National Express Coaches Discussion

[Teflon988]

National Express set to boost south coast connections - routeone

National Express is to introduce a new route between Portsmouth and Gatwick and increase daily connections to other south coast destinations.

www.route-one.net

 

[cambsy]

Wilko82, that made me laugh the PCV driver not knowing the speed limit of coaches. I had a few years back a Parks Driver, on the 404, near Bristol Airport overtaking a car doing 30mph in a 50mph zone on double white lines, at about 2am in the morning, as was running very late and was stressed by delays. I know all this as was sitting up front and awake. Parks drivers seem a mixed bunch with some lackadaisical about time keeping and don’t push on at all, even having a smoking break when late, which annoying, to some who get on with it and try keep time.

I find coaches on motorways generally dont speed by more than couple mile an hour except when letting run downhill a bit sometimes, but on A roads etc sometimes they speed a bit, unlike back along time ago when speeds of 80mph plus were quite frequent on motorways, and they definitely pushed on especially if late. I had a M reg Vanhool, with no restrictor, leave Golders Green on time and arrive Leeds 45 mins early, i nodded off with coach doing 80mph and woke up sometime later near Leeds, the drivers said they been doing 85 mph up the M1, was front of coach again.

 

[granitebuses]

Wilko82, that made me laugh the PCV driver not knowing the speed limit of coaches. I had a few years back a Parks Driver, on the 404, near Bristol Airport overtaking a car doing 30mph in a 50mph zone on double white lines, at about 2am in the morning, as was running very late and was stressed by delays. I know all this as was sitting up front and awake. Parks drivers seem a mixed bunch with some lackadaisical about time keeping and don’t push on at all, even having a smoking break when late, which annoying, to some who get on with it and try keep time.

I find coaches on motorways generally dont speed by more than couple mile an hour except when letting run downhill a bit sometimes, but on A roads etc sometimes they speed a bit, unlike back along time ago when speeds of 80mph plus were quite frequent on motorways, and they definitely pushed on especially if late. I had a M reg Vanhool, with no restrictor, leave Golders Green on time and arrive Leeds 45 mins early, i nodded off with coach doing 80mph and woke up sometime later near Leeds, the drivers said they been doing 85 mph up the M1, was front of coach again.

That’s Parks for you lol

 

[frodshamfella]

Looked at getting National Express recently from Manchester to Oxford and return, thinking it could be much cheaper versus Cross Country - which around £80 with split tickets - and to avoid the overcrowded trains. But NX was quoting £75 return, with a change in Milton Keynes (taking much longer than the train, of course). To be fair, this is for a summer peak weekend journey, but still I was expecting NX to be significantly cheaper. Coach prices seem to have gone up a lot in recent years. There used to be at least two Manchester to Oxford services a day, from memory, plus at least one Megabus. Flixbus doesn’t seem to have a direct route. No wonder Cross Country are heaving!

I find the NX coach network now unusable . Trying to go to London from Cheshire, there appears to be nothing anymore.

 

[henryb]

If that is true then that is more proof that Park's have NX wrapped around their finger and that Park's get treated 'differently' to everyone else. As mentioned previously Trathens were always falling foul of speed and tacho infringements and Park's were and still are no different. For example, the driver involved in the 2007 Heathrow crash had numerous previous speeding offences and had been found to have tampered and adjusted the speed limiter, but Park's continued to employ him. I am led to believe that the reason he wasn't sacked was because this was (and possibly still is) a regular occurrence and a blind eye was turned. It shows how little their driving standards are when one of (their now ex) drivers put on social media complaining about how he ws caught speeding and he didn't know what the speed limit of coaches were.

Parks can’t fire anyone as they are mildly short of drivers as they pay a lower wage than other local operators (mainly GSW and Stagecoach - who also do the falcon)

 

[Wilko82]

Parks can’t fire anyone as they are mildly short of drivers as they pay a lower wage than other local operators (mainly GSW and Stagecoach - who also do the falcon)

Exactly, and that is the crux of it all as they have to pay a low rate to make the economics of their NX diagrams work. There is simply no other operator in the region who will be willing to pick up the work for as cheap as what Park's do it for.