National Express Coaches

[Smethwickian]

Lots of timetable changes coming from February 10 including a shake-up of some long-established service patterns to and from the West Midlands.
Most of the service 210/212 journeys between Birmingham and Heathrow/Gatwick will serve Oxford, but no longer call at Banbury, Warwick Parkway or High Wycombe Coachway.
Most service 777 journeys between Birmingham/Coventry and Stansted will serve Leicester, but no longer call at Milton Keynes Coachway, Luton or Luton Airport. Service 707 will mostly be extended from Northampton to Coventry and Birmingham, maintaining a link between the West Midlands and Luton Airport.
The single daily return journey to/from London serving Lichfield, Tamworth and Nuneaton is scrapped without replacement.
Leamington Spa loses its daily London journey and that town and Stratford-upon-Avon also lose a daily link to/from Bristol with the scrapping of another cross-country link, the 337.  The demise of the 337 also leaves the likes of Rugby, Evesham and Bidford-on-Avon off the NX network completely.
Times of many coaches on the main Birmingham to London services 410/420 group are revised to improve reliability. One journey each way to/from Shrewsbury and Telford is withdrawn.
Details now available on the journey planner at national express.com or on timetable PDFs at nxagents.com/the guide/

[Justin Tyme]

Thanks Smethwickian, a welcome summary.  :)

I haven't followed NX coach routes much in recent years, but you are right - this is a big shake-up of services that have been around for many years.

[Pat]

What is a typical driving day like for an NX coach driver i.e do they drive one route for the whole day e.g 304 Birmingham to Weymouth and return or do they drive one route, change drivers and take a meal break then take over another bus?  Also, does anyone know where the drivers would change over? Thanks.

[markcf83]

Depends on the route. For example the 323,which I sometimes get from South Wales to Birmingham, is operated by a Merseyside based company who put their driver in a hotel in or near Cardiff. They will do the entire trip.

[Kevin]

Lots of timetable changes coming from February 10 including a shake-up of some long-established service patterns to and from the West Midlands.
Most of the service 210/212 journeys between Birmingham and Heathrow/Gatwick will serve Oxford, but no longer call at Banbury, Warwick Parkway or High Wycombe Coachway.
...

Interesting, Oxford already have the Airline services so this seems almost in competition against them. And yet where I live in Banbury now gets pretty much cut off from the coach network, only once a day Oxford - Bradford now.

[Smethwickian]

Interesting, Oxford already have the Airline services so this seems almost in competition against them. And yet where I live in Banbury now gets pretty much cut off from the coach network, only once a day Oxford - Bradford now.

Warwick Parkway and Banbury get a couple of replacement journeys each way numbered service 220 between   Coventry and Heathrow.
But yes, NX seems to want a slice of the Oxford - Heathrow - Gatwick market itself instead of offering tickets on its website for connecting journeys with Oxford Bus Co's Airline routes.

[winston]

National Express are expanding in to Ireland from 3rd March with 3 new 24hr coach services serving Dublin Airport under the 'Dublin Express' brand with Mercedes Tourismo's:

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/business/national-express-eyeing-major-growth-in-ireland-979556.html

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/national-express-to-run-dublin-airport-coach-service-1.4160124?mode=amp

I think the above will seriously undermine First Group's Aircoach route network also centred around Dublin Airport.

[Pat]

Tree fell over NatEx coach outside Victoria this morning
https://www.mylondon.news/news/zone-1-news/london-weather-tree-falls-path-17716497

[Pat]

All coaches are to be configured for wheelchair passengers (front two seats removed) permanently by 10th March. 

[winston]

New competition for NX Coaches in UK coach market:
https://www.route-one.net/coach-routes/flixbus-uk-domestic-coach-network-announced/

[Pat]

Changes to the NX network from 30th March:
481/484 revised
541/543 withdrawn.

[ellspurs]

New competition for NX Coaches in UK coach market:
https://www.route-one.net/coach-routes/flixbus-uk-domestic-coach-network-announced/

I used FlixBus from Poznan to Berlin and back this time last year.

€30 return ticket (purchased the night before the journey). 4 hour journey. The most comfortable coach that I've ever been on. If they used the same style of coaches in the UK I would be looking at using them if they were available.

[Smethwickian]

The present skeleton service in place since 24 March will operate for the last time on 5 April (with some late evening and all overnight journeys withdrawn).
The National Express coach network is then shut until further notice and most staff furloughed.

[winston]

The present skeleton service in place since 24 March will operate for the last time on 5 April (with some late evening and all overnight journeys withdrawn).
The National Express coach network is then shut until further notice and most staff furloughed.

Chalfont Coaches Facebook page illustrates the above well, with most if not all of their NX coach fleet parked up:
https://www.facebook.com/ChalfontCoachesCogenhoe

This YouTube video also shows the extent to which Global Airlines are parking up large proportions of their fleets:

[BN]

159; 161 have now left the fleet.