National express coaches from Victoria a couple of questions:

[Pevenseagull]

are there toliets?

how skanky are they

will it be full of drunken a-holes at 10pm Bank Holiday Monday

anyone know why the online booking for the trains are stating a single cost £26

?

cheers

 

[Husty]

Yes there are toilets, national express coaches are generally nice and clean, Megabus can be hit and miss. The clientele consists of students, old people scared of change and ethnic minorities. So pleasant enough. Biggest annoyance for me is the inevitable person who spends the entire trip on their phone to some relative in Timbuktu, which can start to grate after 4 hours but ultimately isn't the worst thing imaginable, just impolite.

 

[Husty]

Source: I get the coach to/from Leeds quite regularly as the train is eye watering.

 

[Eeyore]

I've used them once. The coach had a pretty ordinary set of folk on it and was clean with a toilet. I was quite happy, as the ticket I bought was rather cheap (London to Leicester).

I always use http://tickets.southernrailway.com/sn/en/JourneyPlanning/MixingDeck for tickets.

A super off peak day return (which applies to all trains on bank holiday) from Brighton to London Victoria is £14.20 on Monday. Best getting that, and use just the return portion. Coming the other way is more expensive.

The pricing is bizarre, I know.

 

[Badger]

anyone know why the online booking for the trains are stating a single cost £26

Get the Tube to Blackfriars, then it's £9.90 for a FCC Only single ticket

 

[Eeyore]

Get the Tube to Blackfriars, then it's £9.90 for a FCC Only single ticket

Has been a useful tool for tomorrow. It's £6 odd return on a Network Card. I booked the St Pancras tickets through Megatrain, so the whole cost was about £36.

I do think we should have a sticky thread on travel costings as some NSC'ers, unfamiliar with the system, doubtless pay a lot more than they need to.

 

[danielson81]

A super off peak day return (which applies to all trains on bank holiday) from Brighton to London Victoria is £14.20 on Monday. Best getting that, and use just the return portion. Coming the other way is more expensive.

The pricing is bizarre, I know.

I do this a lot from London coming back on a Sunday.

You can either book the Super Off Peak Return from the Southern Website and tell it you want to collect from (eg) London Bridge (it doesn't care) or I think at the machine you can press "Tickets from another station" and specify your starting in Brighton.

 

[Eeyore]

I do this a lot from London coming back on a Sunday.

You can either book the Super Off Peak Return from the Southern Website and tell it you want to collect from (eg) London Bridge (it doesn't care) or I think at the machine you can press "Tickets from another station" and specify your starting in Brighton.

The fact that you can pick it up in London makes it double funny now.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

I remember seeing some market research by National Express that had unearthed the fact that a huge number of nurses used the service at weekends to go and visit their families.

 

[BensGrandad]

I do this a lot from London coming back on a Sunday.

You can either book the Super Off Peak Return from the Southern Website and tell it you want to collect from (eg) London Bridge (it doesn't care) or I think at the machine you can press "Ticketds from another station" and specify your starting in Brighton.

Can you book these trips from any station to any station as I asked at Haywards Heath if I could pay for a ticket there and Ben pick it up in Guildford but was told I could but it would cost £10 to transfer the pick up point and to cover a phone call.

 

[albionalex]

Yes there are toilets, national express coaches are generally nice and clean, Megabus can be hit and miss. The clientele consists of students, old people scared of change and ethnic minorities. So pleasant enough. Biggest annoyance for me is the inevitable person who spends the entire trip on their phone to some relative in Timbuktu, which can start to grate after 4 hours but ultimately isn't the worst thing imaginable, just impolite.

This. Also, drinking alcohol isn't allowed on board and people won't be allowed on if they're drunk.

 

[Eeyore]

Can you book these trips from any station to any station as I asked at Haywards Heath if I could pay for a ticket there and Ben pick it up in Guildford but was told I could but it would cost £10 to transfer the pick up point and to cover a phone call.

You can pick them up from most stations, Guildford being one. The problem is that the user needs the card used to collect it. Other than that, the option you mention is the only one.

 

[TheJasperCo]

I've used them often to travel home at the end of term from uni, and can vouch that the toilets aren't terrible, although I advise you sit to go for a whizz. I've never had problems with other passengers, even on coaches that are mostly full. From my experience, if you go to their low-fares webpage, you should be able to find a cheaper fare than 26 quid.

 

[Fef]

Here's a four minute video which explains National Express quite well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiBI3A2WcrE