National Express says its coach network broke records for passenger numbers and revenue this Christmas period with “almost 500,000 passengers carried” with passenger numbers on Christmas Day and Boxing Day up by 15% on 2016. No other figures have been released.
It says Boxing Day was its busiest day of the year and its single largest day of sales ever, setting new records for both number carried and revenue.
It says the A6 and A7 London-Stansted Airport routes were the most popular airport services.
The 035 Bournemouth-London and 040 Bristol-London were the most popular intercity services.
Coach services ran to 81 locations on Christmas Day, the highest number ever for National Express.
With five of the seven mainline rail routes closed over Christmas for engineering over Christmas and no trains at all on Christmas and Boxing Day, National Express stepped up its coach operations by adding more stops, seats and services than ever before to meet demand.
National Express Coach Managing Director Chris Hardy says: “We’re delighted to announce a bumper Christmas performance this year with not one but two records broken on the same day.
“Coach is proving to be an increasingly popular travel option at Christmas and with the rail network partially shutdown for upgrade work we are proud to have been able to step up a gear and deliver a really great Christmas.”
