National Express(and Megabus) duplicate coach

[TheGrandWazoo]

I actually worked for National Express, managing the allocation of duplicate coaches. In some areas, such as Western National and SWT, they HAD to be given first refusal on any work out of their areas.

In other areas, there was free reign to use who had met the criteria. However, in my time there, I can remember Bennetts of Warrington actually being stopped from being a subby for a while because of a couple of quality related faux pas. The criteria was that a service car had to <7 yrs old and a dupe <10 yrs old. That said, we knew that this was not always the case and that Western National quite often sneaked Leopards (+15 years old) out onto Penzance/Newquay to Plymouth sections of route. Also, if you could "trade down" on spec so that a Flightlink could be a Rapide, a Rapide could just be toilet fitted, and a toilet service (e.g. 320) could just be any coach.

We used Hamiltons a lot but would also have some "tramping" vehicles from lower cost parts of the world and employed on the most challenging or expensive routes; some quite inspired interworking allowed that to happen! There were also other little tricks where some journeys would be just over 4h 30 so would necessitate a second driver; we would arrange for a second "jockey" driver to do a short stretch (e.g. Glasgow to Hamilton Services or VCS to Golders Green) and return home rather than do the whole journey!

 

[Martin1988]

Something I have noticed over the course of the past 4 or 5 years is that there have been a lot more instances where duplicate coaches and additional weekend/seasonal journeys have been contracted to operators who provide National Express services on a full time basis. I've also become aware of a lot more duplicate operators using former National Express vehicles from other operators who have either stopped operating on the network or upgraded their fleet.

If anyone is happy to answer I would be interested to find out, is it more beneficial if a duplicate coach can be worked by a contractor that s used to providing National Express service on a regular basis(whether they are duping their own service or operate elsewhere on the network) or are there advantages to hiring in other operators to provided duplicates or work occasional services?

I remember one operator who worked services on Fridays and sundays only who often ran aged vehicles on the route. During 2006/2007 they were regularly using a catetano algarve which was about 14/15 years old and then they regularly began churning out a downgraded Stagecoach jonckheere Monaco which despite its impressive interior and its coach seating was rather uncomfortable inside and had the feel of being a service bus rather than a coach.

Are things like the age of the vehicle important to customers?

 

[orpine]

Are things like the age of the vehicle important to customers?

I suspect so, but only because of the facilities it comes with. The new coaches, at least NX ones, seem to be leather seated and wifi and stuff. If the dupe doesn't have that, the customer is losing out. Sucks if they bought their ticket based on the premise of one of the missing features.
In fact, thinking about it, what would the customers recourse be? If I'd planned on a 6hr (or whatever) coach journey with wi-fi, I'd be somewhat miffed if the coach didn't have it because it was a dupe.

 

[Martin1988]

I can see where you're coming from there.

Back on 22nd December I travelled on the sunday extra National Express diagram from Birmingham to Bristol and the operator was using one of their own coaches as opposed to a National Express vehicle.

One of the other passengers wanted to charge their phone and was rather miffed that the coach didn't have this facility

 

[starrymarkb]

I know what you mean about charging, Elites and Newer Levantes have sockets but older Levantes and Panthers don't

Typically the evening London to Exeter runs are MegaPanthers so no power at the time I really do need some extra power in my phone