National Express Coaches Discussion

[Blindtraveler]

Do did they hold your connection at Lester

 

[Mikw]

So today I am using National Express for the first time in years and has so far been a disaster. They cancelled the 0745 450 from Nottingham but didn't inform us passengers. So now on the way to Leicester where they are supposed to be holding a coach for us but am sceptical that will actually happen. The only saving grace were the staff at Nottingham who offered a full refund with no arguments. My impression of National Express is not favourable.

Did they hold the coach for you at Leicester after all?

 

[Smethwickian]

Did they hold the coach for you at Leicester after all?

Cancellation was due to very short notice driver sickness. Controllers tried numerous other operators for replacement without success - many citing the fact that many coaches already on hire for Glastonbury services - before offering passengers either refund or amendment to any other available services/connections. The passenger above should most likely have ended up on the 0915 from Leicester to London or on a 230 to Milton Keynes for onward connection to London. NX staff at Nottingham, Leicester and Milton Keynes all aware and did what they could to move passengers by any available means ASAP.

 

[route101]

Thanks, that's a relief. I've used the Stanstead service a few times, it's been a life saver for the early morning flights.

The 767 was only two services a day between Nottingham and Stansted, maybe too infrequent for people to use to the airport.

 

[Mwanesh]

So today I am using National Express for the first time in years and has so far been a disaster. They cancelled the 0745 450 from Nottingham but didn't inform us passengers. So now on the way to Leicester where they are supposed to be holding a coach for us but am sceptical that will actually happen. The only saving grace were the staff at Nottingham who offered a full refund with no arguments. My impression of National Express is not favourable.

With Glastonbury on there is very little spare capacity on Nottingham contractors.You cant really do anything
Leicester is a bit different in that its owned and they can ask drivers in Birmingham to help out.

 

[Jellyfish261]

Forgive my ignorance - and change of topic.

Cycled past a NX stop along a very quiet industrial estate (whilst lost) in Cardiff Gate (CG) earlier on Malthouse Ave.

Intrigued as to if any NX services actually stop here, and why? No obvious target market - at the time a very dead cul-de-sac disconnected to anywhere apart from some industrial units.

I could perhaps understand if an easy drop off to connect to onward buses into Cardiff and rejoin the M4, but there is no obvious onward public transport connection - surely if coming off at CG to serve Cardiff North it would make more sense to travel roughly the same distance to serve the 57/58/C1 stop at Asda Pontprennau?

Happy to be set straight if a good reasoning.

 

[johncrossley]

Presumably NX could have given Nottingham passengers train tickets.

 

[markymark2000]

Forgive my ignorance - and change of topic.

Cycled past a NX stop along a very quiet industrial estate (whilst lost) in Cardiff Gate (CG) earlier on Malthouse Ave.

Intrigued as to if any NX services actually stop here, and why? No obvious target market - at the time a very dead cul-de-sac disconnected to anywhere apart from some industrial units.

I could perhaps understand if an easy drop off to connect to onward buses into Cardiff and rejoin the M4, but there is no obvious onward public transport connection - surely if coming off at CG to serve Cardiff North it would make more sense to travel roughly the same distance to serve the 57/58/C1 stop at Asda Pontprennau?

Happy to be set straight if a good reasoning.

The stop is only served by the 'faster' trips on route 201, trips which do not go via Bristol. I may be wrong but the reason looks to be a driver swap needs to happen around here due to driving hours (Driver swapping here gives a 4h10 drive to Gatwick), and National Express has basically said if they are stopping anyway, they might as well pick up people there as well.

As for why Cardiff Gate rather than Pontprennau, my guess is just because there isn't space at Pontprennau to have a coach sitting there to pick up/drop off, let alone including a driver swap. The bus stops here are served by 9 buses per hour and are often are always taken up by Cardiff Bus and Adventure Travel buses laying over as well. I agree with you though, Pontprennau would be a much better stop in terms of passenger usage.

 

[Jellyfish261]

The stop is only served by the 'faster' trips on route 201, trips which do not go via Bristol. I may be wrong but the reason looks to be a driver swap needs to happen around here due to driving hours (Driver swapping here gives a 4h10 drive to Gatwick), and National Express has basically said if they are stopping anyway, they might as well pick up people there as well.

As for why Cardiff Gate rather than Pontprennau, my guess is just because there isn't space at Pontprennau to have a coach sitting there to pick up/drop off, let alone including a driver swap. The bus stops here are served by 9 buses per hour and are often are always taken up by Cardiff Bus and Adventure Travel buses laying over as well. I agree with you though, Pontprennau would be a much better stop in terms of passenger usage.

Diolch

 

[TravelDream]

Cycled past a NX stop along a very quiet industrial estate (whilst lost) in Cardiff Gate (CG) earlier on Malthouse Ave.

It's already been answered in the main, but there's more to it.

Cardiff - Heathrow/ Gatwick buses used to go with some going via Bristol and some slightly faster services via Chepstow.

For whatever reason, NX cut Chepstow. This provided a service to Heathrow in less than three hours. Obviously NX has been on a big drive to make routes more direct and faster for some years now. These faster services instead stop at Cardiff Gate.
This leads to absurd things like the 0930 Cardiff - Heathrow (via Cardiff Gate) getting there just ten minutes after the 0830 service (via Bristol).

Originally, the coaches stopped at Cardiff Gate services. Ideal with the car park, toilets, restaurants etc. But I think passenger numbers have never really taken off from this stop and they moved it to that random stop to cut costs.

Driver swaps don't happen here too. They happen at Magor Services

As for why not Pontprennau, I think Mark's answer above sounds about right.

 

[Titfield]

Are there any ways of getting cheap fares between Bournemouth and Heathrow Airport?

A friend is travelling early August and the fare is £24 one way which seems like a big fare compared with fares charged previously this far out.

 

[johncrossley]

Are there any ways of getting cheap fares between Bournemouth and Heathrow Airport?

A friend is travelling early August and the fare is £24 one way which seems like a big fare compared with fares charged previously this far out.

Are there cheaper fares to Victoria? It might be cheaper to go to Victoria then use tube/bus/train to Heathrow.

 

[Joe Paxton]

Are there any ways of getting cheap fares between Bournemouth and Heathrow Airport?

A friend is travelling early August and the fare is £24 one way which seems like a big fare compared with fares charged previously this far out.

£24 seems like a reasonable enough fare for that journey, but I say that without being aware of the history of cheaper fares on this route that you onbiously know about. I guess it's a bit like Advance fares on the railway, when cheaper fares were available in the past and are no longer people inevitably feel a bit aggreived or wonder if they are missing a trick somewhere.

Are there cheaper fares to Victoria? It might be cheaper to go to Victoria then use tube/bus/train to Heathrow.

Or indeed to Hammersmith or Earl's Court and then change for the Piccadilly line tube to Heathrow - the London-bound NX 035 from Bournemouth stops at either Hammersmith or Earl's Court. Checking a random date in August I see there are £12.60 fares available for many of these services - plus £3.40 (peak) or £2.10 (off-peak) for the Tube fare... not forgetting the need to add £1.50 on for the NX online booking fee.

Whether it's worth the faff to save £8 (£17.50 - assuming a peak time Tube fare -versus £25.50) is perhaps debateable!

 

[gingerheid]

How does the public know and indeed myself that a service is being stopped? Only by looking at the timetable section or seeing a direct option is no longer there.

The issue I have with National Express's marketing is how would the general public know a service was being started!!!

 

[markymark2000]

The issue I have with National Express's marketing is how would the general public know a service was being started!!!

Normally National Express do press releases and then the local papers do stories promoting new routes.

 

[route101]

Is there any more routes due to come back?

The Southampton to Gatwick 206 was one.

 

[paul1609]

Are there any ways of getting cheap fares between Bournemouth and Heathrow Airport?

A friend is travelling early August and the fare is £24 one way which seems like a big fare compared with fares charged previously this far out.

To be paying £24 suggests there is something on that date possibly in London or s/he is trying to travel at a time when there is no competing rail service (overnight or engineering works) pushing up demand. I think the normal "advance" fare is £13 to £16 pounds ish.

 

[MCR247]

To be paying £24 suggests there is something on that date possibly in London or s/he is trying to travel at a time when there is no competing rail service (overnight or engineering works) pushing up demand. I think the normal "advance" fare is £13 to £16 pounds ish.

I’d agree with this. Something similar happened to me on a different route. I ended up biting the bullet and travelling anyway and realised that a likely reason for the higher demand (and therefore price) was a group booking of 15-20 international tourists

 

[route101]

To be paying £24 suggests there is something on that date possibly in London or s/he is trying to travel at a time when there is no competing rail service (overnight or engineering works) pushing up demand. I think the normal "advance" fare is £13 to £16 pounds ish.

Could be summer prices. I have noticed hotel prices generally quite high for the next few months. Not as bad as Flixbus with there £75 one way tickets though. I still think £24 is good value to get to the airport by direct coach.

 

[Titfield]

Thanks to all who replied on this. This is an early morning service and I think the higher fare reflects the demand and lack of alternatives (rail service).

 

[Simon75]

Why does National Express charge a booking fee on its website and app?

 

[Eyersey468]

Why do National Express charge a booking fee on there website and app?

Probably to make more money, though I must stress that is my personal view

 

[dan5324]

Why do National Express charge a booking fee on there website and app?

Goes towards maintaining the app and the website. IT unsurprisingly isn’t cheap. Someone has to pay for the convenience.

 

[markymark2000]

Why do National Express charge a booking fee on there website and app?

If you have an account with them, there is no booking fee. Only 'guest' checkout has fees.

Probably to make more money, though I must stress that is my personal view

Spot on. Making money on those paying the fees and those with accounts it's data mining. Data is the new gold. If you have an account theres no fee but what that does do, is gives them personal data, they can link up all of the journeys and use that for many things, including possibly selling it on and making money.

Goes towards maintaining the app and the website. IT unsurprisingly isn’t cheap. Someone has to pay for the convenience.

It was always done for free though before as that is an incentive to book with that firm. Same as free delivery is better than £1 delivery, even if the price of the original product goes up to cover the delivery costs. People see free booking fee (or in my other example, free postage) as an incentive.

Since NatEx saw their competition doing it so much, they've jumped on the bandwagon to make extra bucks. As a company Mobico (NX owners) are suffering a very low share price and so any extra money NatEx can made will really help the owning company perform better and get more investors.

 

[dan5324]

It isn’t to make extra bucks. It pays for the yearly fee to Apple and others to have the app on the store. The rest goes to maintaining the tracking service and app and website maintenance fees. Why they started doing it isn’t so clear. Maybe they thought if our competitors do it, then why not? I can’t say why they started it. But I do know where the fee goes. And it’s not always the shareholders.

 

[Dai Corner]

It isn’t to make extra bucks. It pays for the yearly fee to Apple and others to have the app on the store. The rest goes to maintaining the tracking service and app and website maintenance fees. Why they started doing it isn’t so clear. Maybe they thought if our competitors do it, then why not? I can’t say why they started it. But I do know where the fee goes. And it’s not always the shareholders.

Unless you have access to their internal accounts (in which case you might get into trouble for disclosing confidential information) I don't think you can say this with any certainty.

 

[markymark2000]

It isn’t to make extra bucks. It pays for the yearly fee to Apple and others to have the app on the store. The rest goes to maintaining the tracking service and app and website maintenance fees. Why they started doing it isn’t so clear. Maybe they thought if our competitors do it, then why not? I can’t say why they started it. But I do know where the fee goes. And it’s not always the shareholders.

While the specific booking fee may go into paying for maintenance fees and app codes etc, how was this cost paid for before? It would have come out of the main ticket sales. Now instead the additional fee goes to pay for this and so the main ticket cost has less deductions to cover things like the web/app costs. That means more profit, where does profit go...... Well it will most likely end up with shareholders.

Unless you are trying to claim that the app/website costs have gone up massively and therefore NatEx need to have these fees to cover the cost increase and therefore it makes zero difference to the overall profit per ticket.

 

[TravelDream]

The cost of running a website and app is tiny in comparison to running ticket offices.

It's bizarre to say the booking fee is to cover the cost of it.

The truth is, it's a way to add an extra cost on top of the headline fare which allows the company to make greater profits with lower headline fares.

 

[MCR247]

It isn’t to make extra bucks. It pays for the yearly fee to Apple and others to have the app on the store. The rest goes to maintaining the tracking service and app and website maintenance fees. Why they started doing it isn’t so clear. Maybe they thought if our competitors do it, then why not? I can’t say why they started it. But I do know where the fee goes. And it’s not always the shareholders.

But surely by definition it is to make extra bucks. It pays for maintenance, that would otherwise be paid for out of profit, giving extra bucks elsewhere

 

[dan5324]

But surely by definition it is to make extra bucks. It pays for maintenance, that would otherwise be paid for out of profit, giving extra bucks elsewhere

Or the money goes into paying staff instead of paying for passengers convenience.