National Express Coach Prices

[McCor]

Evening gang

Just checked the NE coach prices (rtn from Oxford) and they're £56.... pretty sure we paid a lot less last year???

PS: The excitement is building quickly!!

[musky]

They'd pegged their prices to last year's until the end of December. We've both missed the boat on that one I'm afraid.

[Memory Man]

the coach prices are shocking. If they seriously want more people to travel not by car they need to do something about the price of the coaches.

[DeanoL]

NX have to subcontract for the coaches to get the number required and I'd imagine after last year a lot of places will outright say no or ask for more money.

[st dan]

It would be great if the festival themselves could organise some coaches from a number of major towns/cities throughout the country. 

They could just cover the cost of the journey (drivers time, petrol etc) and then a little 'extra' charge which could be given to the charities associated with the festival. 

Rather then letting National Express and their corporate greed charge needlessly inflated prices for the service.  

[Perks]

13 hours ago, McCor said:

Evening gang

Just checked the NE coach prices (rtn from Oxford) and they're £56.... pretty sure we paid a lot less last year???

PS: The excitement is building quickly!!

I was moaning about the prices over in the questions thread. The prices defo not encouraging. Didn't realise they were cheaper before the new year, prob should've looked before. Still all booked now, excitement is building indeed.

[Memory Man]

4 minutes ago, st dan said:

It would be great if the festival themselves could organise some coaches from a number of major towns/cities throughout the country. 

They could just cover the cost of the journey (drivers time, petrol etc) and then a little 'extra' charge which could be given to the charities associated with the festival. 

Rather then letting National Express and their corporate greed charge needlessly inflated prices for the service.  

Exactly. However they have a festival to organise so another burden of administration that they probably can't justify sadly

[liamium]

staring down the barrel of £87 each for me & my girlfriend's return from Manchester. she gave me her coach fare immediately after ticket day success as I was supposed to buy them asap. reader, i have long since spent that money and have yet to book the coach.

[Calvin Klein]

yes, they are way more expensive. Thinking about renting a car this time around, as it's not much more 

And I didn't even get those green travelers' discounts last time either 

[st dan]

24 minutes ago, Memory Man said:

Exactly. However they have a festival to organise so another burden of administration that they probably can't justify sadly

Yeah - it would be great in theory if they could help, but I get that in reality this probably wouldn't be possible. 

Just that I refuse to pay the coach costs to travel down from Manchester. If 4 of us drive down in one car .. then it's £20 (maximum) each for petrol there and back and car park.

Alternatively it's £84.50 (plus booking costs) on the coach. 

Now I'm all for saving the environment, but I just outright refuse to pay that much to travel down by coach, whilst also being restricted to times and how much I can bring. 

[Memory Man]

stopped going on the coach a long while back, became intolerable and expensive. It is cheaper to hire a car and travel with 3 or 4 passengers sharing. Nowadays we get the train from leeds to bristol and go the rest of the way in a car from bristol with our friends, it works really well as we get to arrive and depart by car without the burden of driving the whole way from the fest to Leeds on the monday.

Other than the cost, the sheer ability to pick your own route when driving is what is most valuable to me. It seems that coaches have set routes most of the time and won't veer away from them even if there might be an obvious time saver when sat in a massive queue. or even further away from the site in order to not join the massive queue on certain routes.

Edited January 30, 2017 by Memory Man

[Michaels denim shorts]

Our coach driver was an absolute legend last year. She went through numerous road blocks & "no access to festival" signs, to cheers from the coach & angry looking oxfam steward faces & took us a sneaky way through pilton, avoiding pretty much all traffic. 

It still took 2 hours to do 19 miles but could have been a shite sight worse 

[fat_man_joe]

8 hours ago, st dan said:

It would be great if the festival themselves could organise some coaches from a number of major towns/cities throughout the country. 

They could just cover the cost of the journey (drivers time, petrol etc) and then a little 'extra' charge which could be given to the charities associated with the festival. 

Rather then letting National Express and their corporate greed charge needlessly inflated prices for the service.  

This would be a dream, but it's worth bearing in mind that National Express likely pay for the privilege of being the "official provider to Glastonbury Festival", too. Meaning the festival would lose another source of income.

I don't know why but I feel like £30 isn't that bad for a journey into the middle of nowhere (I'm going from London), then the same for the way back.

[Memory Man]

from london. but thats what, £80 from leeds and manchester? that is looking poor value if you're northern. should be £40 from london and £60 from the north, max. Not even that is really competitive from the north Vs 3 people sharing a hire car and petrol

just as an example, protest groups in leeds put on coaches to go to the london marches for £20 return. its not the same but its an example of how economic it can be if run just at cost and not for big profits.

if you knew enough people or could get enough to sign up you could probably organise your own coach for less

Edited January 30, 2017 by Memory Man

[irm96]

Making me feel sick that it's looking to be at least £130 each for me and the gf to get down from Edinburgh with National Express. Haven't even got a ticket yet so will have to book after the resale if we're successful, don't quite know where we're gonna pull over £700 from to get it all booked in April

[Tartan_Glasto]

1 hour ago, irm96 said:

Making me feel sick that it's looking to be at least £130 each for me and the gf to get down from Edinburgh with National Express. Haven't even got a ticket yet so will have to book after the resale if we're successful, don't quite know where we're gonna pull over £700 from to get it all booked in April

Maybe see if there's a lift-share going? Would be a fraction of the cost. Noticed some folk talking of ones from Glasgow in some other threads.

[Tr234]

If you can book with 5 or 6 people the price goes down about £20 each

[Cornelius_Fudge]

8 hours ago, irm96 said:

Making me feel sick that it's looking to be at least £130 each for me and the gf to get down from Edinburgh with National Express. Haven't even got a ticket yet so will have to book after the resale if we're successful, don't quite know where we're gonna pull over £700 from to get it all booked in April

Checked Skyscanner. They've got some deals for about 80 pounds return. Could be a faster/more comfortable and cheaper option

[PorkSoda]

Slightly off topic, but when do the see coaches times get announced?

[Miesh]

It is a shame that it's not a cheaper option (as opposed to driving). However I'll be on a NE coach this year. Less of a trek from the car park. Being able to take less means less to carry. No need to be sensible Sunday night and if there are traffic jams at least there will be access to a loo. In my opinion I'm OK with paying a bit extra. 

[justperfect]

53 minutes ago, PorkSoda said:

Slightly off topic, but when do the see coaches times get announced?

Not until about 3-4 weeks before

Edited January 31, 2017 by justperfect
Mistake

[Ovechkin]

Cost more to take The bus from London to glastonbury, than return flight tickets Stockholm - London (Ryanair is 40 quid but ill avoid that)

[Zoo Music Girl]

Anyone know when the National Express coaches go onsale? We've ended up with return See tickets to London at 4am on the Monday, so will need to make alternative arrangements for coming home... they're up for grabs if anyone wants them! You know, to get back for an early morning meeting or what have you...

[Zoo Music Girl]

Actually having just done a search it seems you can buy them now, but the prices seem insane: £60+ for a single. Can this be right? I always thought NX was cheaper than See!

Edited February 16, 2017 by Zoo Music Girl

[giantkatestacks]

It is around 60quid return. If you only want a single I would check the train prices.