National Express "Rapide"

[GusB]

I'm posting this separately from the main National Express thread because it doesn't apply to current operations and the Rapide brand wasn't exclusively applied to National Express coaches either.

When was Rapide first used and was there any publicity at the time advertising the additional benefits? Also, were there any sort of guidelines about the kind of service that passengers should expect when boarding a service that was branded as such?

Finally, when did the Rapide brand fall out of use (and why)?

 

[Statto]

The main benefit of Rapide was they had on board catering service, with coaches having a host on board who would serve hot & cold drinks, as well as snacks & sandwiches during the journey, the concept was done away with in 2001 as a cost cutting exercise.

Rapide was used mostly on motorway routes, think the numbers were in the 5xx & 7xx series.

 

[Pyewipecarshed]

1981 was when the brand first appeared.
As well as the catering service the coaches had an on-board toilet and a television. Although the least "sexy" of the features the toilet was the main point operationally as it meant the coach didn't have to pull into the services for a toilet stop, thus allowing faster journey times.
The television service ceased during the 1990s and as @Statto mentions the separate Rapide brand finished in 2001.

I seem to recall reading that the Rapide name had been used by another company beforehand (Trathens??) but I may have plucked that out of the air

 

[GusB]

The main benefit of Rapide was they had on board catering service, with coaches having a host on board who would serve hot & cold drinks, as well as snacks & sandwiches during the journey, the concept was done away with in 2001 as a cost cutting exercise.

Rapide was used mostly on motorway routes, think the numbers were in the 5xx & 7xx series.

1981 was when the brand first appeared.
As well as the catering service the coaches had an on-board toilet and a television. Although the least "sexy" of the features the toilet was the main point operationally as it meant the coach didn't have to pull into the services for a toilet stop, thus allowing faster journey times.
The television service ceased during the 1990s and as @Statto mentions the separate Rapide brand finished in 2001.

Thanks, both. Was the level of service decreed at head office level, or was it left up to individual operators?

My only experience was a return trip to London, overnight, from Aberdeen. I remember being offered coffee but not much else. The southbound operator was Amberline.

I seem to recall reading that the Rapide name had been used by another company beforehand (Trathens??) but I may have plucked that out of the air

The Rapide name was also carried on some Scottish coaches. I first became aware of it when I travelled on one of these MCW Metroliners:

Northern NCM11 C511SSO BBS 1987

One of a pair delivered in Northern's own livery rather than Citylink of the batch before, they looked very well, but were soon pressed into Citylink service, on the service 548 Aberdeen-Manchester, which was joint with Nat Ex, hence the Rapide names on the side. These were very smart vehicles...

www.flickr.com

Funnily enough, the same vehicle carried the Rapide brand in National Express livery afterwards:

DJL SLIDES ZP918

Explore Regional Bus Photos' 517128 photos on Flickr!

www.flickr.com

 

[Pyewipecarshed]

Thanks, both. Was the level of service decreed at head office level, or was it left up to individual operators?

My only experience was a return trip to London, overnight, from Aberdeen. I remember being offered coffee but not much else. The southbound operator was Amberline.

In terms of the fitments, i.e. toilet, servery, television it was decreed at head office level.
As for what was served (from half-remembered conversations with my father who drove for East Yorkshire), the hostesses were responsible for obtaining the stock themselves. I believe they did most of it using a company account at a suitable cash and carry local to their home depot.
However my father took at least one hostess to a local supermarket (in an out of service Rapide coach!) to stock up on bread and sandwich fillings.
So the actual offer on board depended partly on how organised the hostess was and I would guess how busy the outward journey had been if they were on their way back home.

 

[LAIRA]

Rapide brand was purchased from Trathens who had been using the name on there Plymouth - London service. I have seen the hostess use the local convience store to stock up their supplies here in Plymouth.

 

[Statto]

I mentioned earlier the Rapid numbers either 5xx or 7xx, i think 5xx was for Rapid services serving London, 7xx was for Rapid services avoiding London.

 

[Pyewipecarshed]

Rapide brand was purchased from Trathens who had been using the name on there Plymouth - London service. I have seen the hostess use the local convience store to stock up their supplies here in Plymouth.

Thank you, I thought I'd read it somewhere!!

 

[Poiuytre]

I remember a former driver telling me about one very popular hostess that always offered Cream Teas on a Westcountry service. The regular passengers loved it, and were always disappointed when another hostess was covering that route instead.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

@Statto is correct that Rapide numbers were 5** for London services and 7** for provincial routes so you had 525/526 North East to London whilst 709/710/711 were North East to South West via Birmingham

Rapide was introduced by Trathens after the 1980 Transport Act and featured faster routes, better kit and the hostess served refreshments plus the TV. Quite the leap compared to white National Leyland Leopards that might have reclining seats if you were lucky. National Bus Co bought the Trathens operation IIRC and decided to expand the concept to be more competitive against the British Coachways operation (though that was already failing) and also to capitalise on the failing British Rail.

One legacy of this was that Excelsior of Bournemouth continued to operate their London service after the British Coachways consortium fell apart. As such, that National Express route (515?) Bournemouth to London continued as a Rapide service whilst other London to Southampton and Salisbury routes weren't Rapide spec.

 

[Pyewipecarshed]

This TV advert is on YouTube;

 

[Deerfold]

I mentioned earlier the Rapid numbers either 5xx or 7xx, i think 5xx was for Rapid services serving London, 7xx was for Rapid services avoiding London.

Indeed. When routes were upgraded to Rapide, they received these new numbers, usually replacing 4xx for London or 2/3xx numbers for other services.

There was a higher minimum coach standard on Rapide, even once the host service finished.

 

[Stan Drews]

I seem to recall that the Rapide services out of Glasgow were the 547 ( to Birmingham & South West) and 548 (to Manchester), so 5xx wasn’t exclusive to London services. NatEx didn‘t operate Scotland - London services at that time, as that was always the domain of the SBG/Citylink.

 

[Bristol LH]

Another cross country Rapide service originating in Glasgow was the 537 to Corby and Kettering, operated by United Counties from Kettering depot. This interworked with Service 535 between Glasgow and Leeds.

At one stage, the Glasgow to Birmingham corridor was numbered 549, and had three journeys a day as Edinburgh to Haverfordwest operated by SWT, Inverness to Bournemouth operated by Bebb and Aberdeen to Porth operated by National Welsh and later Tayside Travel. At that time, the 548 between Glasgow and Manchester was three times a day, also extending to Inverness and Aberdeen and being jointly operated by Ribble, Highland Scottish and PMT. I believe that Yelloway subsequently took over PMT's diagrams. There was also a mammoth Service 547 between Glasgow and Penzance calling only at Lancaster and then Bristol and operated by Western National.

I seem to recall that the Rapide services out of Glasgow were the 547 ( to Birmingham & South West) and 548 (to Manchester), so 5xx wasn’t exclusive to London services. NatEx didn‘t operate Scotland - London services at that time, as that was always the domain of the SBG/Cityl

 

[Deerfold]

I seem to recall that the Rapide services out of Glasgow were the 547 ( to Birmingham & South West) and 548 (to Manchester), so 5xx wasn’t exclusive to London services. NatEx didn‘t operate Scotland - London services at that time, as that was always the domain of the SBG/Citylink.

There seems to be mention of London - Belfast via Scotland here, on a coach I caught many years ago, but all the information seems to be out of date, with a search on their site for London - Belfast giving a route with 2 changes, onto Ulsterbus from Glasgow , once a day.

Edit: Here being, https://www.nationalexpress.com/en/destinations/belfast/london-to-belfast

 

[Stan Drews]

There seems to be mention of London - Belfast via Scotland here, on a coach I caught many years ago, but all the information seems to be out of date, with a search on their site for London - Belfast giving a route with 2 changes, onto Ulsterbus from Glasgow , once a day.

There used to be a day and night service Belfast - Stranraer - Dumfries - London that was jointly operated by Ulsterbus and Western Scottish.

 

[185]

For the catering Stewards/Hostesses, they used to get a retainer, say £15-20 a day from the coach operator, then all the sales ontop of that were your own - so occasionally Cash & Carry, mostly Kwik Save, fill the box up and off we'd go. 50p (later 60p) a coffee... Checking tickets, making announcements... aged 16, at weekends not only making a fortune, I had a great time in the early 90s.

 

[busesrusuk]

A look back at the Trathens operation with Neoplan Skyliners. by the time this picture was taken (late 1980's) they had received a variation of Nat Ex livery with the trademark pin stripes associated with the Rapide brand:

Trathens B670DVL

Paignton Bus Station

www.flickr.com

Another Rapide vehicle, this time a Leyland Tiger with Duple Caribbean bodywork parked up in the long since gone coach park at Battersea Park:

Ribble 149

Battersea coach park

www.flickr.com

 

[Titfield]

One legacy of this was that Excelsior of Bournemouth continued to operate their London service after the British Coachways consortium fell apart. As such, that National Express route (515?) Bournemouth to London continued as a Rapide service whilst other London to Southampton and Salisbury routes weren't Rapide spec

Yes 515 was Bournemouth to London Victoria operated by Shamrock and Rambler Bournemouth Unit.
720 was Bournemouth Ringwood Southampton London Victoria
721 was Bournemouth Christchurch Lyndhurst Southampton London Victoria.
There was also a relatively shortlived service called Timesaver which operated the Rapide route to London Victoria but with non Rapide spec vehicles. IIRC the route number was 719.
National Express and Shamrock and Rambler continually "fannyed around" with the London services - did it go via Southampton, did it go via Heathrow Airport* - to the detriment of passenger loadings. The Bmth passengers simply wanted a quick service.
*They also operated a Bmth - Southampton - LHR - LGW service for a while which allowed the London Victoria service to go non stop.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

There was another variance to the Rapide network in the mid 1990s. Certain overnight routes on Rapide routes were downgraded and didn't have the refreshments. So whilst the North East/Yorkshire/Scotland routes were Rapide, there were a couple that gained 4** numbers that were operated by Rapide coaches that had run in but I guess the idea was allowing a single driver to do the overnight and have a rest stop instead.

For instance, I think it was the 404 from London to Penzance that stopped at Exeter Services, and think there were a couple via the Midlands to the North West - for some reason, 420 and 465 ring a bell. They tended to be an amalgam of various services so I think the 404 was essentially a 504 but went via Taunton (part of 502) and Torquay (501) on its way to Plymouth.

 

[Deerfold]

There was another variance to the Rapide network in the mid 1990s. Certain overnight routes on Rapide routes were downgraded and didn't have the refreshments. So whilst the North East/Yorkshire/Scotland routes were Rapide, there were a couple that gained 4** numbers that were operated by Rapide coaches that had run in but I guess the idea was allowing a single driver to do the overnight and have a rest stop instead.

For instance, I think it was the 404 from London to Penzance that stopped at Exeter Services, and think there were a couple via the Midlands to the North West - for some reason, 420 and 465 ring a bell. They tended to be an amalgam of various services so I think the 404 was essentially a 504 but went via Taunton (part of 502) and Torquay (501) on its way to Plymouth.

Yes, the 465 was (and still is) the overnight version of the 564. The 465 starts at Huddersfiled then calls at Halifax rather than the other way round, then picks up calls of the daytime 561, 560 and 450. The new version doesn't call at Chesterfield, Sheffield or Meadowhall which are now picked up overnight by the 466 which duplicates a fair bit of the overnight 240 to London Airports.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Yes, the 465 was (and still is) the overnight version of the 564. The 465 starts at Huddersfiled then calls at Halifax rather than the other way round, then picks up calls of the daytime 561, 560 and 450. The new version doesn't call at Chesterfield, Sheffield or Chesterfield which are now picked up overnight by the 466 which duplicates a fair bit of the overnight 240 to London Airports.

Thanks - it was a vague memory from nearly 30 years ago

 

[Statto]

There was another variance to the Rapide network in the mid 1990s. Certain overnight routes on Rapide routes were downgraded and didn't have the refreshments. So whilst the North East/Yorkshire/Scotland routes were Rapide, there were a couple that gained 4** numbers that were operated by Rapide coaches that had run in but I guess the idea was allowing a single driver to do the overnight and have a rest stop instead.

For instance, I think it was the 404 from London to Penzance that stopped at Exeter Services, and think there were a couple via the Midlands to the North West - for some reason, 420 and 465 ring a bell. They tended to be an amalgam of various services so I think the 404 was essentially a 504 but went via Taunton (part of 502) and Torquay (501) on its way to Plymouth.

Yeah 421 Blackpool - London & 422 Burnley - London were non Rapide overnight services from the North West, the refreshment break was at Birmingham Digbeth Coach Station rather than at a service station, the current overnighters from the North West still have refreshment break at Birmingham Digbeth Coach Station.

The 421 & 422 used to be allocated double deck coaches operated by Trathens, (i know the 421 was Trathens), the 422 ended up being operated by Selwyns & downgraded to single deck coaches, when the 421 was still double deck coaches, funnily enough both Northbound & Southbound coaches on 421 & 422 were timed to arrive & depart Birmingham around the same time between 02.30 & 03.30.

 

[route101]

There seems to be mention of London - Belfast via Scotland here, on a coach I caught many years ago, but all the information seems to be out of date, with a search on their site for London - Belfast giving a route with 2 changes, onto Ulsterbus from Glasgow , once a day.

Edit: Here being, https://www.nationalexpress.com/en/destinations/belfast/london-to-belfast

It was on the list to be brought back but never has. There was an odd service that started back at Kilmarnock then went to Stranraer via Ayr.

 

[Teflon988]

I seem to recall that the Rapide services out of Glasgow were the 547 ( to Birmingham & South West) and 548 (to Manchester), so 5xx wasn’t exclusive to London services. NatEx didn‘t operate Scotland - London services at that time, as that was always the domain of the SBG/Citylink.

There was a short lived Rapide 752 service operated by Premier Travel Cambridge.
IIRC it started at Stansted Airport / Cambridge to Inverness,with 2 drivers and hostess.
I can't remember the exact route, but it went to Huntingdon,Peterborough, Doncaster Leeds Wellington Street, Bradford Interchange and then non-stop to Glasgow, either via the motorway or the A65 joining the motorway further up.
1 driver and hostess would get off at Glasgow and the other one would take the coach along the A9 to Inverness,the coach was parked up at Rapsons depot in Seafield Road.

 

[Deerfold]

Thanks - it was a vague memory from nearly 30 years ago

I've been a regular, on and off, on the 465 since the early 90s. I could get home from University to Home after a night out (except for the time I did it after a Saturday night, forgetting I'd have 2 hours before my buses started at the other end).

Then a girlfriend moved to London and I could do similar from University to visit and then, later, from Halifax. Then my current wife moved to Slough and I used to get the overnight coach to London and get out beyond Slough every week for 6 weeks until I joined her permanently. The time Bradford were playing rugby in London the next day was a lively one. Still allows me to get back from gigs in Nottingham occasionally.

 

[01d-and]

Birmingham > London was the 555 service - if I remember. I have typed 'National Express Rapide' into Flickr and realised how many types of coaches carried the livery. There is also a photo of an Atlantean in the Rapide colours . . . . . . . . . .

 

[overthewater]

Would National express have introduced this type of service if it wasn't for the deregulator of the coach market, which allowed new comers to enter the market and provide this type of service first? It just felt like National Express was always on the back foot with ideas.

 

[busesrusuk]

I think its fair to say that it was a reaction to the newcomers - especially Trathens in the early days of coach dereg. The response also resulted in the large order for the MCW Metroliner double deck coach to compete on a more equal footing. However this package of improvements made by Trathens spread very quickly - services that spring to mind that also adopted the "rapide" standard included London Coaches/WMPTE service between London and Birmingham, Armstrong Galley between London and Newcastle and I am sure there were plenty of others. Certainly Scottish Citylink had hostesses on the London Glasgow service that I used a couple of times in the mid 1980's. Did the Stagecoach services offer any frills on their London - Scotland routes?

One of the early services that started around dereg was Berry's of Taunton which still runs today (AFAIK) - did they offer a similar level of service?

Nat Ex always seem to respond to threats to their turf rather than lead the pack on innovation. Why would you change if you had no competition? Would they have introduced the low fares that we have become accustomed to if Megabus hadn't come along?

 

[Statto]

Stumbled across a blog that might be of interest

Hanes National Express / The History of National Express

This page provides the history of National Express in summary, a well known coach brand synonymous with the UK coaching industry.

www.crg163.com

Rapide Services

National Express introduced the Rapide services in 1981 which would provide passengers with on-board tea/coffee services and sandwiches served by on-board hostesses. On-board television and toilet was also provided on vehicles operating under the brand. Rapide services were heavily marketed through its branding and extensive advertisement campaigns. Such branding would be displayed on the side of coaches, leaflets, posters etc.

Crosville Cymru/Wales Leyland Tiger CTL65 (C65 JTU) parked outside the company‘s Llandudno Junction depot (which was also its headquarters) in National Express Rapide branding.

A Plaxton Paramount 3500 coach as shown on the front of a National Express Rapide leaflet cover of the time promoting the brand.

National Express phased out the Rapide offering and branding in April 2001. It’s on board television service had already been withdrawn in the 1990’s.

However in late 2004, National Express introducing NXTV/National Xpress Television showing various episodes of British Television series. This was short lived as it was phased out in the summer of 2006. However in more modern times National Express now offers free WiFi on most of its coach services.