National Express

 

CLACTON-ON-SEA TO PORTSMOUTH

I was undertaking a cross Europe adventure, starting in Cherbourg France and taking me through France and Germany and concluding in Wroclaw Poland. For the most part I would be using public transport, mainly trains and would be flying back to Stansted in the UK from Wroclaw Poland. Therefore, I needed to get to Portsmouth ferry terminal, I couldn’t use my car as I would be returning to Stansted airport.

My ferry from Portsmouth was leaving at 15:30, I looked into train times and it would have been possible to get a train from Clacton-On-Sea to Liverpool Street in London then get across London on the underground to get another train to Portsmouth, time wise it was possible, but it wasn’t cheap.

A couple of weeks earlier to planning this trip, I had gone up to London for a weekend away with my wife, to attend a concert at the O2, again we were faced with a large fare for the return train journey (in this case £101 for the two of us, not including the underground). On that occasion I looked into going by coach with National Express, something I had never considered before At the time there were some “Fun Fares” (low fares offered on the National Express website) to be had, and my wife and I travelled from Clacton-On-Sea to Stratford in London for just £20 return for the two of us. Ok the coach may take about an hour longer but with savings like these, who cares?

Having made such huge savings on my previous trip with National Express and having no problems with the journey whatsoever, I decided to look into the possibility of travelling to Portsmouth by National Express coach.

As luck would have it there were still “Fun Fares” to be had, with fares starting from as little as £1.00. The way the system worked on the website meant that you could only book “Fun Fares” either from or to London, this meant I had to book my journey in two parts. First I booked my journey from Clacton-On-Sea to London Victoria, the coach would depart at 07:25 from outside the railway station in Clacton-On-Sea and it would arrive at London Victoria coach station at 10:20, the cost £5.00 !

The second leg of my journey meant me catching another coach from London Victoria at 11:30 ( giving me just over an hour between connections ), I would arrive at the ferry terminal in Portsmouth at 13:30 two hours before my boat sailed at 15:30. Cost for this coach trip £6.00 making a total fare of just £11 to travel from Clacton-On-Sea to Portsmouth, a distance of about 155 miles, total time of journey with connections 6 hours. If you are booking on the normal fares it is possible to book the entire journey as one and not have to do the two separate bookings that I did.

Well at these prices there was no contest and, after convincing my wife into getting up at 06:00 on her day off from work in order to drive me to the railway station to catch my coach at 07:25, I was on my way.

The National Express coaches are modern, comfortable coaches with W.C. facilities on board, all seats are fitted with a seat belt which it is now a legal requirement for passengers to use, something that was pointed out to all the passengers by the driver on my previous National Express trip to London but on this trip our driver was not as chatty or as informative and gave no safety announcements at all.

The Service I was on was number 484 and we left Clacton on time at 07:25, the coach was about 25% full at this stage, we made stops at the University of Essex, Colchester, Witham and Romford and arrived at London Victoria on time at 10:20 although we sat outside the coach station for several minutes as the station was full and there was no space for us.

By the time we arrived at London the coach was full to capacity, in fact at Colchester the driver had to turn away a gentleman who had not booked but was hopeful of buying a ticket on the coach, he went away disappointed. The journey was uneventful other than on the A12 between Colchester and Witham when three cars in the middle and outside lanes became involved in a road rage incident, the lead car in the fast lane slammed on his brakes sending plumes of smoke billowing from his tyres, the car behind him also braked hard and swerved to miss the car in front and in doing so came into contact with the third car in the middle lane, there was then what can only be described as a frank exchange of words. Luckily we were in the inside lane and avoided getting involved and our driver continued on his way.

Facilities at Victoria coach park are very good with plenty of seating, shops and places to buy food and drink, and toilet facilities. The information boards were clear as were the gate numbers and directions, it was all very similar to the set up at an airport.

Service 030 from London to Portsmouth left two minutes late at 11:32 but Nathan our driver did give us a safety talk and all the information we needed for the trip. It was now raining hard as we left London and would continue to rain for the entire journey, this slowed us down as did the many road works that we encountered. We arrived at Portsmouth about twenty minutes late but still with plenty of time for me to check in and have something to eat and drink.

Even when the “Fun Fares” are not available, National Express offers very good value travel, as long as time is not too great an issue and you are looking for a cheap, comfortable alternative to the train, then National Express Coaches are well worth considering.