National Express Coaches

[winston]

Does anyone knows if the 100 new coaches that E&S quotes are due includes those already delivered during 2012 to date? Or is this a new order?

http://www.expressandstar.com/news/transport-news/2012/09/29/new-25m-fleet-of-coaches-to-hit-road/

[winston]

Having closed Crawley depot during March, NX Ops are now opening a new base at Luton Airport to serve new route A1 London Victoria - London Luton Airport) from 1st May. The fleet will comprise of 18 new Levante + 4 existing Levante under 18 months old

I'm thinking some of the new ones at least were those originally destined for DeCourcey to takeover Rotala's NX diagrams on routes 210 & 777, is anyone able to confirm?

http://www.route-one.net/issues/481/index.html#/10/

[winston]

Having closed Crawley depot during March, NX Ops are now opening a new base at Luton Airport to serve new route A1 London Victoria - London Luton Airport) from 1st May. The fleet will comprise of 18 new Levante + 4 existing Levante under 18 months old

I'm thinking some of the new ones at least were those originally destined for DeCourcey to takeover Rotala's NX diagrams on routes 210 & 777, is anyone able to confirm?

http://www.route-one.net/issues/481/index.html#/10/

Does anyone else think NX coaches launching new route A1 against the current commercial Arriva Greenline branded 757 service could be a reaction to Arriva expanding further in the West Midlands? As I understand it, the award of the concession to operate in to Luton Airport grounds only stops Arriva's Greenline 757 route from serving the airport, the remainder of the route is commercial

[the trainbasher]

I think it could be actually

[winston]

Does anyone else think NX coaches launching new route A1 against the current commercial Arriva Greenline branded 757 service could be a reaction to Arriva expanding further in the West Midlands? As I understand it, the award of the concession to operate in to Luton Airport grounds only stops Arriva's Greenline 757 route from serving the airport, the remainder of the route is commercial

Another alternative maybe that NX coaches are looking for replacement revenue/profit streams to fill the gap lost by the governments cancellation of the concessionary scheme for over 60's & the disabled.

Either way although a commercial route, from other forums it sounds as though the bulk of the Greenline 757 passenger journeys were between London Luton Airport & Central London, therefore from 1st May a large proportion of Arriva the Shires tri-axle Van Hools could become surplus to requirement

[andy]

Does anyone else think NX coaches launching new route A1 against the current commercial Arriva Greenline branded 757 service could be a reaction to Arriva expanding further in the West Midlands? As I understand it, the award of the concession to operate in to Luton Airport grounds only stops Arriva's Greenline 757 route from serving the airport, the remainder of the route is commercial

Another alternative maybe that NX coaches are looking for replacement revenue/profit streams to fill the gap lost by the governments cancellation of the concessionary scheme for over 60's & the disabled.

I think that is the more likely explanation Winston, while everything in the garden was rosy with the concessionary scheme NX didn't need this sort of work as under the old scheme, this was not as lucrative. But with traffic to Luton probably increasing, and most of it being non concessionary anyway, NX will probably now be wanting a piece of this sort of work wheras previously they didn't. They can probably run this sort of operation a lot more efficiently than Arriva as it happens, as much of Arriva's express work is bolted on to bus operations and not bespoke.

[nx4737]

What routes do NX actually operate directly, rather than contract out?

[notepanel]

From Birmingham there are only 4 round trips. These are:
* 0630 420 ex Victoria (arrives about 0935) & 1100 410 return
* 0550 210 ex Heathrow T4 (arrives about 0855) & 1000 210 return
* 1335 210 ex Heathrow T4 (arrives about 1645) & 1830 210 return
* 1700 410 ex Victoria (arrives about 1950) & 2100 420 return

They also operate certain journeys on the following routes 550, 440, 747, 787 & 035 and possibly also the 737. Obviously there will soon be the A1 & I believe the A9 service is still operated by owned ops.

[winston]

What routes do NX actually operate directly, rather than contract out?

The main ones that are operated entirely by NX Ops are the 701, 727, 747, 787, A6 & A9 + various other individual diagrams on the 035, 210, 230, 410, 420, 540 & 550. The Luton A1 will also be added to the list from 1st May. Also their is the network of Hotel Hoppa routes centred around Heathrow

[nx4737]

Ah, cheers for the information!

[the trainbasher]

NX owned The Kings Ferry also operate some diagrams on the 007 London to Dover I believe

[winston]

NX owned The Kings Ferry also operate some diagrams on the 007 London to Dover I believe

They do, but The Kings Ferry is a completely separate business to NX Operations @ Sipson Road, Start Hill & soon the new Luton base. Kings Ferry have one daily return on the 007 London - Dover but operate it with KF liveried coaches as they don't have any painted in NX colours

[bwsau cymru]

national express and Ryanair are joining up to offer joint tickets.....how interesting!!

http://www.nationalexpressgroup.com/media/allnews.aspx?newsyear=2013&newsitem=834

[Stu]

Now Ryanair can truly keep up the joke about 'flying you somewhere' only to find yourself miles from where you wanted to be, but its okay its just a 'short' coach trip away!  ;D

RYANAIR: Dublin to Glasgow (includes 6 hour coach trip from Birmingham) lol

[bwsau cymru]

sounds like one of the sketches in the BBC's come fly with me where they have a passenger flying into Shannon Barcelona !