National Express coach services suspended

Coronavirus: Drop in passenger numbers leads to cessation on intercity coach services

Coach operator National Express suspended its services at midnight on Sunday after government designed measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus hit demand from travellers.

The company had been running reduced services and experienced a fall in passenger numbers as people heeded government advice to make essential journeys only.

Chris Hardy, managing director of National Express UK Coach, said: “We kept a limited coach network running to be able to help those individuals with essential travel needs, but it is no longer viable to continue to do this.”

The company has not given a date for services to restart.

Customers have been offered either a full refund or the option of rescheduling their trip for another date within 12 months.

The company is not anticipating making any permanent redundancies at this stage but would be moving its staff onto the government’s furlough scheme. It has said that that “all except the highest earners moved into the scheme” would earn more than 80% of their usual pay.

“Our drivers, customer service teams, customer contact centre and the wider National Express team have been working incredibly hard to keep our services running safely and we thank them for their efforts,” said Hardy.

“We know this is a worrying time. We take the welfare of our customers and employees extremely seriously and will continue to take guidance from the government to ensure we do everything we sensibly can to keep them safe.”