Trivia: National Express routes you have travelled on

[route101]

A bit of fun to see who travels a lot on National Express.

Historic:

588 London to Glasgow#
A3 Gatwick to Victoria
534 Glasgow to Newcastle (1x via A1 and 1 x via Gala)
332 Birmingham to Newcastle
336 Glasgow to Birmingham (Night service)
539 Glasgow to Birmingham
591 London to Edinburgh (Before service was extended to Glasgow)
592 Glasgow to London (Via Heathrow)

More recent:

A1 Luton to Victoria
007 London to Dover
025 Brighton to London
030 Fareham to London
032 Southampton to London
452 Grimsby to London
490 Norwich to London
507 London to Swansea
586 Edinburgh to London
587 London to Glasgow
590 London to Glasgow
591 Newcastle to Glasgow
594 Edinburgh to London
595 London to Glasgow
100 Birmingham to Bath
160 Birmingham to Bournemouth
204 Heathrow to Southampton
203 Portsmouth to Heathrow

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

My repertoire isn't nearly as impressive...

030 - London to Portsmouth
040 - London to Bristol
400 - London to Birmingham
404 - London to Exeter
423 - London to Liverpool
550 - London to Liverpool
595 - London to Glasgow

 

[Trainguy34]

Never have been on NX here, nearly had due recently due to a storm potentially causing disruption after a concert at the O2, would've got the 008 (London - Canterbury).

Have been on the Stagecoach M2 however from Canterbury to North Greenwich before it was discontinued.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Not in recent years but when I worked for them...

Newcastle to London
Middlesbrough to Birmingham
Darlington to Birmingham
Newcastle to Gatwick
London to St Austell/Hayle
London to Nottingham
Nottingham to Newcastle
Edinburgh to Newcastle
Birmingham to Gatwick

To be honest, I'm much more likely to drive or train than get a coach nowadays.

 

[route101]

I only have taken an interest in the coach networks in the last few years. Looking at doing the routes to the Southwest this summer hopefully.

 

[Eyersey468]

I've travelled from Southampton to Leeds or York on them a few times years ago. Now drive for them but that probably doesn't count

 

[Parebunks]

For me (had to look the full routes for some of these up!):
040 (London-Bristol)
100 (Birmingham-Bristol)
131 (Birmingham-York)
181 (Birmingham-Glasgow)
160 (Bournemouth-Birmingham)
210 (Gatwick-Wolverhampton)
240 (Heathrow-Bradford)
564 (London-Halifax)
586 (London-Edinburgh)
587 (London-Glasgow)
590 (London-Glasgow)
737 (Oxford-Stansted)

The coach is absolutely my preferred form of travel being generally unable to afford the train, but generally concentrated onto a few particularly convenient routes. I tend to slightly favour Megabus as there's a wider range of journey opportunities from Oxford, though suspect my list of NX routes will be broadening with Megabus cutting back on Oxford-Manchester.

 

[JGurney]

I don't know the route numbers, but:

​

London - Leeds​

London - Middlesbrough​

London - York​

London - Plymouth​

London - Blackpool​

London - Birmingham​

London - Stamford (via Peterborough)​

London - Gloucester​

London - Bristol​

London - Shepton Mallet (via Bath)​

London - Ringwood​

London - Lyndhurst​

London - Southampton (coach stn)​

London - Southampton (Royal Quay)​

London - Imber*​

Heathrow - Birmingham​

Heathrow - Bristol​

Hammersmith - Bristol​

Stratford - Stansted Airport​

Yeovil - Dorchester​

Birkenhead - Glasgow (via Manchester)​

Middlesbrough - Liverpool​

Middlesbrough - Wadebridge (via Plymouth)​

​

*Not sure if that really counts, as while technically a scheduled service it is realistically more like an excursion.

 

[Statto]

Liverpool - Manchester - Leeds, when this was part of express shuttle network, coaches ran hourly so you didn't have to pre book a seat
Liverpool - London, including overnight coaches, most of the time i return from London on the overnight coach
Liverpool - Birmingham
Liverpool - Sheffield - Nottingham
Blackpool & Preston - London
Liverpool - Newcastle

 

[mlambeuk]

York to Blackpool
York to London
Leeds to Skegness

 

[pitdiver]

I like the Great Wazoo worked for NX.The only services I used were the following
Milton Keynes to Birmingham Coach station.
Milton Keynes to Nottingham once
Miton Keynes to Liverpool once
Milton Keynes to Stansted twice
Milton Keynes to London Victoria on a number of occasions.

This was always on company business. Would never use them my own use as my wife and I both have Priv travel facilities on National Rail

 

[JGurney]

Something which strikes me looking at these lists is the paucity of rail-less destinations.

So far I seem to be the only one reporting any, and of those four (Lyndhurst, Ringwood, Shepton Mallet and Wadebridge, disregarding Imber) only one, Ringwood, still has a National Express service today. (Coach tickets to Shepton Mallet can still be booked via the National Express website, but they are for the Berrys Coaches service).

This seems strange given the apparently logical role of the coach for serving places away from the rail network.

 

[route101]

Something which strikes me looking at these lists is the paucity of rail-less destinations.

So far I seem to be the only one reporting any, and of those four (Lyndhurst, Ringwood, Shepton Mallet and Wadebridge, disregarding Imber) only one, Ringwood, still has a National Express service today. (Coach tickets to Shepton Mallet can still be booked via the National Express website, but they are for the Berrys Coaches service).

This seems strange given the apparently logical role of the coach for serving places away from the rail network.

NX have cut back on the cross country routes over the last 5 years.

 

[Kite159]

From memory the only National Express coach I've used is one from Wembley Stadium to/from Basingstoke when there has been a music show on at Wembley and the trains were replaced by buses. Not sure if it was a regular-scheduled service or one of the routes Nat Express ran when Wembley had events on. This would have been 10 years ago

 

[Parebunks]

Something which strikes me looking at these lists is the paucity of rail-less destinations.

So far I seem to be the only one reporting any, and of those four (Lyndhurst, Ringwood, Shepton Mallet and Wadebridge, disregarding Imber) only one, Ringwood, still has a National Express service today. (Coach tickets to Shepton Mallet can still be booked via the National Express website, but they are for the Berrys Coaches service).

This seems strange given the apparently logical role of the coach for serving places away from the rail network.

There are barely any coach routes left to rail-less towns, and those that do exist are very patchy. IMO that would be the logical role of the coach if the rail network was more affordable, but the one it actually fills is a budget-friendly alternative to the most popular rail lines, and it looks to be going further that way with NX cutting back on non-motorway routes and Flixbus and Megabus not offering routes to any but the largest destinations to start with. It's the local buses that are left filling the railway gaps, unfortunately.

 

[GusB]

Let's stick to the topic, please - National Express routes that you have travelled on. Thanks

 

[Martin2012]

Over the last 20 years I have used the following routes with the following operators:

007 London to Bluewater or Canterbury (Stagecoach or Kings Ferry)

007 Dover to London /Canterbury to London/ Bluewater to London/Ebbsfleet to London (Stagecoach)

010 London to Cambridge (Whippet)

021 London to Dover (Stagecoach)

022 London to Bluewater (Buzzlines)

040 Bristol to London and return (First, South Gloucestershire, Edwards, East Yorkshire Coaches, Applegates, Bennetts Coaches, Chalfont, Turners of Bristol, TWH Travel, Coach Miles and dupes from Turners of Chumleigh, Hemmings Coaches, Hookways Coaches, Hamiltons Of Uxbridge, TWH Travel and Peter Godward)

100 Bristol to Birmingham (Edwards Coaches)
and return (Edwards coaches and Barnes Coaches)

106 Bristol to Birmingham (Edwards Coaches)

150 Birmingham to Leicester (Skills)

183 Leicester to Birmingham (Bruces)

200 Bristol to Heathrow and return (South Gloucestershire)

201 Swansea to Bristol (Edwards Coaches)

202 Bristol to Cardiff and return (First Cymru)

212 Coventry to Birmingham (Selwyns)

230 Leicester to Nottingham (Veolia)

240 Sheffield to Leeds (Veolia

300 Bristol to Bath (TGM/Luckets) and Warminster to Bristol (Luckets)

301 Bristol to Oxford and return (South Gloucestershire)

302 Bristol to Bath (First Northampton)

308 Birmingham to Leicester or Peterborough and return (Ambassador)

310 Leeds to Nottingham (Yorkshire Traction) and return (Hardings Coaches and Travelstar European)

310 Leeds to Birmingham (Foursquare)

310 Sheffield to Leeds (Stotts)

317 Bristol to Bournemouth and return (South Gloucestershire)

318 Bristol to Birmingham and return (First Bristol, Applegates, South Gloucestershire and dupes from Hemmings Coaches, Hookways, Newbury Coaches and Riddlers)

319 Bristol to Birmingham (South Gloucestershire)

319 Birmingham to Leeds and return (Travelstar European)

320 Birmingham to Bradford and return (Stagecoach Midland Red, Arriva Derby, Bebb/Veolia, Foursquare, Linburg, Stotts, Ross Travel (dupe) and Travellers Choice (dupe)

321 Birmingham to Leeds and return (Bebb/Veolia)

322 Nottingham to Birmingham (East Yorkshire)

323 Birmingham to Stoke On Trent (Selwyns)

324 Bristol to Leeds (TGM)

324 Bristol to Huddersfield (Parks)

325 Birmingham to Manchester (Haytons and Selwyns including a trip on both a Haytons and a Selwyns liveried coach)

326 Leeds to Sheffield (Classic Coaches)

327 Bristol to Birmingham (East Yorkshire and Bennetts Coaches (Breakdown cover)

327 Birmingham to Leicester (Abbotts Of Leeming dupe)

328 Bristol to Birmingham and return (First and dupes from Travellers Choice and Truronian)

330 Bristol to Birmingham (First and dupes from Applegates, Bennetts, South Gloucestershire, Goodes, Silverdale and Truronian)

330 Nottingham to Birmingham (Dunn Line/Veolia)

331 Bristol to Birmingham (Edwards)

332 Birmingham to Leicester/Nottingham or Mansfield (Go North East)

336 Bristol to Exeter and return (Bruces and Parks Of Hamilton)

339 Bristol to Leicester (Hookways)

350 Manchester to Sheffield (Stagecoach Mansfield and Johnson Brothers Tours)

403 Bath to Heathrow/London and return (First and South Gloucestershire)

406 Newquay to Penzance (Parks)

410 Birmingham to Coventry (JKT Travel)

440 London to MK Coachway and return (Arriva Midlands)

440 Leicester to Derby (Skills)

450 Mansfield to Nottingham (Silverdale)

455 MK Coachway to London (MK Metro)?

481 London to Chelmsford and return (Galloway)

481 London to Ipswich and return (Galloway and Veolia)

500 Exeter to Newton Abbot (Parks)

501 Taunton to Exeter (Parks)

530 Bristol to Birmingham/Bristol to Leeds (Go North East)

530 Birmingham to Bristol (Blue Iris Coaches- Dupe)

532 Bristol to Birmingham and return (Bruces Coaches and dupes from Applegates, South Gloucestershire, Bennetts Coaches and Newbury Coaches)

532 Bristol to Edinburgh and return (Bruces Coaches)

538 Birmingham to Manchester and return (Birmingham to Manchester on a Stuarts Of Carluke Duplicate coach)

561 London to Leeds (Dunn Line/Veolia)
561 Leeds to London (Dunn Line/Veolia/Stotts and Tetleys (Duplicate Coach)

564 Huddersfield to Sheffield and return

777 Birmingham to Coventry and return

Also been on the route between Cambridge and Stanstead and the route between Stanstead and London but forget the numbers of these.

 

[Wilko82]

From memory

304 Weymouth to Bournemouth
315 Weymouth to Exeter/Weymouth to Bournemouth
333 Birmingham/Bristol to Weymouth
334 Bournemouth to Birmingham
339 Bristol to Cheltenham
410 London to Wolverhampton
421 London to Liverpool
461 Nuneaton to London
531 Birmingham to Bristol

035 London/Bournemouth to Weymouth
160 Bournemouth to Birmingham
205 Bournemouth to Heathrow
422 Manchester to Wolverhampton
460 Coventry to London
550 Liverpool to Birmingham/London