March each sees alterations to the National Express scheduled coach operation. Often the changes are minor with slightly amended timings to reflect traffic flows and such like, and sometimes additional coach journeys have been added, calling points moved, added or withdrawn.Here in the LEYTR area, most NX services have remained largely unaltered, viz:
Service 322 (Scarborough-Brecon) - minor timing alterations
Service 322 (Hull-Swansea) - minor timing alterations
Service 339 (Cleethorpes-Westward Ho!) - no alterations
Service 350 (Cambridge-Liverpool) - no alterations
Service 390 (Hull Docks-Manchester) - no alterations
Service 447 (Lincoln-London) - no alterations
Service 448 (Grimsby-London) - no alterations
Service 448 (London-Peterborough/Stamford) - additional timing point at the University of Hertfordshire
Service 449 (Mablethorpe-London) - coach stop at Wrangle has moved to the main A52 and the high season timings have been pin-pointed to school holidays rather than a blanket July/August as last year
Service 534 (Glasgow-Hull Docks) - no alterations
Service 562 (Beverley/Hull - London) - amended timings, seeing southbound departures ex Hull earlier
Service 563 (Whitby-London) - minor timing amendments
Butlins (Skegness) Services - Service 660 (to/from Bradford) receives a new operator - Tate's Travel, replacing Tetleys; Services 661 (to/from Birmingham), Service 662 (to/from Liverpool) and Service 664 (to/from Preston) operationally remain the same although Service 663 (Butlins-Newcastle) that was operated by Rowells of Prudhoe last year, appears to have been withdrawn without replacement.
Those 'in-the-know' will be aware that National Express operates its services on a contracted basis to third-party operators, running a very small percentage of services itself. In the LEYTR area services are operated by Stagecoach (350, 447, 448 & 449); First (339); Park's of Hamilton (534); EYMS (322, 390 & 562); Veolia (563); Tate's Travel (660); Skyline (661); Clynnog & Trefor (662); and Travellers Choice (664).
But what about all the others?
LEYTR has come to the rescue with the following file, in pdf format, that lists all National Express scheduled coach services throughout the country, detailing which operator covers each service. This information is not exclusively obtainable in this format, if you have the time and patience you can travel the full length of the country to observe each route, noting down the legal lettering on each coach.
Or you could download our 63 page printable file, based on a template produced by National Express themselves, to whom we are eternally grateful.
