I caught a Megabus from Manchester to Bournemouth about 18 months ago and I don't think I'd repeat the experience. The first driver's driving was a little, erm, enthusiastic and he was unnecessarily rude to more than one passenger. And while the coach appeared to be well maintained mechanically, dirty water kept dripping out of the forced air vents above the seats.
Not the best advert for leaving the car at home...
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We once went on a National Express coach overnight from Manchester to London. The driver(s) often went too fast. On the return journey they drove down some country type lanes at well above the speed limit. Scary!
Nevr again. My father was a coach driver (sometimes for National Express) and he would never have driven like this.
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Believe me, Rob there are some decent bus and coach drivers out there. Honest! Sadly though, the pay is rubbish these days. I think I'm correct in saying that back in the 50s and 60s a bus driver's pay was roughly on a par with that of a train driver. Now, it's about £15k a year adrift. Not enough PSV drivers have pride in their job any more, I'm sorry to say. I do, and I'm very conscious of how my driving will be viewed by my passengers.
Edited by Pugugly on 10/02/2010 at 20:57
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I mentioned my father - he died in 1981 and quite young. He often switched from National Express to a local firm and back again.
We had a trip to Scotland on a coach a year ago. A very good driver. It was a bargain holiday and a good get away - we would not normally do a coach trip.
The problem with the National Express journey was the need to keep to schedules. We had a medical emergency on the way back north. The person would not go off in the ambulance called - they did the second time. We still got back to Manchester close to schedule despite the 1.5 hours delay!
Edited by rtj70 on 10/02/2010 at 21:02
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I haven't got a coach for a while as I always tend get trains. My last experience with Megabus was a bit patchy (a P reg coach with no toilets) but the vehicle itself was in perfect condition unlike a lot of older coaches. Both drivers were very good and I felt safe but having no toilets on such a long journey was very poor I had to pleed with the driver to let me off at Watford Gap so I can could take a leak.
Overall though my experience of coach drivers is mostly good, I had one madman who was doing 50-60 down the snake pass from Paris as the M6 was shut due to an accident. This delayed the coach and he had to go down the M1 to Sheffield and then took the snake pass, I remember the lecturer having to tell the driver to slow down at one point.
What happened in the case mentioned above is appalling but when you think how many 10000's of coach journeys there are I would have thought it was extremely extremely rare.
Rob thats why I would never take the National Express to London it takes two hours longer than Megabus when the train often takes less than two hours from Manchester to London in the first place.
Edited by Rattle on 10/02/2010 at 21:06
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Not many people realise that National Express only run a tiny amount of their own coaches. Most of the Nat Ex coaches that you see on the roads are owned by independent firm who contract to Nat Ex. A quick look at the legal lettering on the coach (which should be on the nearside, by the front wheel) will tell you which firm's vehicle you are travelling on.
I know quite a few drivers who have driven on Nat Ex services and have hated them as Nat Ex control ring them constantly to ask them when they'll be at their next stop and why they're running late. I certainly wouldn't do it.
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Indeed but the coach firms have very strict requirements don't they including exact fleet type? E.g I could not go and buy a load of clapped out M reg Volvo B10s and run them for National Express one would hope! Mind you knowing my luck none of them would work anyway.
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Rob thats why I would never take the National Express to London it takes two hours longer than Megabus when the train often takes less than two hours from Manchester to London in the first place.
On that occasion we had to be in London by a certain time for a train journey to Florence. Back then my wife would not fly normally. She is fine now. So it was either train or bus to London and the train was several hundred pounds. So we used the bus.
We then got delayed on the Eurostar to Paris due to a landslide and nearly missed the overnight train from Paris to Florence! We've been back since via Pisa ;-)
Badwolf, I never knew about the National Express sub-contracting to coach companies. Very interesting.
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Only time I go on coaches these days is the airport to resort transfer coach, abroad on my annual skiing trip.
I have to say that in my experience, the drivers are great and take pride in their driving and the condition of their vehicle.
I am always full of admiration for the way that they drive these things, climbing up not so wide alpine roads, hairpin bend after hairpin bend in sub zero temperatures and often in the dark, with massive drops to the side.
Quite a responsibility.
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I haven't been on a coach since 1987 (except for school trips, as I'm a teacher). It was in July/August 1987 that I had the real coach journey from hell - Birmingham to Istanbul. Left Digbeth coach station at 2pm on Friday afternoon and arrived in Istanbul at 4pm on Monday. No overnight stops, on the coach the whole time.
The first (National Express) coach to London Victoria was okay - toilets, etc. But London to Frankfurt was on a coach that had a broken toilet so made frequent stops. And Frankfurt to Istanbul (which took two days) was on an old, very slow Turkish coach that rarely exceeded 50mph, with no toilet and therfore stopped at frequent intervals at 'service areas' in the old Yugoslavia. We weren't allowed to stop in Bulgaria (transit visa only), which caused some discomfort to a couple who'd had a dodgy kebab in Frankfurt and who forced the driver to pull over in remote forested areas to allow them (and others) to have a comfort break.
I could go on (such as the two drivers swapping over without stopping the coach - well choreographed! and some interesting experiences at borders), but you get the picture. We had a great time travelling around Turkey, mainly on buses/coaches, but the thought of that return journey was always in the back of our minds.
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Quite a few friends at Manchester University in the 90s did the trip to/from home on the busese, e.g. Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria.
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That's right, Rattle. They have age requirements, although I have recently seen 'W' and 'Y' reg coaches on Nat Ex services. My point really was that, although they have fairly strict restrictions on the coaches that their contractors use the only requirement that they place on the drivers used by the contractors (other than a PSV licence!) is that they wear a tie. I'd imagine that driving standards would be somewhat higher if Nat Ex had direct control.
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It is the thing I have noticed with Megabus (Stagecoach) while some of their drivers have a dire lack of people skills they do seem to be very good drivers. National Express should have strict tests which all drivers must pass if they want to drive a coach subcontracted to NE.
If I ran a public transport company my main concern about drivers would not just be their skill level but also their psychiatric state. A persons mental state can badly affect how they drive, a friend of mine got into problems had about £500 of motoring fines in one month as she just didn't care about anything. If she was driving a bus I doubt she would have cared about her passangers in that state either.
Edited by Rattle on 10/02/2010 at 21:24
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Wiki is quite interesting on National Express Coaches - it lists all the franchise holders - I haven't counted them but there a a couple of dozen....
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Express_Coaches
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It is ironic how some of National Expresses biggest rivals in both road and rail also operate National Express coaches. Stagecoach and Arriva stand out both have rail operations too, and of course until recently National Express did.
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Not forgetting too, Rattle, that Stagecoach also operate their own Megabus company!
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Reminds me of journeys I used to do when I was a student in France in the early nineties. Eurolines overnight service from Tours to London Victoria via ferry from Calais to Dover.
In those days you could still smoke on coaches and I once spent the night sitting next to a real hardcore smoker who lit one cigarette from another - several people told him to give it a rest but he was totally unapologetic. To be fair the coaches were comfortable, the French drivers were very good and generally pleasant, and the fare was next to nothing compared with flying. The Channel Tunnel was still being dug. I can never sleep on coaches and there's something quite eerie about staring out into the night and passing by signs for the sites of WW1 battlefields.
Also remembered are coach journeys from Birmingham to Galway via Holyhead ferry to Dublin, again overnight, with a company called Slattery's. The drivers on the Irish side were seriously quick - the coaches always pulled into Eyre Square in Galway early! Air fares then to Galway were very expensive, but I imagine that they now compete with the coaches in some cases.
Reminiscence over!
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Thanks for the link PU. I assume my father may have worked for a local company operating as National Express in the 70's then.
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We went to Austria and Italy with Shearings years ago. Lovely bus with a bog and coffee and bikkies.....trouble was, everytime I got up to make a drink, Chris the driver spotted me in the mirror and I had to make him one !
Took us up the Grossglockner HochAlpineStrasse in the snow. Another day went up the valley to Kalkstein, passing a red Golf in the river about 50ft below the road. When we were there he parked with a bit of left lock on the wheel nearest the door and we noticed the tyre was completely bald !
Great lad though....propped the bar up with us hardier ones like a gud 'un.
Ted
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I hope me was not over the limit the next day! It would not have been pretty, over the limit and a bald tyre.
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That thought crossed my mind too. I've driven my fair share of coach holidays and done quite a lot for David Urquhart Travel (another firm that contracts the work out!). There's a tale that David Urquhart himself will occasionally join the driver in the bar and offer to buy him a pint. He'll then offer to buy him a second pint and start to talk about the next day's excursion, shortly before telling the driver that he won't be taking it and phoning the driver's boss to get a replacement driver sent out for the next day. I'm not sure if it's a myth put about by the company to keep the drivers out of temptation's way but I was always very very careful not to drink in front of the passengers, unless I was off the next day.
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To be fair, I never saw Chris down more than 9 or 10 pints ( litres ).
So he would have been OK. :-)
Ted
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Ah, right. That's ok then. I thought you meant that he'd *really* been drinking! :-)
Edited by Badwolf {P} on 10/02/2010 at 22:08
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It's not a job I'd care to do. Quite frankly, livestock transport of any description's never appealed to me!
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Coach driving's ok, Harleyman. I'm now back bus driving, but I drive the City Sightseeing open top tour of Liverpool so all of my passengers actually want to be on the bus and are in holiday mood so are lovely and polite. I won't be in a hurry to go back to service work though. I've had my fill of drunks, chavs and obnoxious passengers who delight in telling me that they pay my wages.
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I had a trip in Gillingham FC's team coach to France and Belgium, superbly luxurious - Nawt to do with the "game" but a Battlefield Tour with Richard Holmes.....
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In 1988, as part of a youth group, I went to Lourdes from Glasgow on a luxury coach. By luxury I mean it had a toilet, hot water drink facilities, a video player and nice comfy seats. It didn't have air con.
22 years later I still see the same coach, with the same registration , now plying its trade in Glasgow (It previously belonged to a Skye based operator).
No idea what sort of mileage it will have done, I know at the time we had it, the driver said it was on constant Euro trips for about 6/7 months of the year.
Its years since I have been on a coach but other than air con, and maybe a dvd player instead of video, I don't know what else a passenger would need nowadays compared to then!
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I had a similar experience many years ago with the 'Bus Driver from Hell' It was between Oban and Fort William. The bus was Leyland Leopard single-decker and the driver was a man in his late 50s or early 60s who was clearly angry about something. It was pouring with rain and this driver was following a car and caravan at about 50 mph only literally a foot or two behind the caravan. The driver also tailgated other cars, cornered on what was probably the limit for a bus in the wet and was swearing and cursing all the time. We reported the driver at Fort William bus station. The staff there hinted that it was a situation of "we know exactly what you mean and we'd love to get rid of this guy but unless we have several complaints from different passengers in writing we can't do anything".
This was in the days when the trade unions held sway.
Edited by Sofa Spud on 11/02/2010 at 10:00
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One never knows who is at the helm of trains & boats & planes etc., etc.
I have a relative who has a PSV license and drives coaches at weekends, he is also a heavy Cocaine user & part time dealer.
I have another relative who's partner is a long-time Alcoholic - he is also a train driver with London underground.
I kid you - not!
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In the last year I have done a 14 day coach tour of Turkey and a 7 day coach tour of the Grand Canyon area of the USA. Both coaches were spotless every morning and well driven. The Americans just have the edge for service and driving though! Constant video evidence effect?
Edited by Old Navy on 11/02/2010 at 14:51
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... is a long-time Alcoholic - he is also a train driver with London underground...
I understood train drivers were randomly tested for drink, if not drugs.
Might not apply to tube drivers.
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>>> I understood train drivers were randomly tested for drink, if not drugs. <<<
A must, in my humble op.
He has been an Alcoholic & a train driver for over 20 years but - he's never had any 'incidents' in that time.
An addict needs his/her drug of choice - just to be 'normal'.
I know for certain that he would have been over the d/d limit on numerous earlies.
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