good afternoon guys from london and you can probably tell from the building behind me that
you guessed it i'm back on the coach national express up to
birmingham and then home to shrewsbury let's go
now it's such an iconic building victoria coach station isn't it yet what had actually happened
was that trains on the west coast mainline were going to be affected by engineering work
so i just thought i'd take potential disruption out of the equation and just get on the coach
i think it was once i was on it i could just relax regardless of how long it was going to take
and read a book or something and just get off at the other end reasonably relaxed
and happy the coach was leaving from stand 18 today
and whilst it looked like it was really busy it turned out a lot of these people
were heading for other cities such as bristol and manchester at around about the same time
now that was soon time to board the coach which for today's journey
would be a very smart looking volvo b11rt caetano levante 3 apparently
as usual the driver who was a very friendly chap named craig
checked the tickets and loaded the bags in the large luggage compartment below
i got on board and seating was in the expected 2-2 configuration and first impressions were
yeah really smart it looked and felt pretty much brand new i thought it was a sit anywhere kind
of situation so i found a seat on the right hand side facing forward and settled in for the journey
we left on time and i think the coach was probably about 75 percent full at the very last minute a
group of 20 odd people got on otherwise i reckon there would have been plenty of space as it was i
managed just to retain a spare seat next to me which was a big relief i had had the opportunity
to reserve one of the seats for an extra two pounds but i'm not sure these seats were actually
reserved at all for for this journey and as i said um everyone seemed to basically sit where
they wanted to but as it was i was pretty settled and the seat was comfortable as was the seat belt
this journey was going to take approximately three hours and 15 minutes to get to birmingham
and then a further one hour and 20 minutes to get me home to shrewsbury
anyway let's enjoy some footage of central london as we make our way
past lots of other coaches and head out west towards the m40 and beyond
right so the interior of the coach i would say was really smart nice big windows with
curtains you can pull across at night and you've got ample overhead storage space here above
the seats on both sides with integrated individual air vents and reading lights
there's some nice blue leds as well which i think it added to the sense of both calmness and comfort
there was seat back usb connectivity beneath which
was a small drop down table with built-in cupholders
importantly the table was strong and stable enough to support my ipad
which was a godsend on a journey of this length
a pouch was also available to store bits and pieces drinks bottles etc
and yeah plenty of legroom in these seats as you can see here the floor which was a
kind of laminated wood style effect was clean with no obstructions under the seats in front
and as you can see the seats themselves are in a dark grey colour and yeah i
have to say they were comfortable for the duration of the journey
the seat belt wasn't overly tight now i had absolutely no issues at all by the end of the trip
i had a go at trying to get the wi-fi to work but unfortunately it wasn't connecting
now this is a bit of a recurring theme on my coach journeys so far and yeah i've pretty
much given up trying to be honest um just end up relying on a strong 4g connection instead
anyway let's get back to the journey and whilst the m25 had been pretty busy we were slightly
ahead of schedule by the time we reached the outskirts of birmingham it had become a little
chilly on board but the driver recognized this and put the heating on which really helped our route
today took us past birmingham airport and the old terminal building which is great to see traffic
was a bit snarled up the closer we got to the city centre but nevertheless we actually arrived into
digbeth coach station six minutes early now i guess national express factors in potential
congestion in their journey times it's always good to under promise and over deliver isn't it
there is a driver change at birmingham so it was a welcome chance to stretch our legs we've got about
20 minutes whilst the drivers helped with luggage and talk to the passengers i'm going to say now
that both these drivers were a great credit to the company they were really professional approachable
helpful and actually looked like they enjoyed their job which counts for a lot for me in terms
of the actual customer experience and it's also a major factor in whether i enjoy the journey or not
so at 16:15 we depart reversing out of the bay
and then driving past another iconic building the fantastic birmingham moor street station
before heading down the aston expressway towards the m6 next stop telford
17:04 and we arrive at telford again six minutes early
lots of people got off here which i was surprised about for some reason we don't
stop for long and then we zoomed back out onto the m54 heading for my final destination shrewsbury
now guys i was hoping i could take a few seconds of your time to talk about my kofi
page i'm basically hoping to get a few more members joining up and it's a great way to
support the channel and i do loads of exclusive stuff over there like sending out regular email
updates postcards and you can get your name featured on my videos like these lucky people here
membership starts at just one pound a month and if you like my stuff you can send me a
tip it really helps me to make more videos like this as 100% of the money i can guarantee you
goes straight back into booking more trips there's a link in the video description
below and yeah i would really appreciate any support you could give thank you very much
anyway on to the highlight of any of my videos which you've all been waiting for i'm sure it's
the toilet review located right to the back of the coach you will find the toilets accessed
via the sliding door with the latch lock as shown here there was a toilet occupied
indicator at the front of the coach which was useful and i thought it was a reasonable size
really and fairly clean considering we'd been on the road now for over four hours by this point
the opposite the toilet is sink with soap and hand dryer above now unfortunately there
was no soap or hand sanitizer to be found so that is one negative aspect to report
the tap has cold running water at the push of a button and hand dryer worked as expected
now some idiot had decided to try and squeeze a plastic drinks container into the bin but you
can't really legislate for people like that can you to the right of the sink was a large mirror
with a sticker asking you to use hand sanitizer which unfortunately was impossible on this
trip uh fortunately i always carry my own these days anyway well back at my seat i was thinking
about value for money and all in all i think it compares reasonably well with the train for this
specific journey you can get a ticket from london to birmingham with national express for £4.90
if you book it around three weeks in advance yeah it could take over three hours but
if you're not in any rush well that's not bad value is it i paid £14.40 to get me all
the way home to shrewsbury which again is pretty reasonable compared to the train i reckon i could
get the slow train maybe slightly cheaper if i really wanted to but it probably wouldn't be far
off time-wise and i think the coach is a little bit more comfortable now we pulled into raven
meadows bus station in shrewsbury at exactly 17:35 this coach carries on all the way to aberystwyth
after calling at shrewsbury which for some people means a gruelling seven hour journey like i said
though if you've got a good book and plenty of food you'll be all right you can find advance
fares for less than £10 from london to aberystwyth and you really can't go wrong for that can you
okay guys that was london victoria coach station to shrewsbury raven meadows bus station
yeah i must admit i was feeling a bit jaded by the end um but yeah four hours and 35 minutes
bang on time to the minute so fair do's you cannot argue with that can you i hope you enjoyed it um
thanks very much for watching and until the next time guys cheers for now i'm gonna get a drink