National Express launch festive coach travel offer

Passengers booking a ticket for travel on a National Express coach service during December are in for a very special treat as they’ll be rewarded with a 50% discount voucher for their first coach trip made in 2012.

The UK’s largest coach transport operator is offering half price travel on coach bookings made between January 4th and March 23rd 2012 on any service booked anywhere in the country. To be eligible to make the most of this value for money offer, all you need do is book your seat on a National Express coach service anytime between December 1st and December 31st and you’ll be awarded the money off coupon for use on your next journey.

Over 900 destinations are included in the deal and up to five passengers can benefit from the 50% discount when booking travel at the same time as one party. E-vouchers will be emailed over or paper versions can be obtained also for customers to use to deem their discount. Bookings using the half price discount must be made 7 days in advance.

So if you’re planning a trip to see family over the festive period, or maybe you’re organising a weekend away to do your Christmas shopping, National Express have 150,000 services with seats available for less than £6 in December so now’s your chance to make some serious savings on festive travel.

National Express £9 summer coach fares help boost profits

National Express have reported a rise in revenue in the last three months to September of 6% boosted by the transport operator’s successful summer promotional campaign of £9 coach fares.

The summer is the busiest period for all coach hire companies and so the success of the £9 coach tickets, which allowed customers to travel anywhere in the UK on the standard rate fare, helped National Express attract new customers during this time. According to the coach operator’s figures, 300,000 passengers took up the £9 bus fare offer which was available to anyone booking a one way ticket, a minimum of 14 days in advance.

The coach and rail operator also credited their Eurolines brand with helping to boost revenue by 6% in this period.

National Express weren’t the only coach travel provider to report an increase in passenger numbers and profits this year with Stagecoach, which operates both rail and bus routes, reporting that they’re on target to meet full year expectations as a result of growth in both train and coach travel.

The figures from these two leading public transport operators seems to suggest that more and more people and opting to leave their cars at home and jump on the bus and train instead. With fuel prices and the cost of motoring continuing to rise, coach offers such as the one from National Express this year are proving very tempting for those who would normally choose to travel by car.

Coach passenger’s lost £70k found at airport

A 81-year-old man who reported losing a holdall stuffed full with £70,000 in foreign currency on a Heathrow to Hampshire National Express coach service is due to be reunited with his cash after it was found at the airport.

The elderly gentleman believed he’d lost the money at some point during the coach trip after leaving the bag containing the cash in the luggage compartment of the bus. However after the loss was reported to police, they checked the CCTV images taken from when the man boarded the coach and found that the black holdall was never placed on the vehicle.

With this evidence, the police were able to isolate the search to Heathrow Airport where the passengers had landed on a flight from Thailand on the day of the incident. The gentleman had brought the money, in Thai baht and Australian Dollar currency, to the UK with a view to purchasing a property here.

The police issued a warning to all shop keepers and banks between Heathrow and Hampshire to be wary of anyone looking to exchange or pay for goods with large amounts of foreign currency after there were initial suspicions that the money had been stolen from the coach service.

The black holdall was later tracked down by police at the airport, and they have confirmed it matches the description of the one reported missing on the National Express service. The authorities say they are making plans to reunite the 81-year-old with his lost cash.

Man loses £70k of cash on National Express coach journey

A man in his 80’s has reported £70,000 of cash missing after he left a black holdall stuffed full of foreign in the luggage area of a National Express coach travelling from Heathrow to Portsmouth on Tuesday.

The elderly man had just flown into Heathrow Airport after travelling from his home in Thailand with his life savings of £70,000 packed into a black holdall. After touching down in the UK, the gentleman boarded a National Express coach bound for Portsmouth, depositing his bag packed full with £70,000 made up in Australian dollars and Thai baht, in the luggage compartment of the coach.

It’s been reported that the elderly man had transported his life savings over to the UK as he intended to purchase a property in this country, however his plans have been severely scuppered after the huge amount of cash went missing during the coach trip.

The coach departed Heathrow at 4:45pm on Tuesday afternoon, although the bag containing the £70,000 wasn’t reported missing until just before 8pm that evening when the service arrived in Portsmouth following a number of scheduled stop-offs along the route.

It’s possible the bag may have been taken by mistake, although no other bag was left in its place. In the event that the bag stuffed with foreign currency was stolen, the police are warning banks and shopkeepers to be wary of anyone attempting to exchange or pay with large quantities of cash in Australian dollars or Thai baht.

The police are urging anyone who travelled on the coach service to get in touch so that they can be eliminated from their enquiries.

National Express introduce breathalysers on coaches to prevent drink driving

Coach travel provider National Express has introduced the Alcolock system to a number of their coaches which calls for the driver of the vehicle to pass a breathalyser test before the vehicle’s engine starts.

The move to roll out this system across the entire coach fleet will prevent any drink driving amongst coach drivers and will ensure the safety of National Express passengers.

Every driver getting behind the wheel of the National Express coach fitted with the new device will have to breathe into the system before they’re allowed to start the engine. If any traces of alcohol are detected on the coach driver’s breath, then the coach will be disabled and the engine will not start.

Any information collected by the breathalyser device will be transferred directly to the National Express head office so if any driver is found with traces of alcohol in their system, they will face disciplinary action immediately, and a worst case scenario will see the driver lose his or her job.

In 2008 a National Express coach was involved in an accident in which 36 passengers were injured. The driver of the coach later failed a breath test. The coach transport provider believes that the new alcolock device will go a long way in preventing a similar incident in the future.

So far, 480 out of the 600 strong National Express coach fleet have been fitted with the breathalyser system.

National Express forecast strong coach travel sales for the Royal Wedding

The National Express have forecast strong coach travel sales for the Royal wedding on April 29th with 10,000 coach fares already sold for the big day.

The coach travel giant has announced plans to launch a dedicated service for those wishing to travel to London on April 29th to celebrate the marriage of Prince William to Kate Middleton. The National Express Royal Wedding Coach Hire Specials will be launched within the coming weeks offering a specialised service for those planning to a trip to the capital.

National Express have already laid on an extra 1,000 coaches travelling from all corners of the UK for the royal wedding. The travel operator has reported selling 10,000 advance tickets for coach travel on this day already, however the company expects this number to rise to 50,000.

The travel specialists released a number of coach travel tickets early with a 50% reduction for the royal wedding which prompted a rush of sales. National Express reported hundreds of enquiries for travel on the day the royal wedding date was announced.

1 million visitors are expected to descend upon London o April 29th, many of which are expected to be overseas visitors from America and Europe. All travel operators including coach hire, airlines, and railways are agreed that the royal wedding date is likely to be the busiest day of the year for travel in the UK.

Bus ad for Valentine’s Day marriage proposal

Coming up with an original way to pop the question is an age old-dilemma faced by men (and sometimes women) all over the world, however Scott Whent managed to pull off an impressive marriage proposal this Valentine’s Day by getting a double-decker bus involved.

The 27-year-old had a 16ft advert created especially for his girlfriend Haylee Ward. The advert which read “Haylee, will you marry me?” along with a picture of Haylee, was plastered across the side of a giant double-decker Coventry bus.

On Valentine’s Day the specially decorated bus pulled up outside of Haylee’s home in Coventry, at which point Scott knocked on her door and told her to come outside. The gobsmacked 24-year-old then came face to face with the bus and its special advert. Kitchen fitter Scott then went down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend of 1 year, luckily she accepted immediately.

Scott won the chance to propose to Haylee, who is 7 months pregnant with the couple’s first baby, through a National Express competition. Determined to make the proposal perfect, the 27-year-old personally designed the advert along with the coach and bus operator. National Express say this is the first time one of their buses has been used for a marriage proposal.

As well as winning the chance to propose to his girlfriend using a double-decker bus, Scott also won the Mercia’s Surprise Competition for a £1,000 engagement ring from Johnson’s Jewellers.

National Express Coach passengers in Coventry get free Lotto tickets

National Express coach passengers in Coventry woke up to a nice surprise today on their daily commute into work as a gang of glamorous ladies turned out to hand travellers free lottery tickets as part of the launch of the new Lotto Plus 5 ticket.

The National Lottery is currently conducting a nationwide tour ahead of the launch of the Lotto Plus 5 ticket this weekend. To raise awareness of the new lottery scheme, 250 tickets were handed out to coach passengers travelling on the number 5 service in Coventry this morning.

The new Lotto Plus 5 ticket offers players 5 chances to win. For an extra pound, the numbers chosen for the main lottery draw are entered into a prize draw to win a fixed amount of £250,000 for the next 5 days.

The National Lottery spokesperson says they hope the new ticket will create an extra 500,000 lotto winners a week. The lottery is already responsible for creating 4 million winners every week across all of its games, and it’s hoped the new Lotto Plus 5 will add to this.

Coventry commuters on the Number 5 National Express bus service had the opportunity to try out the new Lotto Plus 5 ticket for free as 250 were handed out this morning to travellers with valid bus tickets.

National Express coach travel boosted by Pope’s visit

Pope Benedict's UK visit spelled good news for National Express coach travel

Transport provider National Express has reported an increase in revenue last month as a result of Pope Benedict’s visit to the UK.

The coach travel operator provided over 1,000 coach services to Birmingham from all over the country as thousands of people flocked to the city during the Pope’s visit. The Pilgrims had travelled from across the UK to Cofton Park in Birmingham on the last day of the Papal visit to witness the beatification service for Cardinal Newman lead by the pope.  

The surge in coach travel certainly helped boost revenue at National Express with the company reporting a 4% year on year increase in revenue in the last 3 months to the end of September, which is marked improvement from the 2% reported during the first half of the year.

National Express also attributes its recent boost in revenue to its restructuring of its bus and coach network, mainly based in the West Midlands. The transport provider made cut backs to its less popular and infrequently used services, while adding more services to its busiest routes.

However the coach and rail operator may have to brace itself for hard times ahead as it’s possible that local bus subsidies will be reduced as part of the Government’s spending review due to be announced today.

Breathalyser devices to be installed on National Express Coaches

After spending two years testing the new breathalyser devices, National Express have announced that the system is to be rolled out through its entire UK fleet of coaches.

The device measures the alcohol levels in a driver’s system through a breathalyser which is connected to the vehicle. Should a driver fail the breath test, then the coach is automatically disabled and cannot be driven. A message is then sent to National Express H.Q notifying them of the vehicle registration number, and the amount of alcohol detected in the driver’s system.

The safety system, which is commonly known as an alcoclock, has become a familiar fixture in Europe with many countries electing to use it. It was invented in Sweden where the device is now used extensively in both private vehicles and on public transport. In France all public vehicle are fitted with the device.

Now the UK is following suit as National Express prepares to fit alcoclocks on all 500 coaches within its fleet. It is hoped that the revolutionary safety device will prevent serious alcohol related accidents from occurring in the future.

There has been a positive response from National Express coach drivers who have welcomed the introduction of the alcoclock, saying it will go a long way to improving standards of customer safety.