a list of stops where he will pick up or set down passengers. For example a coach from Birmingham to Liverpool will not call into Stoke if there is no-one booked to join or leave there. Similarly, I have booked Liverpool Coach Station to Gloucester return and on the return journey got off at Queens Drive (a nominated stop 4 miles from the coach station) even though my ticket was to the city centre, but it's best to check with the driver as you get on.
Just because they do it doesn't mean they should be... I believe NatEx are cracking down a bit on this as well...
 

James101

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I use NX quite a lot and from what I see, the driver has a list of stops where he will pick up or set down passengers. For example a coach from Birmingham to Liverpool will not call into Stoke if there is no-one booked to join or leave there. Similarly, I have booked Liverpool Coach Station to Gloucester return and on the return journey got off at Queens Drive (a nominated stop 4 miles from the coach station) even though my ticket was to the city centre, but it's best to check with the driver as you get on.

On a few occasions I’ve booked from Stoke only a few minutes before departure via the app, how could a driver skipping stops factor this in?

That said I did this once in Manchester and the coach ended up oversubscribed by one seat, perhaps a flaw in the last minute app sales? Certainly the driver was left scratching his head reading a printed waybill which presumably he’d had in his possession since Glasgow. The resolution was a passenger volunteering to transfer to a slightly later, but express, London service.
 

goblinuser

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On a few occasions I’ve booked from Stoke only a few minutes before departure via the app, how could a driver skipping stops factor this in?

That said I did this once in Manchester and the coach ended up oversubscribed by one seat, perhaps a flaw in the last minute app sales? Certainly the driver was left scratching his head reading a printed waybill which presumably he’d had in his possession since Glasgow. The resolution was a passenger volunteering to transfer to a slightly later, but express, London service.
The drivers have a digital device they use to check tickets with.
 

Silver Cobra

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The reason I always book Cardiff to Birmingham and back is that it's a lot cheaper than booking Newport for some obscure reason.

I assume this is to be consistent with the aviation and railway industries ;):)

Perhaps a higher proportion of people travelling from Cardiff will consider plane travel, and therefore the price has to be lower to attract them. Newport people are less likely to go west to the airport maybe, so are less price sensitive? Or maybe it's a mistake and the fare from Cardiff is too cheap? I don't know, but anything is possible.

I've noticed very similar with travelling from Milton Keynes to Leicester and MK to Derby using the 230 service. Journeys from MK to Leicester can be as much as twice the price of MK to Derby. Though in this particular case, I imagine it's a means of controlling the loadings of the services by getting people to use the 440 service between MK and Leicester instead, as the fare on that is a lot cheaper than the 230.
 

Butts

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I have decided to get the Train from Cwmbran to Old Hill £23.70 Anytime Day Single as I can go straight from work in the Morning.

Just hoping the return portion of my coach ticket will be okay on Monday.

Made it out safely !!!

0608 Cwmbran to Hereford
0709 Hereford to Worcester Foregate Street
0808 Worcester Foregate Street to Old Hill

Easily got a seat on all three services !!!

ps A convenient fag break on each changeover added to the experience compared to the Coach.
 

tom73

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In my experience, NX drivers don't really care if you get off before your booked stop. I regularly get off at Golders Green on a southbound booking through to Victoria. There was a time when I found a Sheffield Meadowhall-Golders Green ticket to be more expensive than a Sheffield Meadowhall-London Victoria ticket. This is why I still book through to London Victoria.
I tend to take Megabus northbound and NX southbound purely because of the Golders Green stop on the return journey (after three hours on the M1).
This time last year, I was a little wary of trying Megabus for the first time, but they're great. Free WiFi and charging points whereas NX only provides a loo on its London-Yorkshire vehicles with no other facilities.
 
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route101

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At Buchanan Bus Stn at night you often see people waiting to to see if there is spaces on the coaches heading overnight to London or wherever .
 

pemma

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It's worth noting if a NX service is fully booked and there's no passengers booked to be picked up or dropped off at a certain stop the coach will omit it. Additionally, sometimes if there's high demand they arrange a duplicate service for part of the route - one day when I did Manchester to Edinburgh a number of years ago an empty coach arrived at Manchester coach station which was a duplicate for the Manchester-Glasgow section and all passengers apart from those going to Edinburgh were directed on to the empty coach.
 

Butts

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I was once the only passenger on a National Express Service from Stansted Airport to London Victoria Coach Station.

The coach got held up in traffic and I was in danger of missing my Megabus connection to Wales. The driver dropped me off by The Tower of London and I got to Victoria in time by Tube.
 

Deerfold

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It's worth noting if a NX service is fully booked and there's no passengers booked to be picked up or dropped off at a certain stop the coach will omit it. Additionally, sometimes if there's high demand they arrange a duplicate service for part of the route - one day when I did Manchester to Edinburgh a number of years ago an empty coach arrived at Manchester coach station which was a duplicate for the Manchester-Glasgow section and all passengers apart from those going to Edinburgh were directed on to the empty coach.

Both these points had already been made.
 

pemma

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Both these points had already been made.

The claim made earlier was they skip the stop even if no tickets have been sold, which alone isn't automatically true as others have said drivers can sell last minute tickets for empty seats. I also can't see any reference to duplicate services in earlier posts.
 

Deerfold

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The claim made earlier was they skip the stop even if no tickets have been sold, which alone isn't automatically true as others have said drivers can sell last minute tickets for empty seats. I also can't see any reference to duplicate services in earlier posts.

I saw this:

I wouldn't risk it. I'm pretty sure NatEx skip stops if no tickets have been bought.

Could have sworn I saw something about duplicates, but apparently not. My apologies.
 

Butts

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I think I'll have to grin and bear the weather - I only paid £6.80 return so it is almost a "disposable ticket"

Can anyone clarify if the return portion is still valid if you don't use the outward leg ?

I did use the return portion yesterday from Birmingham to Cardiff alighting in Newport.

However just to throw a slight spanner in the works the ticket was not scanned merely looked at and boarding permitted.
 
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