Full marks National Express

[WolvertonWorks]

We were in Aberystwyth Thursday morning with train tickets back to Milton Keynes via Birmingham.

Because of the heatwave there had been issues with the trains and people were being advised to travel only if necessary.

We arrived at the station to find our intended train cancelled and a two hour wait for the next one, which at that point we couldn't be sure would run.

We'd noticed the bus station was next to the railway station so walking towards it, to see if there were any services that might make sense to use as we needed to get home that day we noticed a National Express coach with Birmingham on the destination board. I asked the driver if there were two seats to Birmingham, yes there were, tickets sold to us, onto the vehicle and we were away.

Very pleasant journey through the Welsh countryside, via Shrewsbury and Telford amongst other places, and we arrive at Digbeth - and we had been cool all the way as the vehicle had air con

We had planned to walk round to New Street to catch the train back to MK but saw a National Express coach with Milton Keynes as one of the stops but as it was so hot we quickly took the decision to purchase tickets and again an air-conned ride.

We were lucky that there were seats on the services we took but well done National Express for getting us home on a very bad day for rail travel.

I was impressed with the comfort and driving and while I will still use rail rather than road where possible for future trips I won't rule out looking at coach service offerings.

 

[Parebunks]

Air con is certainly one of the top selling points for coaches in the summer! Less pleasant in the winter when they still have it at full blast when it's 5 degrees outside...

The Aberystwyth 409 is a rather nice route, unfortunately looks increasingly out of place with NX and Flixbus both concentrating on intensive service on inter-city routes. More of this kind of route not directly paralleling rail offering and giving meaningful benefit to these smaller towns would be ideal in a more integrated system but hard to see many turning much of a profit in the current setup - examples like the 409 only running once or twice a day.

 

[route101]

The 409 route has been on my to do list for a while but quite awkward to do from where I live. Interesting you were able to buy tickets from driver, usually they ask you to book online and that may be very expensive due to dynamic pricing.

 

[Mikw]

I quite enjoy coach travel. I was always a train first kind of person, but there's some bargains to be had in coach world, and you get a guarenteed seat and air con.

 

[azOOOOOma]

If I’m going on a cruise or flight and I’m not able to travel the night before by rail, I’ll get the coach as I think it’s pretty reliable. Yes there’s traffic but there are no rail/OLE/tresspassrs/cable thefts/strikes/slots/weather diversions that you have to deal with on a regular basis on trains and planes.