NX Covid era services

[Spoddendale]

National Express has resumed coach services today operating temporary timetables which have a different format to the temporary timetables operated in March/April.

For East Anglia the services operated are 075 from Cambridge and 491 from Great Yarmouth both to London (Victoria). The Ipswich-Stansted-Victoria service operated earlier in the year isn’t included.

Service 075 runs from Cambridge via Trumpington Park and Ride, Stansted Airport, Stratford, Bow, Mile End, Minories and Victoria. There are two departures, one at 0815 Mon-Fri/0830 Sat-Sun and another at 1550. There is also a later departure by a coach on service 491 from Norwich (see below) which departs Cambridge at 1900. The northbound journeys depart Victoria at 0930 (service 491 to Norwich via Cambridge) followed by two Victoria-Cambridge journeys at 1230 and 2030.

Service 491 (which had been numbered 813 in the earlier temporary series) runs via Acle, Norwich and Thetford running non-stop to Stratford then London (Victoria). There are two departures from Great Yarmouth at 0730 Mon-Fri/0745 Sat-Sun and 1140. There is a trip from Norwich at 1715 which also serves Cambridge. The northbound journeys depart Victoria at 0930 (to Norwich also serving Cambridge) followed by two journeys to Great Yarmouth at 1300 and 1800. Newmarket and Stansted Airport are not served like they were on the March/April temporary timetables.

The vehicles on service 491 on this first day back were:

0730 ex Great Yarmouth – Ambassador Travel 214 (BV19 XRA) - the driver and assistant both wearing face masks.
1140 ex Great Yarmouth – Ambassador Travel 216 (BV69 KPT)
0930 ex London - Travel West Midlands 296 (BV69 KSN)

Seven photographs of the above may be seen starting at this one:
http://www.ipernity.com/doc/davidslater-spoddendale/50107196


Does anyone know the operator of service 075? Could it be Whippet as they ran one coach on the 813 in March/April now replaced by Ambassador.

Incidentally, it looks like Megabus are re-starting on Friday 3 July 2020.


David

[Suzy Scott]

Temp times and fares at;
https://www.nxagents.com/theguide/

[Spoddendale]

RouteOne magazine 15 July 2020 reports that National Express has added more services to those offered under the Covid-19 temporary network from 13 July.

Quote

National Express will add more services to its scheduled coach timetables after reporting higher than expected demand after operations were restarted on 1 July.

From Monday 13 July, 12 new routes will be introduced. Nine others will see their frequencies increased and over 40 stops will be added to the network. “The level of requests for travel meant that we decided to add to our timetable sooner than anticipated,” says Chris Hardy, Managing Director of National Express UK Coach.

Data collated by National Express has revealed that there has been a switch from spontaneous travel to more planning ahead and booking in advance by customers. There is also an increased expectation of flexible booking.

To accommodate that, National Express introduced an option to amend the date, time and journey origin and destination free of charge if customers’ circumstances change.

Journey requests are being monitored, with a short survey having been added to its website to capture that information. The results will be used to make informed decisions as to where National Express introduces more services and where frequencies are increased, adds Mr Hardy. Coach capacities are currently reduced as part of measures to ensure the safety of passengers and staff.

Unquote



David

[Spoddendale]

Unless anyone knows different, for some time now National Express does not appear to have had any services from Cambridge - not even to London (Victoria).

Looking at the NX and Bus Times websites over the past weekend (Sunday 8 November) tells that there are no services on the Great Yarmouth-Norwich-Thetford-London service 491 until the end of the present lockdown which latterly had two departures each way each day. The morning trip out of London and the corresponding afternoon trip from Great Yarmouth were withdrawn sometime earlier. These travelled via Cambridge and I believe were the only Cambridge services during September and October.
   
On Wednesday last (4 November) there were the two said Great Yarmouth-Norwich-Thetford-London 491 services (I photographed the morning trip).

Despite the NX website stating ‘a new timetable from Sunday 8 November’ and continuing to state that the timetable had  ‘no services’ the tracker on the Bus Times website that evening showed Ambassador Travel 214 (BV19 XRA) wending its way through Suffolk on the 1800 trip from London.

Carrying out searches on the website today (Monday 9 November) there are no journeys shown on the Norwich-London service until a resumption on Thursday 3 December. I did searches through to 5 January and those two trips are shown every day except for Christmas Day. They are running on New Year’s Day.

There are still no NX journeys shown from Cambridge at all.

At the time of writing Megabus is showing two trips each way on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays between Norwich and Stratford via UEA, Thetford and Babraham thus offering the only facilities on the corridor.

David   

[dennisdart]

Unless anyone knows different, for some time now National Express does not appear to have had any services from Cambridge - not even to London (Victoria).

Looking at the NX and Bus Times websites over the past weekend (Sunday 8 November) tells that there are no services on the Great Yarmouth-Norwich-Thetford-London service 491 until the end of the present lockdown which latterly had two departures each way each day. The morning trip out of London and the corresponding afternoon trip from Great Yarmouth were withdrawn sometime earlier. These travelled via Cambridge and I believe were the only Cambridge services during September and October.
   
On Wednesday last (4 November) there were the two said Great Yarmouth-Norwich-Thetford-London 491 services (I photographed the morning trip).

Despite the NX website stating ‘a new timetable from Sunday 8 November’ and continuing to state that the timetable had  ‘no services’ the tracker on the Bus Times website that evening showed Ambassador Travel 214 (BV19 XRA) wending its way through Suffolk on the 1800 trip from London.

Carrying out searches on the website today (Monday 9 November) there are no journeys shown on the Norwich-London service until a resumption on Thursday 3 December. I did searches through to 5 January and those two trips are shown every day except for Christmas Day. They are running on New Year’s Day.

There are still no NX journeys shown from Cambridge at all.

At the time of writing Megabus is showing two trips each way on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays between Norwich and Stratford via UEA, Thetford and Babraham thus offering the only facilities on the corridor.

David

There have been no NX services through Peterborough since March 24th. The usual ones are Hull or Lincoln or Mablethorpe via Peterborough to London, the daily Great Yarmouth to Bangor via all sorts of places, Nottingham to Stanstead and the Liverpool service to Cambridge.

[HughT]

Unless anyone knows different, for some time now National Express does not appear to have had any services from Cambridge - not even to London (Victoria).

Looking at the NX and Bus Times websites over the past weekend (Sunday 8 November) tells that there are no services on the Great Yarmouth-Norwich-Thetford-London service 491 until the end of the present lockdown which latterly had two departures each way each day. The morning trip out of London and the corresponding afternoon trip from Great Yarmouth were withdrawn sometime earlier. These travelled via Cambridge and I believe were the only Cambridge services during September and October.
   
On Wednesday last (4 November) there were the two said Great Yarmouth-Norwich-Thetford-London 491 services (I photographed the morning trip).

Despite the NX website stating ‘a new timetable from Sunday 8 November’ and continuing to state that the timetable had  ‘no services’ the tracker on the Bus Times website that evening showed Ambassador Travel 214 (BV19 XRA) wending its way through Suffolk on the 1800 trip from London.

Carrying out searches on the website today (Monday 9 November) there are no journeys shown on the Norwich-London service until a resumption on Thursday 3 December. I did searches through to 5 January and those two trips are shown every day except for Christmas Day. They are running on New Year’s Day.

There are still no NX journeys shown from Cambridge at all.

At the time of writing Megabus is showing two trips each way on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays between Norwich and Stratford via UEA, Thetford and Babraham thus offering the only facilities on the corridor.

David

When I checked on/around 20 August, there were plenty: the 075 (2 services per day to/from London via Stansted Airport), 727 (6 services per day from Norwich to Heathrow Airport and 5 per day in the opposite direction), 737 (4 services per day to/from Luton Airport and Oxford), and 491 (1 direct service per day to/from London and 1 to/from Norwich).

But I appreciate that's now more than "some time" ago! Unfortunately, I haven't been keeping an eye on them since...

N&P (East of England) shows an amended timetable on the 490/491 from 30 October. No sign of any changes to the other services in East of England N&Ps during this time.

[HughT]

A brief PS. I can't find any notifications of changes to local NX services in the VOSA database (other than the one mentioned in my earlier message). SO either they're going to submit under "short notice" (and after the event) or they've forgotten. Or something...

[Spoddendale]

The National Express Great Yarmouth-Norwich-Thetford-London (Victoria) service 491 resumes Thursday 3 December 2020 with the same two trips each way each day that operated until the second lockdown.

From Great Yarmouth: 0730 (NSSu)/0745 (SSu) and 1140 (Daily)

From Victoria: 1300 (Daily) and 1800 (Daily)


There are still no services serving Cambridge.


David

[cesar]

A brief PS. I can't find any notifications of changes to local NX services in the VOSA database (other than the one mentioned in my earlier message). SO either they're going to submit under "short notice" (and after the event) or they've forgotten. Or something...

NX services won’t appear as they’re not generally registered services. Some sections of some routes are exceptions if they effectively operate under local bus service rules, but generally this is not the case.

[Barry]

Looks like NX planned a 4 day return to Cambridge for a Christmas bubbles service - every 2 hours from Cambridge and Trumpington to Stansted, Stratford and London on 23, 24, 26 & 27th Dec

https://bustimes.org/services/075-london-cambridge

Peterborough (and Stevenage?!  The very ongoing existence of the 010 confused me enough!) are also getting four buses a day for the same four days:  https://bustimes.org/services/448-london-hull 

[Spoddendale]

To try to establish if the Christmas period Peterborough-London service is to be worked through from somewhere to the north of Peterborough I did some random searches on the National Express website.

Despite the file name in the link to the Bus Times website containing ’448 Hull’ in the title (which I presume is because that is where such journeys would be shown under normal circumstances) the four trips appear to be just over the Peterborough-London section. If my assumption is correct it would imply that three different coaches will be required to operate the four trips (also assuming that 70 minutes turn round at Victoria is sufficient for cleaning and Covid wipe down etc). It would be interesting to know which contractor would work them and with what type of coach.

Similarly, on the Cambridge-London service there are eight trips which on the face of it could be worked by four coaches each doing two round trips.

Perhaps Whippet will be covering some or all the above workings if they still have NX coaches in the fleet?   

[Steves]

Start Hill are currently only running about 30% of the normal service so would have vehicle and drivers spare.  I would expect them to operate the Cambridge service and possibly Peterborough as well.  NX are prioritising the use of owned ops vehicles currently.

[Spoddendale]

National Express Sunday 27 December 2020

Using the ‘Bus Times’ website I have collated some information in respect of the National Express services 075 (London-Cambridge); 448 (London-Peterborough); and 491 (London-Norwich-Great Yarmouth operated on Sunday 27 December 2020. NX operated special timetables for four days (23, 24, 26 and 27 December) for Christmas.

The website shows seven ‘Whippet’ (and one ‘Mike de Courcey’) vehicles operating on said services which might actually now be vehicles taken into the in-house National Express fleet. (Past postings on this Forum mentioned that Whippet had ceased to work NX contracts circa October 2020. de Courcey closed down in August 2020).

NX owned West Midlands Travel worked some London-Norwich journeys with regular contractor Ambassador Travel covering what have been their two regular round trips during the Covid period. Galloway European, not usually a performer on this route, had some of the workings.

Not sure how accurate the ‘Bus Times’ website is. It actually shows that NX will be operating a fairly regular service on the 491 each day until at least 15 January 2021 but the NX website does not show anything.

So, to the workings on Sunday 27 December 2020:

Service 075

0510 Cambridge-London/0900 London-Cambridge
1310 Cambridge-London/1700 London-Cambridge
Worked by BV67 JZT - former(??) Whippet NX31

0710 Cambridge-London/1100 London-Cambridge
1510 Cambridge-London/1900 London-Cambridge
Worked by BL17 XAY - former(??) Whippet NX20

0910 Cambridge-London/1300 London-Cambridge
1710 Cambridge-London/2100 London-Cambridge
Worked by BL17 XBB - former(??) Whippet NX23

1110 Cambridge-London/1500 London-Cambridge
1910 Cambridge-London/2300 London-Cambridge
Worked by BV17 GSU - former(??) Whippet NX17


Service 448

0655 Peterborough-London/1100 London-Peterborough
1555 Peterborough-London/2000 London-Peterborough
Worked by BV67 JZL - former(??) Whippet NX26

0955 Peterborough-London/1400 London-Peterborough
Worked by BV67 JZJ - former(??) Whippet NX25

1255 Peterborough-London/1700 London-Peterborough
Worked by BV67 JZH - former(??) Whippet NX24


Service 491

0615 Great Yarmouth-London/1130 London-Great Yarmouth
1640 Great Yarmouth-London/2200 London-Great Yarmouth
Worked by Galloway 105 (BF68 LCK)

0615 Great Yarmouth-London/1130 London-Great Yarmouth
1640 Great Yarmouth-London
Worked by Galloway 106 (BF68 LCL)

0745 Great Yarmouth-London/1300 London-Great Yarmouth
Worked by Ambassador Travel 214 (BV19 XRA)

0915 Great Yarmouth-London/1430 London-Great Yarmouth
Worked by Galloway 107 (BF68 LCM)

1140 Great Yarmouth-London/1800 London-Great Yarmouth
Worked by Ambassador Travel 215 (BV19 XPU)
 
1800 London-Great Yarmouth
(No live southbound journey shown)
Worked by Ambassador Travel 216 (BV69 KPT)

0700 London-Norwich/1115 Norwich-London
1600 London-Norwich/2030 Norwich-London
Worked by West Midlands Travel 177 (BK14 LFR)

1000 London-Great Yarmouth/1510 Great Yarmouth-London
Worked by BV69 KRU – former de Courcey Travel MD47




David

[John Wakefield]

Non of the Whippet Caetano coaches have a recent change of V5c but this may not change if they are leased vehicles.
The date of last V5c's are as follows:
BV67JZT  12/2/18
BL17XAY  28/7/17
BL17XBB  28/7/17
BV17GSU 12/4/17
BV67JZL   29/1/18
BV67JZJ   29/1/18
BV67JZH   29.1/18

[Steves]

Thank you for the information.  I suspect that the 075 and 448 services were worked by Whippet. It is unlikely that Start Hill would allocate those vehicles consistently if they were part of their fleet. The De Courcey vehicle is probably an NX vehicle now.

All the white NX coaches are operated on the West Midlands licence now so the vehicles almost certainly came from Start Hill. They would not be doing much else.

[SURREYMAN]

As we are discussing current national express Coach operations, I wonder if anyone can confirm/deny some of my confusion.
The latest published 'national express bus and coachHandbook' BBF book (Published May 2020 but apparently 'reflecting fleet as of March 2020') Details depots at Gatwick - which I know closed some years ago, bizarrely the address they list is the drop-off road at the North Terminal!
And at West Drayton - Just north of Heathrow, which I also believed closed some while back.
The depot at Start Hill is listed twice, once as 'Stanstead Airport & once as 'Bishops Stortford', address-wise both are correct, I am aware that N.E have 2 units on the Start hill estate, yards apart, The Ops licence also lists a site in the Airport which I think is mainly for the Car Park shuttle vehicles.
Kings Ferry (N.E subsidiary) have an O licence for a site in Hounslow TW5 9RY, which I believe is where the remaining Heathrow ops - BA car park shuttles are based?
The book also list under the Kings Ferry details, a depot/outstation at 'Oakington Barracks, Longstanton', I can find no trace of any O Licence evidence that this exists, Oakington/Longstanton is north west of Cambridge close to Swavesey!

[Palatine]

As we are discussing current national express Coach operations, I wonder if anyone can confirm/deny some of my confusion.
The latest published 'national express bus and coachHandbook' BBF book (Published May 2020 but apparently 'reflecting fleet as of March 2020') Details depots at Gatwick - which I know closed some years ago, bizarrely the address they list is the drop-off road at the North Terminal!
And at West Drayton - Just north of Heathrow, which I also believed closed some while back.
The depot at Start Hill is listed twice, once as 'Stanstead Airport & once as 'Bishops Stortford', address-wise both are correct, I am aware that N.E have 2 units on the Start hill estate, yards apart, The Ops licence also lists a site in the Airport which I think is mainly for the Car Park shuttle vehicles.
Kings Ferry (N.E subsidiary) have an O licence for a site in Hounslow TW5 9RY, which I believe is where the remaining Heathrow ops - BA car park shuttles are based?
The book also list under the Kings Ferry details, a depot/outstation at 'Oakington Barracks, Longstanton', I can find no trace of any O Licence evidence that this exists, Oakington/Longstanton is north west of Cambridge close to Swavesey!

I wonder if the Kings Ferry Oakington outstation is a hangover from the old Immigration Centre shuttle they used to run about 15 or so years ago between Oakington and Cambridge Rail Station? Believe the driver used a hotel in Bar Hill for the week.

[Spoddendale]

Indeed, The Kings Ferry did have a base in the Cambridge to operate the staff shuttle for the Oakington Immigration Reception Centre. The centre closed around 2010 and had occupied the site of the former RAF Oakington airfield now the site of Northstowe new town.

I photographed the regular bus on the contract in July 2006 which was YP52 CUU a Scania N94UB with, for British work, rather unusual Spanish built Castrosua CS-40 City bodywork. This bus was new in January 2003 built as a prototype before Scania teamed up with East Lancs to build the OmniTown smaller bus. I think I have seen reference that the vehicle was maintained by a local operator. If so presumably one without a clash of interests.


David

[skyLink]

Indeed, The Kings Ferry did have a base in the Cambridge to operate the staff shuttle for the Oakington Immigration Reception Centre. The centre closed around 2010 and had occupied the site of the former RAF Oakington airfield now the site of Northstowe new town.

I photographed the regular bus on the contract in July 2006 which was YP52 CUU a Scania N94UB with, for British work, rather unusual Spanish built Castrosua CS-40 City bodywork. This bus was new in January 2003 built as a prototype before Scania teamed up with East Lancs to build the OmniTown smaller bus. I think I have seen reference that the vehicle was maintained by a local operator. If so presumably one without a clash of interests.


David

https://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelwadman/47001305884/in/photolist-2eBkYJQ-22Qhgyy-25A7EoH-24eaFmM-FVZYRZ-2457Kyk-YwbGVQ-SXHVGt-RVaZXi-R5cteC-LTiSgc-LNxpZD-RpmkQz-8BWBNs-oKzTMQ-ghoBHj-ghophg-ot8Ac2-gcoUpp-dHnu6u-dHh3ma-dHh2qX

still kicks around now has the plate L55BUS

Edit: corrected html tag around David's quoted post.

[Steves]

As we are discussing current national express Coach operations, I wonder if anyone can confirm/deny some of my confusion.
The latest published 'national express bus and coachHandbook' BBF book (Published May 2020 but apparently 'reflecting fleet as of March 2020') Details depots at Gatwick - which I know closed some years ago, bizarrely the address they list is the drop-off road at the North Terminal.

There is a Gatwick 'depot'. More an outstation which was created around the time that Sibson Road (Heathrow) closed. There were no facilities. Cleaning was done at Victoria between trips. As far as I know, they only operate the A3 Gatwick  - Victoria service which probably means it is closed at the moment. Maintenance of the coaches would be done by local Scania dealer  - the same as Start Hill.

The Heathrow location is for the residual work left after Hotel Hoppa was sold. It is in BM coaches yard (interesting now that they operate services for Flixbus when they are running).

[SURREYMAN]

There is a Gatwick 'depot'. More an outstation which was created around the time that Sibson Road (Heathrow) closed. There were no facilities. Cleaning was done at Victoria between trips. As far as I know, they only operate the A3 Gatwick  - Victoria service which probablymeansit is closedatthemoment. Maintenance of the coaches would be done by local Scania dealer  - the same as Start Hill.

The Heathrow location is for the residual work left after Hotel Joppa was sold. I think it is in BM coaches yard (interesting now that they operate services for Flixborough when they are running).

There is nothing listed under VOSA in the Gatwick area for national Express, I know the area fairly well,there is a parking area for coaches at the South Terminal, not an outstation, just an area where coaches stand.
VOSA lists one site on the London & South East area - Arrivals - Victoria Coach Stn - 6 vehicles.
Otherwise the nearest operating centres (Eastern Traffic area) are Luton, Start Hill (2 units) and the long stay car park at Stansted.
Lucketts (N.E subsidiary)have a base in Lancing.
Heathrow is particularly confusing, Chalfont Coaches (N.E Contractor) has a base in nearby Southall.
Kings Ferry (N.E subsidiary)have the aforementoned Hounslow site for the N.E run BA Car Park shuttles.
Stewart & Woods (N.E contractor) have a base in Reading(But no N.E operations believed to be based there).
Reading Buses (N.E contractor for Woking-Heathrow N.E 925 are based at Reading but have an outstation at Slough bus station, (12 vehicles) as do Courtney (subsidiary ) also for 12 vehicles. (Primarily for the 'Thame Valley' bus operation.
Both Courtney and Reading buses have operating buses listed at Sipson Rd for 5 & 4 vehicles.
Obviously the info from VOSA maybe out of date i.e sites listed may no longer be in use.
Sipson Road, always described as 'Heathrow Coach centre' is presumably used as a parking area, I dont know who currently owns the site.
Other Heathrow operators: -
Transdev now run the former Menzies airport operation with a registered address at Sipson Road but actual operating centres are in the airport at Electra avenue (51) and Longford(38) Note Transdev also acquired CCH, also listed as based at Sipson rd!
Hallmarks (Rotala) have consolidated all their operations at the Stanwell base.

[Steves]

There is nothing listed under VOSA in the Gatwick area for national Express, I know the area fairly well,there is a parking area for coaches at the South Terminal, not an outstation, just an area where coaches stand.
VOSA lists one site on the London & South East area - Arrivals - Victoria Coach Stn - 6 vehicles.
Otherwise the nearest operating centres (Eastern Traffic area) are Luton, Start Hill (2 units) and the long stay car park at Stansted.
Lucketts (N.E subsidiary)have a base in Lancing.
Heathrow is particularly confusing, Chalfont Coaches (N.E Contractor) has a base in nearby Southall.
Kings Ferry (N.E subsidiary)have the aforementoned Hounslow site for the N.E run BA Car Park shuttles.
Stewart & Woods (N.E contractor) have a base in Reading(But no N.E operations believed to be based there).
Reading Buses (N.E contractor for Woking-Heathrow N.E 925 are based at Reading but have an outstation at Slough bus station, (12 vehicles) as do Courtney (subsidiary ) also for 12 vehicles. (Primarily for the 'Thame Valley' bus operation.
Both Courtney and Reading buses have operating buses listed at Sipson Rd for 5 & 4 vehicles.
Obviously the info from VOSA maybe out of date i.e sites listed may no longer be in use.
Sipson Road, always described as 'Heathrow Coach centre' is presumably used as a parking area,

National Express call the Gatwick operation a depot.  As mentioned before, all the servicing is done elsewhere either by Scania or at Victoria arrivals which you have found as an operating base.  It certainly has (had) an allocation of coaches but the facilities are extremely marginal. It would be difficult to identify a site - essentially nothing more than a parking area when the coaches are not in use. They may rely on parking on the airport as the services run 24/7.  I don't know about the facilities for drivers. Some or all of the drivers may be based at Victoria.

[SURREYMAN]

National Express call the Gatwick operation a depot.  As mentioned before, all the servicing is done elsewhere either by Scania or at Victoria arrivals which you have found as an operating base.  It certainly has (had) an allocation of coaches but the facilities are extremely marginal. It would be difficult to identify a site - essentially nothing more than a parking area when the coaches are not in use. They may rely on parking on the airport as the services run 24/7.  I don't know about the facilities for drivers. Some or all of the drivers may be based at Victoria.

I think the area you are referring to is the coach park on Ring Road South, on the one way system leading to the South Terminal coach station.
As you say this is just a parking area for visiting coaches, national express included.
The latest British Bus publishing handbook dated March 2020 lists 14 coaches "allocated"  to Gatwick, I take this info with a big pinch of salt, as some of their data is questionable.
Another online fleetlist details the same vehicles as allocated to Luton depot
It maybe that some N.E drivers live near Gatwick and start/finish work there, if the services run 24/7 and the coaches are parked up for just a few hours then presumably they wouldn't need an operators licence for what is essentially short term parking.

[Spoddendale]

This is a cross-reference to a posting made by Suzy under another thread yesterday regarding suspension of NX and Megabus services after Sunday 10 February 2021:

From Suzy:

Both Megabus and nx have announced (in past hour) they are suspending services with English lockdfown.




Press release
Update from National Express UK Coach: Full suspension of Services

7 January 2021
National Express will fully suspend its national network of scheduled coach services with effect from 23:59 on Sunday 10 January 2021.

Chris Hardy, managing director of National Express UK Coach: “We have been providing an important service for essential travel needs. However, with tighter restrictions and passenger numbers falling, it is no longer appropriate to do this.”

All journeys before Monday 11 January will be completed to ensure any passengers making essential journeys are not stranded. All customers whose travel has been cancelled will be contacted and offered a free amendment or full refund.

Chris Hardy adds: “As the vaccination programme is rolled out and Government guidance changes, we will regularly review when we can restart services. We plan to be back on the road as soon as the time is right and have put a provisional restart date of Monday 1 March in place (subject to change).

“The whole team at National Express worked incredibly hard throughout 2020 and I want to thank them for their efforts as we pause our services. We will now make sure we are ready to get back behind the wheel as soon as the nation needs us again.”

Regular updates will be provided through the National Express website, social media channels and customer emails.

www.nationalexpress.com


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Hello there
 
 
 
 

Following the government’s guidance to stay at home and stop all non-essential travel, we’ve taken the decision to temporarily suspend our megabus services in England and Wales, with no journeys running after Sunday 10 January. But we’ll still be continuing to run our megabus services within Scotland and a service from Glasgow to London (with intermediate stops at Manchester and Birmingham). These services are for essential travel only, in line with the latest government guidance.

Customers with a booked ticket to travel on our megabus services who have been affected by this will receive an email to either amend their booking or request a refund. If this affects you and haven’t received an email from us in 5 days, please contact our Customer Services Team on enquiries@megabus.com who will be able to help.

We’re sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you and hope you understand the reasons for our decision. We continue to be on sale for travel from 26 March onwards and are continuing to offer flexible tickets – so you can book with confidence knowing you can amend your ticket up to 24 hours before you’re due to travel.

We look forward to welcoming you back on board very soon.

Best wishes and stay safe

Mark

Mark Venables
Managing Director - megabus