Leeds to London by coach

[johntea]

How is the journey from Leeds to London by coach? (National Express)

I need to make a last minute day trip this coming Saturday and trains are around £80 for a pair of advance tickets there and back but looking on National Express I can do 08:15 - 12:50 outwards and 18:30 - 23:05 return for just under £25 all in so a much cheaper option!

Is there power/USB on board as then I can just entertain myself with the iPad for the journey, also is it straight through or is there a short break at some point for refreshments?

 

[Smethwickian]

Your selected journeys are shown as non-stop between Leeds and Golders Green in both directions, so no loo break is scheduled.

But unless there's been some kind of breakdown of short-notice hire, your coach should have a toilet and power sockets.

Full timetables for NX services, showing any refreshment stops where scheduled, are here https://www.nationalexpress.com/en/help/timetables/all-timetables and the FAQs on the NX website here https://www.nationalexpress.com/en/help will answer many other questions.

 

[leedslad82]

I've always found Megabus to be quicker from Leeds to London than national express. Normally only stop at Meadowhall interchange and then a driver swap at a services whenever I been on one

 

[johntea]

In the end went for Megabus as National Express shot up in price when I actually went to book this morning, seems to call at Meadowhell, Loughborough and Leicester with a supposed 4 hour 35 min journey time. Decided to book an advance train journey back so I get slightly more time in London and a more express journey back home!

 

[overthewater]

Wolly edge is the services megabus stop at. There is also hut for them.

 

[Deerfold]

Bit late, but NX has power sockets. Megabus often has power sockets and/or USB, but in my experience megabus's rarely work. Nation Express have an Entertainment app which works with the onboard wifi to provide some half decent films. I watched Deadpool (1) on my last NX journey,

 

[johntea]

Megabus did the trip bang on schedule (Left Leeds 08:00 arrived London 12:45, well technically it arrived in London traffic a lot earlier!), and both the power socket and USB sockets worked fine.

In fact my only criticism would be to allow a 15-20 minute rest break around Leicester with it being such a long journey - we even pulled in at a services but this was only to allow for a driver change rather than letting passengers off.

 

[extendedpaul]

Megabus did the trip bang on schedule (Left Leeds 08:00 arrived London 12:45, well technically it arrived in London traffic a lot earlier!), and both the power socket and USB sockets worked fine.

In fact my only criticism would be to allow a 15-20 minute rest break around Leicester with it being such a long journey - we even pulled in at a services but this was only to allow for a driver change rather than letting passengers off.

Megabus regularly confirm on twitter that there are no rest breaks on any services. Someone referred recently to a London to Aberdeen journey scheduled to take 14 hours which arrived in Aberdeen 3 hours late so up to 17 hours in the same seat. They were actually praising the drivers as the delays were weather-related but even so...

The equivalent bus today (12.30 from London, due Aberdeen 02.45) is currently running two hours late.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

If going from Huddersfield I'd always use Megabus rather than NatEx. The direct Megabus does a bit of a tour of West Yorkshire (Brighouse, Halifax, Bradford and Leeds) but after Leeds just calls at Meadowhall, and as the direct runs are overnight this isn't a major issue. National Express on the other hand run via Dewsbury, Meadowhall, Sheffield city centre, and then do a very slow crawl through the southern suburbs of Sheffield to get to Chesterfield which seems to take hours.

From Leeds there are probably a few faster runs though.

 

[philthetube]

Megabus did the trip bang on schedule (Left Leeds 08:00 arrived London 12:45, well technically it arrived in London traffic a lot earlier!), and both the power socket and USB sockets worked fine.

In fact my only criticism would be to allow a 15-20 minute rest break around Leicester with it being such a long journey - we even pulled in at a services but this was only to allow for a driver change rather than letting passengers off.

I don't have an issue with this as long as you are getting what is advertised, they tell you no break and you dont get one, fine.

With 50 passengers a 15/20 min break is no use to anyone, by the time the last passengers are off the coach they have to start boarding again,

 

[exile]

I don't have an issue with this as long as you are getting what is advertised, they tell you no break and you dont get one, fine.

With 50 passengers a 15/20 min break is no use to anyone, by the time the last passengers are off the coach they have to start boarding again,

I certainly do have an issue with sitting in a seat for 17 hours without any sort of break. They give cattle in transit more consideration than that!

 

[Statto]

It seems ad hoc on whether you get a break, on the London-Liverpool route 20 minute refreshment breaks are included in most journeys, most of the Leeds journeys done have a refreshment break.

Also the NEX service from Huddersfield operates non stop Sheffield Interchange-Milton Keynes or London, only the Barnsley service & overnighters that serve Chesterfield, the Huddersfield service then stops Mirfield, Dewsbury-Barnsley some journeys-Meadowhall-Sheffield-Milton Keynes-London. https://www.nxagents.com/theguide/564/CGR564 (4 December 2017).pdf
561 Leeds-London https://www.nxagents.com/theguide/561/CGR561 (20 November 2017).pdf

 

[philthetube]

I certainly do have an issue with sitting in a seat for 17 hours without any sort of break. They give cattle in transit more consideration than that!

not sure where you get 17 hours from, if the jurney took that long from Leeds to London you would get breaks if only to comply with drivers hours.

Didn't know they gave cows seats.

 

[Deerfold]

not sure where you get 17 hours from, if the jurney took that long from Leeds to London you would get breaks if only to comply with drivers hours.

Didn't know they gave cows seats.

They were talking about the delayed London to Aberdeen service discussed earlier in the thread.