INTER-CITY travel by coach in Britain is an attractive proposition. Comfortable, hi-tech and speedy, it also comes at budget prices. There are refinements too on many of the longer services, like hostess service, refreshments, air-conditioning and toilets. One cautionary note: none of the big coach companies ? National Express and Scottish Citylink, and single route operators like Oxford Tube and Oxford Espress ? allow smoking on their services.
National Express runs some 90 per cent of the scheduled coach services in Britain and is the only coach company to offer a nation-wide network. It serves some 800 destinations direct from London Victoria Coach Station (with another 400 on cross-country routes). That?s roughly half the number of destinations served by the train (see our introduction to train travel). Still, the tentacles of the coach network reach deep into Britain. With a bit of planning, local transport connections can be found for the trip to journey?s end.
National Express currently carries more than 15m passengers a year.
Airports feature large in the coach network schedules. Indeed, coach services linking towns and cities the length and breadth of the land run in and out of
London Heathrow, Gatwick and
Stansted airports. Given this high level of activity, airports can be considered useful transfer points for not only coach services but trains and, of course, ?planes. Another high volume handler of passengers, the coastal ferry ports have, for the most part, good coach connections too.
Compared with train travel, a coach ticket can be between a third and a half cheaper. However, on hard fought competitive routes, like those between London?Glasgow/Edinburgh, London?Oxford and London?Cardiff, the margin of cost difference can be much less.
Take passengers
more than 60 years-of-age. They travel for half-price; all that is required is to show proof of age when buying tickets. It?s the same rule for
disabled travellers too.
The
NX2 coach card is the latest in thinking to make travel easier and cheaper for
under 26-year-olds (all see below).
It?s a different story when it comes to journey times. The coach can take twice as long ? and traffic congestion does not help. But given favourable conditions, an inter-city coach trip in modern vehicles
(see picture right) represents a quality deal. Our pages tell this story.
The Brit Xplorer Pass is the latest coach ticket to woo the overseas visitor to Britain. It comes in three versions: the Hobo (7 days/£79); the Foot Loose (14 days/£139); and the Rolling Stone (28days/£219). Only available to overseas passport holders, the pass brings hop-on, hop-off freedom for any National Express service in the UK; trains ? underground or on the surface - and local buses are not included.
Details of all the
National Express services described above can be accessed through
National Express or by telephone to 08705 80 80 80.
