God Bless National Express

[glastonbury2008]

Hi,

National Express you are amazing....

We got on our private hire minibus at 12noon wednesday at archway (North London). The driver came off the motorway 2 junctions early so we ended up taking 11hrs to get to 2miles outside glastonbury town. At Glastonbury town some little shits decided to brick our minibus so we all got kicked off and twenty five 15 to 22yr olds had to walk the remaining 15miles or so..... with all our stuff and 4 guitars and a drum kit!

We split into 2s and all went out on a mission to get a lift from festival goers to the site. This failed with people just shouting abuse at 2 very tired Londoners at 3am

After all of our mates got lifts except me and my mate we walked six miles with tents, bags and 3 guitars before collapsing down on a bench alternating turns at sticking the thumb up.

After about 30mins of trying FINALLY a national express stopped to give us a lift for the (rip-off) but unavoidable price off £10 each.

About 15mins later we saw our mate who had walked 10miles with a fractured ankle and tent and bag and a very heavy lp guitar. He jumped on the bus and was then charged £20... double the price of us but still worth the money all things considered.

We finally arrived at the site 4.30am ish 14 1/2hrs after leaving london! We realised we could have flown to New York in the time taken to get to glastonbury.

Upon getting to gate A we then had to get all the way to Gate D to camp, the opposite side of the festival!

By the time tents where up and we where settled..ish it was 7.30am!

Now i challenge any of you to beat that experience of getting to glastonbury!

xxxx

Edited July 6, 2009 by glastonbury2008

[sifi]

That's just f**ked.

[shangri-la_steward]

brutal

well done for making it

[ronniec111]

Wowzers!

Sounds like the drivers was shoving that money straight in his pocket...

[Langdale Wolf]

So you tried to hitch a lift and NX charged you for doing so? Or did you arrange a specific pick up point with them?

[glastonbury2008]

So you tried to hitch a lift and NX charged you for doing so?

[Langdale Wolf]

Yep

[Rachie]

god.

well done for being so strong tho.

I think id have had a nervous breakdown.

We used national express, i arrived late and got a later coach then my neice, she left 1 hour earlier then me.

I got there after about 8 hours (2hrs longer then usual)

she got there...

15 hours later!!!!!! (7 hours later then me!!!!)

It was an actual blessing that i got up late that morning and got the later coach

[ronniec111]

That's well tight. We could have squeezed someone in the back I'm sure. Reminds me of on the road leading up to the entrance, I jumped out for a wee and the queue moved behind my back... next thing I know the car's a mile down the road, I had to leg it full speed for a mile to catch up and everyone just laughed... gits.

[HotChipWillBreakYourLegs]

Took us 16 hours from London. Head gasket blew on car, towed to Wincanton, couldn't fix car, driven to Bath and West Showground, waited 6 hours for bus.

[glastonbury2008]

Do you know what the number etc of the coach was mate? Or the driver's name? Anything?

That shouldn't be happening. I'm closely involved with this and that simply ain't on.

Edited July 6, 2009 by glastonbury2008

[Rachie]

That's well tight. We could have squeezed someone in the back I'm sure. Reminds me of on the road leading up to the entrance, I jumped out for a wee and the queue moved behind my back... next thing I know the car's a mile down the road, I had to leg it full speed for a mile to catch up and everyone just laughed... gits.

[jameshunt]

that happened on ours too... a load of people got off by the morrisons after the coach had been stand-still for about 20 minutes - they went shopping!!

well, obviously the coach started moving straight after, and we didnt asee them people again for about a further hour or more... and when they finally reasched our coach they'd been running for miles in the heat...some of the girls were even crying they were that exhausted!

[glastonbury2008]

and....... the coach refused to pick us up because of "breaking terms of the contract" by drinking on the coach, even though the driver said we could.

So we had to pay again to get home.

Bring on next year!

xxx

[Langdale Wolf]

and....... the coach refused to pick us up because of "breaking terms of the contract" by drinking on the coach, even though the driver said we could.

So we had to pay again to get home.

Bring on next year!

xxx

[Rachie]

Anyone else notice that they dont send 'national express' coaches to pick you up?

They send really old, 'no brand' coaches?

Well atleast they have for the last 2 years for us (liverpool)

I can kinda understand, cos were all smelly and dirty and they dont want thier coaches getting dirty....but you know...you pay for the name.

This year was particuly bad, as the coach that came to pick is up had no air conditioning, the radio didnt work and appaerently it kept over heating, so he had to keep taking breaks (towards the end of the journey (last 2 hours) he was taking them every 20 minutes...like 15 minutes 'break' at a service stations'

He said if he didnt do this, the coach would break down!

Edited July 6, 2009 by Rachie

[Langdale Wolf]

Anyone else notice that they dont send 'national express' coaches to pick you up?

They send really old, 'no brand' coaches?

Well atleast they have for the last 2 years for us (liverpool)

[liamgazza]

Ours was also a nightmare.

We were booked on the 8.30am coach from Manchester so left Burnley about 6.40 - should have got us into Manchester about 7.50 but because of bad traffic and a road accident, we got there at 11.10.

We'd missed the other bus which goes direct to Glastonbury and all the other coaches to Bristol or anywhere near were all full. So we had to go down to the train station and pay an extra £60 to get to Bristol, thinking we could just jump on the coach when we got to Bristol train station and go straight down to Glastonbury.

Wasn't to be. There was another road accident, so all coaches were off from Bristol and we were advised to go down to Castle Cary.

We then had to jump on two more trains to get to Castle Cary, and then had to wait over 3 hours in a q to get on a shuttle bus, and seen as we kept moving every minute or so, we had to keep all our stuff on our back etc, so by the time we got on the coach our backs were absolutely killing.

By the time we got to Glastonbury, we were exhausted and it was about 10.30 - 16 hours after leaving Burnley. Luckily my cousin was already on site so he met up with us and carried our stuff and helped set up the tent. It didn't help that it was a 6 man tent and I had to carry it all the way, VERY heavy!

Absolute nightmare. Good job the weekend was amazing.

Edited July 6, 2009 by liamgazza

[sambuca_boy]

Ours was also a nightmare.

We were booked on the 8.30am coach from Manchester so left Burnley about 6.40 - should have got us into Manchester about 7.50 but because of bad traffic and a road accident, we got there at 11.10.

We'd missed the other bus which goes direct to Glastonbury and all the other coaches to Bristol or anywhere near were all full. So we had to go down to the train station and pay an extra £60 to get to Bristol, thinking we could just jump on the coach when we got to Bristol train station and go straight down to Glastonbury.

Wasn't to be. There was another road accident, so all coaches were off from Bristol and we were advised to go down to Castle Cary.

We then had to jump on two more trains to get to Castle Cary, and then had to wait over 3 hours in a q to get on a shuttle bus, and seen as we kept moving every minute or so, we had to keep all our stuff on our back etc, so by the time we got on the coach our backs were absolutely killing.

By the time we got to Glastonbury, we were exhausted and it was about 10.30 - 16 hours after leaving Burnley. Luckily my cousin was already on site so he met up with us and carried our stuff and helped set up the tent. It didn't help that it was a 6 man tent and I had to carry it all the way, VERY heavy!

Absolute nightmare. Good job the weekend was amazing.

[Bort]

Left London at 1pm, arrived at the festival at 9:45pm. Awful. But that's a traffic/cop problem.

Edited July 7, 2009 by Bort

[coolethan]

Sorry to hear you had such a horrible journey.

Really surprised to hear no one would give you a lift in either. But you did make it! And was it worth it?

[Kyelo]

No quite as eventful but stupid times all the same!

Arriving

Left the North of Scotland(Elgin)at 1pm, arrived at Knutsford at 8pm - 7 hours

Left Knutsford(South of Manchester I think)at 8.40am, arrived at Glastonbury at 12.30am - 15 hours 50 minutes!

Returning

Left Campsite at 8.40am, arrived in Elgin at 11.30pm - 14 hours 50 mintues

Edited July 7, 2009 by BenchBuddah

[Frogger_Queen]

We left our campsite in Arcadia at 10.30am, walked to the bus stop on the other side of the site, bus was an hour late, had two drivers (father & son apparently!) father "hadn't driven this type of bus before, so bear with him..." father then proceeded to knock several traffic cones over on the way out, and swerve about lots...

Got a bit up the road, when the bus starts to overheat, pulled over into a lay-by whilst son rings an engineer. Engineer tells son to hit the radiator with something hard (no, not his head ) so he hits it with an umbrella (!!!) and off we go again.

We then stop for a 45 minute break, making us miss our connection in London. Drops us at the wrong place, and buggers off. Finally make our way over to Victoria, sunburnt (nephew had taken the suncream with him in his car ) and knackered. After a bit of a wrangle with N-EX staff, get put on a bus to Cambridge, 30-odd miles away from home, and then a taxi from there (which N-Ex paid for ) and got back to Suffolk at about 11.40pm, tired, but spirit unbroken, even National Express couldn't manage that!

Journey time, approx 13 hours and 10 minutes. I've travelled to India faster...

Can't wait for next year, although hopefully, won't be going by bus

[MrMac]

I know it's all luck of the draw but I was quite impressed with the National Express service.

Didn't use it to get there but had booked the 11am return coach to Bournemouth. We left shortly after 12 and were home in a couple of hours. Both the gate organisers and driver were good natured and happy.

Only downside was that (in the driver's words) the aircon had the power of an asthmatic mouse.

I'd definitely consider using it again next year...

[Josie's Cat]

Like coolethan, I can't believe people wouldn't give you a lift - and shouting abuse! Why? What f**ktards.

I think we were just about on site at 3am, putting up the tent in a dazed state, but would deffo have given you a lift, could have done with some adult company after 8 hrs playing eye spy and listening to the kids remix version of song 2!