National express > Reviews > Travelling With All Forms of Human Life

Author's product rating:   

Quality of Rooms	Average
Customer service	average
Frequency of bus / buses	Average
Value for money	Good
Reliability	Good

Advantages:	Convenience; Picks - up from many destinations without train stations
Disadvantages:	Close proximity to other passengers; Delays caused by accidents, especially on motorways

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

“Take the National Express when your life’s in a mess
It’ll make you smile.
All human life is here
From the feeble old dear to the screaming child.”

‘National Express’ by The Divine Comedy

Who would have thought that someone would accurately capture the whole coach travelling experience in a song? Not I! But how true the above lyrics are.

Coach travel, and in particular, National Express (NE) has long been thought of as the preferred method of travel for students travelling home laden down with dirty washing; little old ladies visiting their grown-up children; and bands of families (comprising of at least 6 kids) on their holidays to Llandudno. I myself, as a student many years ago, travelled by coach due to financial restraints.

Last weekend however, I dared to experience the NE phenomenon once again. Had things changed? Mmmm, let’s see…

My decision to go by coach, was purely one based on convenience (believe it or not!). My journey was to take me from my hometown of Leek to London. After a bit of searching online on the train websites and Gobycoach.com (the National Express website), it became horribly obvious that if I was travel by train I would need to make so many changes, take so many buses and have to take the Underground once in London, that a straightforward coach journey would probably actually take less time than the rigmarole of the rail service. As an added bonus the coach would pick me up from my town’s bus station and drop me off, without changes, at Victoria Coach Station, which was the area in which I was staying. So, a booking was duly made on Gobycoach.com.

The tickets that are issued, either by using Gobycoach.com, by telephone or purchased through agents, are always very clear and give details of the times, destinations, service numbers and details of any changes that need to be made en route.

On the morning of my outward journey, my coach was 20 minutes late in arriving. Fortunately, being a sunny day I wasn’t too perturbed by this and my pick up point is sheltered anyhow. This is one of the disadvantages in coach travel, when looking at it logically. Despite their best efforts in allowing enough time to get to destinations there will always be unexpected delays such as accidents, especially on motorways, and traffic build-up in general. A few years ago this was a major disadvantage in coach travel. Today though, if I mention delays to train timetables, then you might understand why I take these coach delays as a pinch of salt: Rail travel no longer has the upper hand on reliability and promptness.

The thing that struck me on the initial stage of my journey was the scenery that I was able to see from a coach, which I wouldn’t normally be able to see on a train. Our route took us through some of the spectacular places in Derbyshire, and when travelling through Ashbourne, it reminded me that it would be a lovely place to visit in the summer months.

Of course, not the entire journey allowed me to take in the views of the English countryside. Once we’d picked up at Leicester it was the usual motorway travelling down to London.

For those of you who have travelled by coach, my perceptions so far probably don’t match up to your own experiences. My apologies, I got a bit carried away with the positive aspects of coach travel. But now it’s down to the real nitty gritty.

I was fortunate in that for all of my outward and most of my return journey, I had a seat to myself. Even though the coach wasn’t too crowded (and it was a Bank Holiday weekend) a great deal of single-occupancy seats were being filled. The space factor on coaches certainly hasn’t improved. It is always preferable to have a double seat to yourself, but when that fails you certainly find out how little space is allowed per passenger.

Firstly, I’m a fairly short-legged person, but didn’t find there to be a great deal of legroom (TallTone would have problems then!). Seats can be reclined, but becomes a nuisance to other passengers (imagine a domino effect, whereby one person reclines the seat and so the person behind has to as well, and so on…).

There are individual air-conditioners and lights above all seats and every coach has a toilet – if indeed you’re brave, or desperate enough to use it.

So space, as in physical comfort is a problem. More importantly, the mental strain that can sometimes result in travelling on a coach. Unlike trains, everyone has to sit in very close proximity to one another. Imagine for example, that you are sitting on a train and the man sitting next to you as a problem with body odour. What do you do? You move. On a coach it isn’t quite that simple. On a coach you can smell everything, whether it be a lack of personal hygiene or a whiff of their curry they ate last night. Not pleasant.

It isn’t just smells that are offensive when travelling on a coach, but other anti-social habits that some people possess. Anything can constitute anti-social behaviour from annoying mobile phone ringtones, loud personal stereos or a group of people talking together (or shouting!).

There is something that National Express seems to have done away with on a lot of their coach services and that’s the on-board refreshments. Admittedly, I remember buying limp sandwiches for over £2 before now. But it was always good to get a coffee on-board, so I was rather disappointed.

NE’s policies however do shine against those of rail operators. The main one being their ‘No Alcohol’ policy. Passengers are forbidden from drinking on board all NE services. This policy even extends to passengers boarding who are deemed to be intoxicated. NE’s policy reserves the right to disallow any passenger to board who is deemed to be drunk and who may potentially be a nuisance to other passengers on board. A policy which I wholeheartedly applaud as I have travelled on trains with football supporters (and I hate to use this example, but it’s true) where I’ve felt threatened by their behaviour, much of which is exemplified through drink.

So, you have a few of my experiences of a NE. To me, it still doesn’t rate too highly as an alternative to train travel. Maybe it’s because I’m not a particularly patient person and many of other peoples habits annoy me, but I have found that in some instances travelling by coach can be as easy and convenient as travelling by train. On their website, NE claim to make 1,000 departures a day to over 1,200 destinations on the UK mainland. They also run many services to European destinations and from UK airports. In my case, living in a small town without a train station, coach travel is far more convenient to some destinations I merely have to walk to the bus station, get on a coach and then step off again somewhere else. It also works out as a cheaper option, whereby a return ticket from Leek to London cost me £22 by coach but would have cost me in excess on £35 by train (although if you’re booking train tickets very far in advance it might work about the same cost).

Coach travel though, as I have highlighted is not for everyone. If you can’t put up with the potential of screaming babies, bodily smells and other behaviour that you deem as being anti-social then maybe you should stick to the freedom of travelling by train.

Useful links: www.gobycoach.com