good evening guys guess where I am tonight yes of course uh you've guessed it it's London
Victoria Coach Station uh again where I'm going to be taking the overnight coach up
to Edinburgh in Scotland with national Express now the last time I did this um it was with
Megabus and it was a total disaster uh the coach um it wasn't a Megabus it wasn't a branded
Megabus to be fair but the coach that was used was cramped it was smelly it was unhygienic
it was just a nightmare um and you know what people said to me well what did you expect
for £11 well I'll tell you what guys tonight's fare has cost me pretty much the same I've
made a few little contingency plans this time so I think I'm better prepared well I'll tell
you what um let's go and get on board and I'll show you what you get for your money
and we'll see if it's worth it this time shall we I'll see you on the coach
OK well, I tell you what, the few times I’ve been down here now, it really surprises me
how busy the coach station is at night.
There again, I guess it’s the main hub for UK coach routes isn’t it and, the way things
are at the moment with the general chaos on the rail network, I can only see it getting
busier.
And I think I’ve said this before but the entrance looks fantastic in the dark when
it’s all lit up like this.
I went through into the foyer as per usual and I headed for gate 19 where our coach would
be departing from tonight at 22:30 hours.
I was about an hour early and yep, as you can see there’s still plenty of food outlets
open at this time of night.
We’ve got the usual Pret, Starbucks etc but I think the best place to go to stock
up, is the local Sainsbury’s just over the road outside.
There were quite a few people hanging around the far gates as per usual but as the coaches
came and went, numbers did seem to thin out a bit.
Unfortunately, as we neared the time of departure, there was no sign of our coach.
First thought I had therefore was “here we go again”!
okay guys so um yeah um Victoria Coach Station gate 19 is our departure point for tonight's
service the 2230 National Express service up to Edinburgh and well the reason I'm still
sitting here at 26 minutes past 10 is because it hasn't turned up yet uh it may be because
of delays on the M1 it sounds like there's been quite a few incidents today and the other
thing to factor in is by the time the coach gets here the driver may need to go on his
break so I don't know yet um I'll give you an update and as and when I know a little
bit more about it and I'll catch you in a bit
Well time ticked on and, look at this right, a McCleans coach turned up which looked way
better than the one I was on the last time I went up to Scotland!
Typical isn’t it!
Well, maybe someone from the company watched my previous video and decided to improve things
somewhat!!
Anyway at 22:45, our coach arrived - a four-year old Scania Caetano Levante 2 and I’m going
to give a massive shout-out to the driver here because he came into the gate, apologised
for the delay, told everyone what was happening and what our estimated time of departure was
going to be.
Now I don’t think he should have had to do that, National Express should have had
someone at the gate keeping everyone informed of what was going on.
But no, our driver ended up multi-tasking and that wasn’t the last of it either.
Boarding was swift enough, this coach was going to be pretty-much full with a few others
getting on at Heathrow which was the only other pick-up point of the journey tonight.
First impressions were yep, pretty good - standard National Express interior really with one
massive advantage for me tonight.
Now as I said in the introduction, I’d done a little bit of research this time and discovered
that seat 2A is located behind a singular seat in row 1 which is the designated seat
for passengers with mobility issues.
This means that you’ve got unlimited leg room which is obviously a big plus point isn’t
it.
I want to say a big thank you here to Steve Marsh for highlighting this on one of his
videos who, in turn, had been told about it by Scott from Planes, Trains, Everything.
The poor driver now had to deal with random people shouting to him about where the coach
was going and then some late passengers turned up complaining that there were people sitting
in the seats they’d booked.
I must admit all this stuff was quite entertaining despite the fact it was just making us even
later.
Turns out National Express had double-booked passengers into the same seats and apparently
this kind of thing happens all the time!
Fortunately it hadn’t happened to us but there was nothing the driver could do about
it other than tell them to find alternative seats and raise the issue with National Express
later on.
The issue here though is both customers had paid extra to reserve those particular seats
and that’s not good.
I had a similar issue with Flixbus and had the money refunded.
I hope National Express did the same.
Anyway, we left Victoria at 23:41 - 1 hour and 11 minutes late.
That’s pretty late isn’t it and I was slightly concerned as I was catching a train
back to Shrewsbury from Edinburgh in the morning and I was slightly concerned I wasn’t going
to make it.
Still, there was nothing I could do about it now other than enjoy the beautiful sight
of the Albert Bridge as we made our way west along the north side of the Thames towards
Heathrow.
Now there’s not much to show you on a night trip is there so as we approached our comfort
stop at Sandbach Services, I thought it was worth checking out the loo which was located
at the rear of the coach on the same level as the seating.
Entered by means of a sliding door with a lock, there is a small mirror here and a sink
with a tap which started to produce water then stopped.
Worth saying that the driver did provide hand wipes once he was made aware of the issue
but yeh a handy tip here, always try the tap before covering your hands with soap.
Sign here explaining that if you put anything other than toilet paper down the loo you’ll
flood the coach.
Toilet flush button here and plenty of loo roll if you need it.
Yep, OK this loo but lack of water was an issue.
Let me know what you think but I reckon they probably didn’t have time to fill the tank
before setting off again.
So yep, just after three o’clock in the morning we turned off the M6 into Sandbach
Services where we had a 45 minute comfort break and I was able to get some fresh air
and give some thoughts about the journey so far.
Right guys Sandbach Services at three o'clock in the morning well last time I was here I'll
tell you what I had just had a horrendous journey and I think I was just stood over
over there by that wall thinking never ever again and yet here I am a few months later
and yeah I've got to say it's not too bad really um it was late leaving London Victoria
about an hour and a bit late and we made up some time but I still think we're going to
get to Edinburgh probably about 45 minutes late something like that and yeah the coach
is comfortable enough haven't had much sleep as per the last time but uh what can you do
overall though not too bad at all I will speak to you again um when we get back on the coach
probably when it starts getting light because there's not a lot to see at the moment including
my face and so yeah I'll catch you a little bit later on
Yeh, interesting that McDonalds and WH Smiths are both open 24/7 here by the looks of it
which is great if you want a burger and a bargain book at 3:30 in the morning.
Not for me tbh, but I must admit that, despite having limited sleep (again), I was feeling
a lot better than the last time I made this journey, and I reckon that was down to the
comfort and spaciousness of the seat, the ride quality of the coach and the ambient
temperature of the coach which was just right throughout the journey.
Shortly after Sandbach, we changed drivers and it was time for the previous chap (and
me) to try and get some rest.
Daylight came and we’d turned off the motorway at this point onto the A702 I reckon I’d
drifted in and out of sleep for the last couple of hours, trying all sorts of positions to
try and get comfortable but like I said before, unlimited leg room definitely helped.
The downside of this was the lack of a dedicated USB charging point, though there was one on
the side here which was probably intended for the seat in front but it could be used
if you had a long enough lead.
No worries though, I had my usual battery pack which I kept in the seat back pouch.
And that’s the other thing, because there’s no seat in front of 2A, you theoretically
don’t have access to this or a drop down table unless 2B is unoccupied or your travelling
companion is willing to share.
But I think that’s a reasonable trade-off to make considering you have the best leg
room of the whole coach here and of course a pretty-much unobstructed view of the road
ahead.!
The seat itself is in the standard national express dark leather-type of style with a
grey trim.
It also incorporates a winged headrest which is a big help.
Lots of overhead storage available although I was able to use my bag as a kind of ottoman
in the footspace in front.
Big windows and curtains throughout, all-in-all a very comfortable ride (one of my neighbours
there doing some stuff for his youtube channel I reckon).
Anyway, we had about an hour to run at this point and yep, the scenery heading towards
Edinburgh just gets better and better doesn’t it.
OK so we were on the outskirts of Scotlands capital city now and we were looking at a
total journey time of approximately 9 hours over a distance of 420 miles.
That gives me just enough time to give you some further details on the journey and the
cost.
Like I said earlier, the price I paid for this one way ticket between London and Edinburgh
was £11 which is the same as the price I paid to go to Glasgow with Megabus (give or
take a penny).
But, in my opinion, it was a much better experience.
Now admittedly, a major contributing factor to this was the seat and it did cost me an
extra £3 to reserve it.
Remember, it’s seat 2A and I would definitely recommend you try for that seat if you’re
looking at booking this journey yourself.
It’s worth paying the extra for.
Also remember that if you sign-up for National Express, there’s no booking fee.
So overall cost for me was £14 for what was a comparable journey to my last overnight
experience in terms of time taken and distance travelled.
So yep, tbh for any journey, at any price, I think it’s reasonable to expect your transportation
to be safe, comfortable (ish) and hygienic.
I mean, you wouldn’t go all the way to Scotland in a cattle truck for 50p would you?
Well, if you would, please let me know in the comments below.
Anyway, I think National Express really delivered on this occasion, the delayed departure wasn’t
their fault and we eventually arrived into Edinburgh bus station 55 minutes late.
Never-the-less, I left the coach a little bit tired but completely happy that all the
afore-mentioned expectations had been met.
okay guys just got into Edinburgh and that was London Victoria Coach Station to Edinburgh
Coach Station or bus station really um with national Express overnight um what do you
think about that let me know in my opinion it was much better than the Megabus catastrophe
I was on last time uh but it' was really late getting in probably about um 55 minutes late
in the end so I'm just walking down to Waverley station now I'm catching the train back so
I'm in a bit of a rush so yeah a bit of a whirlwind stop at Edinburgh but um yeah I'll
be back here again sometime soon I'm sure there's loads to see and do here anyway guys
thank you very much for watching
massive thanks to Jimmy my traveling companion today as well a big shout out to him and uh
he's in the background there somewhere lagging behind um but yeah I gotta head down to the
station now thank you very much for watching and as always guys cheers for now