National Express is reported as seeing a three per cent growth per annum thanks, it says, to value fares and a recession that’s resulted in organic growth. But UK rail is once again doing better still, in spite of that same recession with, according to Passenger Transport, year-on-year growth of nearly 12 per cent.
Taken from this time last year, the £1 fare plus booking fee is a thing of the past
And that’s in an era of record rail fares increases, and at a time when NatEx has shrugged off its internet-only £1 bargains. Perhaps time is money, hence the rail growth. Perhaps rail users are fed up with motorway and urban-area congestion.
When and if we crawl out of recession, we can expect even greater rail growth. But where will this leave NatEx and other bargain based express coach providers who have benefited from recession? Initiatives such as reducing the average age of its fleet by about two years will no doubt stand NatEx in good stead. It & Greyhound already have class leading legroom but it remains difficult to shrug off the poorer image of coach travel, a perception that leaves express coaching at the bottom of the national transport debate.
NatEx’s £1 internet-only fares attracted few new customers, it says. People apparently had a very jaundiced view as to whether such fares were actually available in the first place. And those in the know snapped them up as soon as they were released but would’ve travelled in any case. If £1 fares are not generating traffic, might other express providers have to change their tactics?
21 comments:
If you mean "the end of yield management" I doubt it. Nat Ex are probably realising that this attempt to compete with Megabus was a waste of effort as the fare structures are totally different, Nat Ex's being rather closer to that of the railway, with different ticket types having different conditions.
cThe pound fare would have worked better if terms and conditions were not so stringent.Trying to book was a nightmare.
In a way you hit the nail on the head.
When I travel with easyJet (who started all this yield management lark off) I can book the cheapest fare (usually £19.99 inclusive these days) but it's still fully flexible subject to a change fee and upgrade to the current fare. No weasel T&Cs, no complexity, no hassle.
Time for Nat Ex to go that way (assuming of course Stagecoach doesn't buy them and merge it all into Megabus)? On the railway I would resist it as I like flexible tickets, but with coaches you're much more likely to hit "full" anyway so flexible tickets have little meaning.
(or rather flexible tickets have more of an air travel meaning - "you can change it" - rather than the railway meaning "walk up and get on the train of your choosing subject to time restrictions").
I suspect that £1 fares will still be available in promotions at times to suit Nat Ex - I used one earlier this month brought via a newspaper promotion, on a weekday lunchtime journey which had a far higher load than one might otherwise have expected.
Do users really expect to be able to change tickets brought for £1? I don't - if you travel you've saveds £££s, if you don't you've lost very little.
There's no point in changing a ticket worth less than the change fee, of course (this would apply to one of easyJet's 20 quid specials, as the change fee is about 30 quid). But it's the transparency that counts, I think.
Does the weight of the £1 fare passenger cover the cost of the extra fuel used to move them ? It may fill empty seats,but it is just a loss leader and attention grabber. One person paying £10 is less heavy than 10 people paying a pound. What does this do for fuel economy one wonders ?
Not a very green option is it ?
Anonymous said...
"Not a very green option is it ?"
If the passenger would otherwise have used a car, then it is definitely green!
Some of the comments from friends who have no bus industry interest but have used NatEx suggest that they no longer view it as especially cheap, compared with the low cost air carriers and the bargain fares that are available on some train, at some times. Especially when they also compare journey times.
They may not be right, but perceptions are significant.
This is the kind of Omnibuses post which could do with a link to a news source, so as to get some sort of context.
A quick search on Google News produced an FT piece entitled "National Express upbeat on coach travel" (direct link prob won't work, so search for it on the big-G) - here's a relevant para from it:
Fares may rise on its UK coaches and buses, however, as the company looks to offset a 20 per cent cut in government fuel grants in 2012, which will cost it £10m ($16m) a year. It said it was keen to improve yield rather than cut services but pointed out that the economic environment could make it difficult to pass on increases fully.
I dunno what Busing has specifically picked up on, but I don't think we're going to see the end of NX coach "funfares" whatsoever - instead I dare say that the only thing which might change is that these yield managed funfares aren't going to be available for as little as £1.
Besides, I don't think £1 has always been starting figure for these fares - I think it was £5 when introduced, and sub-£5 funfares came later. So perhaps they'll just go back up to starting at £5.
I also very much doubt that NX are about to simply give up on competing with Megabus - instead maybe this is NX simply ramping down the cut-throat element to that competition, not least because many Megabus fares are more expensive than they once were (indeed for a number of journeys I've looked at in the past year, NX funfares have been cheaper than Megabus).
I demur from Neil's point about the fares structures being totally different - yes, the classic NX fare structure is indeed a very different beast, but NX's funfares are pretty similar to the Megabus offering (though with Megabus, you can actually change a reservation up to 24hrs before travel for a £1.50 fee plus any difference in fare - think this can only be done once though).
One last thing, re Busing's point about UK rail growth despite "record rail fares increases" - from the perspective of leisure travel, many of these pax will be travelling with cheapo advance purchase tickets (on specified trains) rather than the eye-watering fully flexible fares the media routinely quote.
Also many train passengers are captive customers unlike the bus passenger .
Anonymous said...
"Also many train passengers are captive customers unlike the bus passenger"
Can you enlarge on that statement, and explain your thinking? Some bus/coach passengers certainly consider themselves to be 'captive'.
FAO RC169.I mean the daily commuter especially i the larger conurbations who travel both ways 10 or 12 times a week and who have no alternative .ie bus/coach to slow.etc regards.
@Anon 1941
With the exception of central London I cannot think of one conurbation where you could not drive and park instead of travelling by train on the daily commute.
Of course you could drive into central London and park if you are prepared to pay the congestion charge, £10ph parking and share the road with the rest of the nutters who inhabit our capital's roads... most sensible people use public transport in and out of London.
re anon2050.Manchester ,Birmingham,Newcastle have sizeable rail commute numbers,many of whom no longer commute by car.Another thing that may adversely affect NX is a down turn in student travel which seems likely to happen due to the present political climate.This will also affect megabus.
RE - Anon @2050:
A lot of people also commute into central Bristol from the outskirts such as Keynsham, Yate & Nailsea/Backwell.
I'm no expert on Natex, but wonder do they still offer the option to pay the driver if you so wish ? I think some routes do offer this,but do they all ?
I'm thinking that some empty seats may be filled if they advertise that you can turn up and go..providing there is space. Our much reduced Greyhound service still offers this option I beleive,and at least it makes it feel 'accesssible' should you need to make a quick travel decision.
I know a few years ago you could pay drivers on some Natex routes I used...but is that still the case ?
Yes, you can still pay the driver on some routes, certainly the 025 London to Brighton - seems odd to see ticket machines on a brand new Levante
http://www.flickr.com/photos/islandyorkie/5448455500/
although in my experience few people seem to take advantage, it's not a facility that Nat Ex seems to advertise for some reason.
Anonymous said...
"I'm no expert on Natex, but wonder do they still offer the option to pay the driver if you so wish ? I think some routes do offer this,but do they all ?"
You have to dig a little way down the FAQs, but the answer is here:-
http://help.nationalexpress.com/help/booking/pay_the_driver
I guess it is understandable that they don't encourage this method of payment.
@ Anon 2226 and 2234,
No one was suggesting anywhere except London didn't have rail commuters, what was disputed was Anon @ 1820 and 1941 suggesting rail commuters were some kind of captive audience when by and large they clearly are not, rail commuters largely choose rail over a.n.other form of public or private transport.
People apparently had a very jaundiced view as to whether such fares were actually available in the first place. And those in the know snapped them up as soon as they were released but would’ve travelled in any case
With no evidence whatsoever, I'd offer the possibility that, these days, £1 is next to nothing so, if you've a notion to go somewhere on a coach, why not just book up one of these tickets and simply discard it if something better turns up, the weather looks a bit dodgy or London Midland's train driver decide they will, after all, turn up for work today?
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