National Express is adding thousands of extra coach seats to its services this Bank Holiday Weekend - and has vowed it will continue to add as many seats as possible while the country prepares for chaos during next week’s national rail strike.
The UK’s largest coach operator has added more than 10,000 extra seats to its unrivalled network of affordable coach services across the UK during the Bank Holiday weekend and over the strike (Friday May 22 -Tuesday May 26) – due to high demand.
During the two days of the national rail strike on Bank Holiday Monday and Tuesday (25 - 26 May, 2015) National Express has seen bookings soar by 25 per cent year - on - year nationally - and up to 110 per cent on certain routes - as the public looks for alternative transport.
With the national rail strike threatening to shutdown the majority of the rail network, leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded on one of the busiest travel days of the year – National Express is offering a guaranteed seat on its coach services to as many people as possible
London to Stansted Airport is the most popular coach route over the two days of the strike, as passengers with plane tickets search for alternatives, followed by Bristol to London and Bournemouth to London.
The top ten most popular coach routes during the strike are:
- London-Stansted Airport
- Bristol-London
- Bournemouth-London
- Cardiff-London
- Birmingham-London
- Leeds-London
- London-Southampton
- Leicester-London
- London-Portsmouth
- London-Nottingham
According to National Express’s advance bookings figures, passengers are switching to coach on some of the UK’s key mainline rail routes as bookings rise by as much as 110 per cent on certain routes during the strike.
Year-on-year coach bookings on services from Norwich to London have increased the most - 110 per cent, followed by Sheffield to London – 68 per cent, Newport to London – 55 per cent and Brighton to London – 49 per cent.
National Express UK Coach Managing Director Tom Stables said: 'With the national rail strike threatening to cause significant disruption to people’s Bank Holiday travel plans, we are offering passengers a guaranteed seat on our coaches and are committing to add as many services to the network as possible - ensuring everyone who wants to travel, can.
'With a national coach network spanning nearly 1,000 destinations nationwide we are offering the most comprehensive programme of services during the rail strike.'
For more information or to book visit www.nationalexpress.com or call 0871 781 8181.