Coaches are the dark horses of long-distance public transport in the UK. When you pay as little as £3 to get from London to Bristol, you’re probably not expecting much. So it’s always a pleasant surprise to find leather reclining seats, individual charging ports, air-con and a decent amount of leg room. Sure, coaches may take a little longer but they’re both affordable and guarantee you a seat.
It seems more and more of us are finally coming round to coaches. National Express (NX), one of the country’s biggest coach providers, saw a whopping 25 percent increase in passenger numbers between 2022 and 2023. Last year it added 15 new routes and now it’s expanding even further.
The company has confirmed that it’s launching faster coach journeys between Manchester and London, enhanced services to and from Liverpool and a new route between Yorkshire, Birmingham and London. Oh and there will also be a new overnight service from Bradford to London. Overall, it’s bringing 150 new vehicles to UK roads.
NX is hoping to make its 540 service between Manchester and London a whole 30 minutes faster where possible. That means it will take just over four hours, with ticket prices starting at £15.90.
The 170 and 171 routes between Liverpool and the capital have been ‘enhanced’ to include stops at Birmingham and Milton Keynes. The new daily 466 service through Yorkshire, Birmingham and London will also stop by Birmingham Airport and Heathrow Airport.
All aboard with Time Out
Here at Time Out, we like to keep you up to date on all the goings on in the world of public transport. In the latest news: Glasgow could trial free public transport, Uber is expanding to two Scottish cities, Newcastle is getting swanky new trains and there’s a new affordable flight from Edinburgh to New York. If you want to know about buses in particular, England’s worst bus operator was recently revealed, this city became the UK's electric bus capital and there’s a brand new (and super cheap) electric coach service connecting London and Wales.
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