National Express Coaches...is it that bad?
Travel within the UK is not difficult, but, too often, it is very expensive. Rental cars are not cheap for short periods of time, trains for long distance journeys can be sky high and then there is coaches. Ahhh...coaches...images in your mind of long sweaty journeys that go on forever. Suffice to say, I really didn't want to take the coach. We was looking to take a last minute weekend trip to Manchester and with returns from London to Manchester on trains as high as GBP 120 per person and flights at GBP 180 per person, these weren't a feasible option. Meanwhile, National Express cost just GBP 12 for a return departing on a Friday night and returning on Sunday afternoon with no extra charge for baggage. Certainly a bargain, but at what cost?
There are two major operators of coaches for domestic journeys, National Express and Megabus. In London, most services originate from the Transport for London-operated Victoria Coach Station where these two operators and smaller ones start or terminate from. The coach station is around five minutes from the mainline rail and Underground station with it easily reached by foot. Outside of London, most stops are at roadside bus stops whilst stations are generally operated by the coach operating company themselves - as opposed to a communal coach station as per Victoria.
The coach
Boarding to the coach is called similar to airport style without the security check. There is departure gate for your specific coach where your ticket QR code is scanned, large luggage taken and hand sanitiser provided. All National Express (NEX) coaches I came across at the station were modern and clean - a far cry from what I expected. Setting afoot in the vehicle, there is blue mood lighting, cool air conditioning (this was during mid-Summer) and black faux-leather seating. In a throwback to the old days of budget airlines, unless you pay for selection, seating is first come first served.
The seat
The journey to Manchester lasts around five hours, the equivalent of a flight across to the Middle East, versus three hours by train or one hour by plane. On a journey of this length and you want to be somewhat comfortable for it. I'm surprised and somewhat pleased to say that the seats and leg room is decent. On the outbound journey we nabbed the seats just in front of the toilet - this is a negative, however on the NEX coaches these are extra legroom seats which cannot be reserved. In this space I was able to work on my 12 inch laptop for the entire journey comfortably and without the need to position the display awkwardly. When not working on the laptop and writing blog posts, stretching out your legs in the extra legroom seat is a breeze and makes a surprising difference to your journey when you can sit comfortably.
On the return, we wasn't able to get an extra legroom seat since we arrived very close to our departure time. The regular seats are tighter on the legroom which makes using a laptop more difficult but not impossible. I would personally argue that there is just as much, if not more, leg room on these coaches than regular European economy flights. If you can put up with that on a four hour flight, then a coach journey to Manchester is easy. On a longer trip, such as one to Scotland, I could see these seats becoming uncomfortable to rest in.
Errands
NEX seems to advertise that their coaches offer on-board WiFi. This technology isn't difficult in the age of 4G LTE, 5G and satellite but neither of the journeys offered this feature, meaning I had to rely off my mobile hotspot. Every seat offers two regular USB ports, but no regular plug sockets, that charge your devices at a sufficient speed which is useful if you've forgotten a power bank. There is one motorway services stop at Norton Canes Services just north of Birmingham which offers toilets, a decent array of food and drink options (although no hot food can be taken aboard) and an opportunity to stretch your legs. For the London to Manchester route, it would be nicer if there was a stop closer to the middle of the journey rather than just ninety minutes from Manchester but this could be difficult in getting a location that fits this criteria. Finally, and this is more dependent on passengers, but adherence to mask wearing on both journeys was quite poor - even though this was prior to the lifting of the mask legislation on 19th July 2021. This is frustrating as everybody wearing masks properly is for the protection of others but I have come to expect this. I opted to wear a higher filtration KF94 mask (Korean standard close to N95, FFP2 and KN95) to protect myself as much as possible.
Would I do it again?
Yes. Its never going to be a dream or exciting but NEX coaches get you there safely and effectively. There'll be two scenarios where I will consider taking the coach again:
- Alternative transport methods are too expensive for their worth
- I have the luxury of time on my side
I certainly wouldn't be taking a twelve hour plus coach to Scotland any time soon because that is a waste of precious annual leave but taking a five hour coach after work on a Friday that arrives at 11pm - that is reasonable and not that much faster than the train. When checking for your domestic journeys you can always mix and match, sometimes a return may be super expensive on the train but a one way in either direction could be cheap meaning you could opt for the coach or plane on the alternate direction. You have flexibility in making your travel planes and you may value the experience of the respective mediums differently - just don't count coaches completely out the equation as I had done before. Honestly, its not as bad as you think.
Have you tried National Express or any long distance UK coaches? Let us know in the comments below.