... Looking up National Express coaches on the site, I discover that they are not exactly flavour of the month.
My experience of them has always been pretty good – with the exception of the one case where I was just going down with the Kathmandu quickstep & the on-board WC wasn't available ... Read review
A review by hiker on National express March 7th, 2009
Author's product rating:
Quality of Rooms
Average
Customer service
very good
Frequency of bus / buses
Average
Value for money
Excellent
Reliability
Excellent
Advantages:
The service
Disadvantages:
The timetable (at times)
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
People who drive automatically assume that travelling by public transport is HORRID. It takes longer, it's probably more expensive, you have to sit with (get spoken at by) people you don't know and, very quickly, don't like, it's inconvenient…it has, in short, nothing to recommend it.
Those of us who don't drive are intrinsically more tolerant of all of the above. We have to be. That doesn’t mean that we aren't fair-minded and capable of writing a critical review when we get rubbish service. In this instance it is fair-mindedness that inspires me to write a review about un-rubbish service. Looking up National Express coaches on the site, I discover that they are not exactly flavour of the month.
My experience of them has always been pretty good – with the exception of the one case where I was just going down with the Kathmandu quickstep & the on-board WC wasn't available (that was a few years back – we won't go there). Accordingly, let me redress the balance a little.
General: this particular review is based on an airport connection route. It is a route I have used numerous times alighting variously at Stansted, Heathrow & Gatwick. Current route number 727.
Price: prices change all the time, so check the latest website information or call into your local bus station. My latest excursion was £34 Norwich-Heathrow (single) – compared with the equivalent journey coming back (off-peak) by rail, which was £56.
Booking: tickets can be booked: On-line at www.nationalexpress.com By calling 08717 818181 (£1 booking fee applies, and for an extra 50p you can have your ticket sent to your mobile phone) Or at any National Express outlet.
I find the last option the easiest: going into the local bus station and purchasing at the counter. It gives you more options on how to pay, and the interaction with a real live human being does give you the chance of picking up on any current special offers. It also gives you more options on how to pay, if you still use cheques or cash.
This Experience: Saturday, 31st January 2009 and I'm off to Cambodia. Excited as ever by the whole trip, I am (equally as ever) less enthralled by the first leg of the journey: getting to the airport.
On this occasion, I'm looking at the 13:40 departure National Express 727 (previously known as Jetlink) which serves Stansted, Heathrow, & Gatwick. This is something of a luxury. Normally, I find myself standing in the bus station at midnight waiting for the 01:40 departure.
There are any number of things to take into account when planning your airport connection: how far away is it, what time do you need to be there, how much luggage will you have, how many people are travelling with you, if you're planning to drive, what are the parking arrangements, are you returning to the same airport as you depart from (& again at what time etc), how much is it all going to cost? Each element can affect the overall calculation significantly, so it is worth doing it from scratch each time you travel.
All other things being equal my preference is to take the coach. I live in Norwich, with equally easy access to both bus and rail station, so connections at this end are not an issue.
Price is. Depending upon the time of day of travel, the equivalent rail fare can be two to three times the coach fare. It may not be significant in the overall cost of the holiday, but it will buy a few more indulgences in the local market once you get there.
Time isn't an issue. Not least because on this occasion I discovered fully just how much of an illusion timetables can be. The 13:40 left Norwich promptly and arrived at Heathrow bang on time at 17:35.
Four hours might seem a long time to get from Norwich to Heathrow. By train it would be 2 hours to London Liverpool Street, plus (say) 20 minutes to Paddington, plus 15 minutes on the Heathrow Express to the airport: approximately 3hours allowing for changes. Right! Coming home took me over two hours from clearing customs at Heathrow to get to Liverpool Street.
The major benefit of being on the coach is that you do not have to change. Every change introduces an indefinable into the equation.
Of course there may be road-works, accidents, unforeseen hold-ups – but these apply equally to train travel and to driving yourself.
The Hassle Factor: changing trains is an inconvenience. If you have luggage, it is a downright pain. To get from Norwich to Heathrow or Gatwick, at best there are three trains to contend with (including the Underground). We cannot get direct to Stansted – that involves at least two trains (via either Ely or Cambridge). Knowing I can get on the bus in Norwich and stay there right through to the airport is a big plus. As is knowing that I have a seat. The coaches do not generally allow standing, so when you buy your ticket you buy your seat on that departure. I'll spare you my long & varied experiences of having to stand on trains!
It is not surprising then that I am a fan of what used to be endearingly called the Jetlink service: now the 727 National Express.
That doesn't mean I'm going to put up with shoddy service, however. From the second I close my front door, I'm on holiday and I want to be looked after. National Express do.
On this occasion, as well as being spot-on timewise, the coach itself was modern, clean and quiet. It was a bit too warm for the first half of the journey as the driver over-compensated for a freezing January day, but that was resolved later. The WC was in full working order – not that I needed it, but I know what it's like when you do!
Window curtains were available to deal with low-level-sun-in-the-eyes. Overhead vents & reading lights, all fully operational and perfectly adequate to the job in hand.
The display clock at the front of the coach was equally in full working order, and keeping good time. It's just a pity that it was set 4 hours ahead of GMT. I'm all for setting my watch to "destination time" the second the plane undercarriage is lifted, but doing so on the coach from home is a recipe for disaster.
The radio was on: quiet enough to be unobtrusive to those of us wishing to read, loud enough to actually be heard if you wanted to listen.
We had a change of drivers at Stansted Airport – both were quietly efficient and polite. Both insisted that seatbelts be worn by gently reminding us that it is the law. Their driving was faultless, insofar as this is evident to a passenger. No apparent speeding, sudden breaking, or any of the other attributes that make you wonder if they actual passed a driving test never mind got their PSV licence.
As it happened, even my fellow passengers were utterly inoffensive.
It was a perfectly pleasant journey.
Previous Experience: this journey is not untypical. I have been using the service for nearly ten years. WC's apart – and they have been an issue on more than one journey in the past – I have never had a problem travelling National Express to and from any of the airports mentioned. (STN, LHR, LGW).
Staff have always been friendly and polite. Coaches have always been clean, and checked at each stop. Journeys have run to more-or-less to time, certainly no delays of significance.
Timetable: If I do have an issue with the service it is the timetable. The service is approximately a two-hourly service, which is generally fine although it does depend upon your flight timing. Personally I'm happy to be there early, rather than stress about possibly missing the plane. However, there are exceptions. There is nothing from Heathrow between the 2300 departure and the 0325 (which itself involves a further change & half-hour wait at Stansted). A similar change is required on the 0525 departure. The first through service doesn't leave until 0715.
They can get away with this, because you've no hope of getting a train during those hours anyway, so there is no competition. It's not as if there aren't any planes landing during those hours. Having arrived at Heathrow at 2330 & waited for the 0325 in the central bus station, it's not an experience I'd recommend. Your only other option is taxis and hotels. £££ouch!
Less excusable perhaps, is the bizarre omission of any service between the 1910 departure from Heathrow and the 2300, which was the reason for my return journey being by train on this occasion.
Outward bound from Norwich, similar gaps also apply.
Rating: having to deduct one for unfortunate timetabling, and trusting that they've now updated the rolling stock and fixed the loos, I'm confident in giving the service 4-star rating.
Advantages: punctual, cheap and sometimes entertaining Disadvantages: can get a little cramped when full
As a national representative of a charity I knew I would have to travel a lot so needed to find the most cost efficient way of doing so. I had received an NZ2 card when I opened my student account with Barclays but never thought of using it. I popped into my local office and decided to find out more about the benefits of this small card.
At that particular time National Express had an offer on their journeys and suggested that I take them up on ... ...flying again and saw that National Express operated a Europe service. The staff were very understanding to my requirements but explained that as the service was weekly we may have to go out a week before the event and come back a week after. I found them very supportive in dealing with an almost impossible request. Still they spent over 30 minutes on the phone. On return she explained that they could accommodate my friend and I, but it would cost ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: You can pretend you're the bloke from the chewing gum advert Disadvantages: May bring on manic depression and collapse of your spinal column
...account. In the case of National Express Coaches, I am quite content to forsake my sanity, spinal column and general allround happiness in favour of a few extra quid in my pocket when I arrive at my destination. If you're reading this review then I assume you have a journey to make and are considering National Express to get you where you need to be. As a surviving veteran of numerous coach trips from hell (and a few even worse), I feel that you ... ...the pros and cons.
National Express - The disadvantages of coach travel
Firstly, you really need to consider issues of personal space. If you're pushing 20 stone then forget it, your ass ain't going nowhere on a National Express, unless you can hijack the middle seat, right at the back (you know which one I'm talking about). The cramped conditions of coach travel will push even the most anorexic of people to their mental limits. And don't even ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Cheap and can be more reliable than the train (honest) Disadvantages: It's coach travel, so it's no frills, cheap and cheerful (usually)
...Browsing everyone's opinions of National Express I get the impression you either love 'em or hate 'em. Fair enough but I also notice some of the questions you put are things I can explain... so, as an ex employee who therefore knows how desparately anxious they are to please, I hope this will shed a bit of light on some of the odd decisions they make and why. They're not always sensible but there are a lot of instances where their decision making ... ...appear to reflect this. National Express contract out a lot of their services to other smaller operators. Some of these are much better than others so the quality of the service will vary. In addition, there are more companies vieing for the business in some areas than others so quality will again be reflected in a) the number of operators NatEx had to choose from and b) whether there is enough competition to keep the operator chosen on their toes.
...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Cheaper rates at the most expensive time of year Disadvantages: Poor customer service
...of year!
History
The National Express Company goes back well over a hundred years and are well known in the UK. They adopted the name 'National Express' in 1974. Eurolines is the International Company for National Express. These are for the European journeys. Recently a new business called 'Airlinks' has been set up to look after 'on-airport' services at Heathrow and Gatwick.
See more details on their website at http://www.nationalexpress.com/home/hp.cfm
... ...pick us up from. National Express was the obvious choice. For some reason though, we had to go via London even tho' it meant we were going back on ourselves. But as it was the cheapest option I went ahead.
You should've been with me on my way to France, or perhaps not!! We (my 12 yr. old daughter & myself) were going to stay with some friends who had emigrated there a couple of years ago. First of all, the coach from Maidstone to London was late ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: well, you get there in the end. Disadvantages: unhelpful staff, no legroom, dingy old depots
...idiot I am, to use National Express coaches to 'save any messing around'.
Big mistake.
I decided to book the tickets for me and my mom over the internet on the National Express website, gobycoach.com. Once it loaded, all was well and good, we booked the times we wanted, clhecked the 'collect tickets at station' box because we were travelling in 2 days, and were done. It all seemed fairly straightforward, we didn't even need to print off stupid ... ...in Birmingham. My mother used National Express way back in the Victorian era when she was my age ;) The funny thing is that this place hasn't changed in all that time. It's still cold, damp, draughty, and filled with staff who, quite frankly, couldn't give a flying you-know-what about you, even though you're PAYING THEIR WAGES!
On arrival at the information desk, we were told they were experiencing computer difficulties and the tickets hadn't been ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Cheap, easy to use website, quick Disadvantages: Train tickets are a let down
...NationalExpress is a great website, and probably the best for buying coach tickets for traveling up and down the United Kingdom. You can also buy train tickets from this site but for that I would recommend another site such as Virgin Trains or The Train Line as they have more reasonable prices.
The website's design in so easy use to use and user friendly. You can find tickets to your destination right from the homepage. All you have to do is enter your "To and From" details, whether you want a single or return and the dates you will be departing and returning. Then you get the choice of what times you want to be traveling on the coach. Then choose how many people are traveling. Its all that simple and quick.
The payment is also very easy and quick. You can choose to pay online or in store. If you choose online, your credit/debit card...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful
Advantages: on time, comfy, cheap Disadvantages: lack of luggage storage
...I used to book a lot of tickets with GNER who owned this east coast line before NationalExpress took it over.
The NationalExpress East Coast journey is one from Huddersfield/Wakefield/Leeds to Stevenage. I take this route several times a month so know what's a good price etc.
The trains are reliable and in the 3 and a half years that I've taken this journey I've only ever had 3 problems (1 major, the other 2 were minor) and so I can compliment this company and GNER highly.
The trains are all very comfy and all that I've been on have a refreshment carriage and often a refreshement trolley going down the train as well. The only negative I can say about the trains is that there is a lack of luggage storage, particularly on the busy trains when nearly everyone has a bag!
I cannot comment on what the service is like if you...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Can be an inexpensive way to see the country, frequent service, free wifi on board Disadvantages: Overcrowding, old trains, journey times slower than 25 years ago
...The east coast mainline is one of the major rail links in the UK, linking London with major cities in Yorkshire, Northumberland and Scotland. Previously operated by GNER, the franchise passed on to NationalExpress in 2007 after GNER?s parent company filed for bankruptcy protection.
It was felt that NationalExpress had paid way over the odds for the franchise and sure enough as the recession began to bite, they found themselves in a perilous financial predicament, and upon failing to renegotiate the terms of the franchise with the government, it was announced in June 2009 that the government would be taking the franchise back under state control, with the franchise going back out to tender sometime in 2010.
To all intents and purposes however nothing much has changed since the GNER days apart from train liveries and the fact wifi is...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
I had a cut and colour by Luke at Colournation in Covent Garden and two weeks on I am still avoiding mirrors. My fringe was butchered within an inch of its life and I had some serious steps hacked into my once lovely long hair. I was offered a sweeping... more
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