National Express Booking System

[Bletchleyite]

Neil, what makes me laugh is how NX promote their services in relation there being no service on the railways on certain days etc. What they don't mention is if things go wrong on the Motorways eg M1 ( as you probably are aware of) you can be stuck say between jcts 15-14 for at least a couple of hours. With no way out.

I'd have thought that fairly obvious and equivalent to going by car. (By car you might be able to leave the motorway if you can reach a junction, but Nat Ex do divert in that kind of way if it makes sense, and obviously if you're stuck between two junctions you can't leave by either mode - but at least on a coach you can go for a wee! )

 

[pitdiver]

I'd have thought that fairly obvious and equivalent to going by car. (By car you might be able to leave the motorway if you can reach a junction, but Nat Ex do divert in that kind of way if it makes sense, and obviously if you're stuck between two junctions you can't leave by either mode - but at least on a coach you can go for a wee! )

Not to some Coach Passengers. They seem to think that coaches can be magically taken off the M1 and made to appear at their next calling point.

 

[carlberry]

NX infuriate me - I would be quite happy to have a day out on the coach but I can't find a route map anywhere! There doesn't seem to be any way of searching where coaches go to from a particular point, you have to enter a destination as well which isn't great when you're open to travelling anywhere

I'll be the first to admit they're not very good, however here is a starting point!

http://www.carlberry.co.uk/op/National_Express_Birmingham.jpg

Or, if you have Google Earth:
www.carlberry.co.uk/op/National_Express_Birmingham.kml

You can get a list of services using the Traveline South East website (or http://www.carlberry.co.uk/rfnlistr.asp?O=NATEX, however it's broken down into individual stopping patterns so it's not as useful).

National Express stopped the map may years ago and dropped the timetable book as soon as they could as well. Its all very well saying it's all on the Internet however they miss a lot of opportunities by not offering different ways of querying what's available, just sticking to the standard one that requires you to know everything about your journey before they'll tell you whats available.

 

[Bungle965]

Sheffield Omnibus produce something which may be of some worth it.
It shows all of the NX services including the summer specials I believe, furthermore it shows who operates what.
Sam

 

[Typhoon]

National Express stopped the map may years ago and dropped the timetable book as soon as they could as well. Its all very well saying it's all on the Internet however they miss a lot of opportunities by not offering different ways of querying what's available, just sticking to the standard one that requires you to know everything about your journey before they'll tell you whats available.

Exactly! A couple of years ago I was planning a journey using NEx to a place that did not have a National Express stop. I planned to finish the journey by bus and did not care where I caught the bus from. I was able to plan an efficient journey by obtaining the relevant paper timetables, not by going to the nearest town with a National Express stop but by using a much quicker coach journey. I have tried using the current planner, finding the nearest (physical) stop to my destination; result - 'We are unable to find any results'.

Traveline gives me decent options (including the one of choice), but why do I have to go to a third party site - and how many people would just give up? Why won't National Express allow me to plan my own journeys?

 

[Peter Sarf]

Just found this thread while trying to find a way around their primitive booking system. Five people London to Cardiff, three return together and the last two on other separate days. So that is four bookings. what an ordeal typing in the address and card details four times !. And remembering to sidestep the junk mail option and remember not to click "continue" as it just leads you to a voucher that is free the first month then commits you to paying £15 per month thereafter - SCAM.

On the other side meagrebus are driving me mad with a pop up offering me hotels etc etc in Cardiff. Do they think the majority of their customers need "help" choosing things to do and spend money on - NO the majority have been many times before. Mainly students at uni in Cardiff and Welsh who spend Mon-Fri in London for work.

I decided to try NatEx again as I am getting bored with the consistently delayed departures from London Victoria. Hoping NatEx might be a bit better and noticed they were cheaper - they sometimes are. It just shows how little attention they pay to the reality of their service. Be nice if they changed the damn timetable so i don't have to turn up unnecessarily early for their service.

 

[Statto]

For NX timetables i now go onto this site which has the full list of timetables[although you have to know the number]the official site is still awful
https://www.nxagents.com/theguide/

 

[Deerfold]

For NX timetables i now go onto this site which has the full list of timetables[although you have to know the number]the official site is still awful
https://www.nxagents.com/theguide/

There seems to have been quite an expansion in Christmas Day services. 5 to and from Leeds/London and largely hourly Leeds to Manchester.

I remember in the 90s when there was only a skeleton service on Boxing Day.

 

[pitdiver]

Glad I don't work for them anymore. It was bad enough working on Boxing Day with everybody complaining about the lack of local buses particularly the X5 Oxford-Cambridge.
Deerfold, hafe you looked at the fares for Christmas day?