National Express Coventry
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
|
 A National Express Coventry bus in Travel Coventry branding |
|
| Founded | 9 Dec 2002 (spun out of Travel West Midlands) |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Coventry, England |
| Locale | Coventry |
| Service area | Coventry |
| Service type | Urban and interurban bus services |
| Destinations | Coventry, Bedworth, Kenilworth, Leamington Spa and Keresley Village |
| Fleet | 160 |
| Operator | National Express Group |
| Web site | Official Website |
National Express Coventry is the current trading name and brand name of West Midlands Travel Ltd (part of the National Express Group), a company which operates bus services from its depot in the city of Coventry in the West Midlands region of England. All of West Midlands Travel Ltd other bus depots in the West Midlands operate under the name National Express West Midlands. National Express Coventry previously operated under the trading names of Travel Coventry, Travel West Midlands and West Midlands Travel. The vast majority of the buses are still in Travel Coventry livery.
Contents |
[edit] History
 |
This article or section seems to contain embedded lists that may require cleanup. To meet Wikipedia's style guidelines, please help improve this article by: removing items which are not notable, encyclopedic, or helpful from the list(s); incorporating appropriate items into the main body of the article; and discussing this issue on the talk page. |
- 26 October 1986 West Midlands Travel Ltd came into existence, and stems from the 1986 deregulation of the bus industry in England and Wales. It was previously the bus operations of the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE) which had originally been the separate operations of the Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Walsall, West Bromwich and Coventry Corporations.
- April 1995 the company was purchased by the National Express Group.
- September 1996 was re-branded to trade under the name Travel West Midlands.
- 9 December 2002 the Coventry depot attained a more local identity and began trading as Travel Coventry.
- 4 February 2008 National Express Coventry confirmed as the new name for Travel Coventry.
[edit] Future - National Express Group re-branding
Within the next few months National Express Coventry will be applying a temporary logo to several of its vehicles to highlight to those unaware the change from 'Travel Coventry' into 'National Express Coventry'.
The new livery will be applied to vehicles when they go in for maintenance. It is believed that National Express aim to have 1000+ vehicles in the livery by February 2009.
[edit] Fares & Travelcards
National Express Coventry offers two ways to pay for bus travel:
- Pay on boarding - mainly for single fares and day tickets
- Prepaid tickets - mainly passes which have various durations e.g - 1 week, 4 weeks or 52 weeks.
[edit] Cash Fares
National Express Coventry operates an 'exact fare' policy on board buses, in coins only. Pay on boarding passengers must place their fare amount into a vault situated on the platform near to the drivers cab, who will then issue the relevant ticket. Drivers effectively do not handle cash nor give change, this is for speed and security reasons. If passengers do not have the correct coinage for their fare they can overpay but will not receive any change.
All routes (excluding route 12 within Warwickshire) have a simple single fare system - a journey of no more than 2 fare stages (about 2km) is £1.10 and any distance beyond that is £1.30. Children aged 5 to 15 are eligible for half rate single fares which are respectively 55p and 65p.
[edit] Day tickets
Also available is a multitude of day tickets, the most popular being an all day ticket named Coventry Daysaver, one can purchase this on their first National Express Coventry journey and it is valid for unlimited further journeys on any National Express Coventry bus service the same day (including the whole of route 12), priced at £2.60 for an adult, £1.75 for a child. This ticket can also be purchased/used on National Express West Midlands routes between Coventry and Meriden.
[edit] Season tickets
A Coventry Faresaver ticket offers unlimited travel on all National Express Coventry routes as can also be used on National Express West Midlands routes between Coventry and Meriden, a one week ticket is £9.50, four weeks is £32.25 and 52 weeks is £345.00. An off-peak Coventry Faresaver is £5.00 for one week. Season ticket users will need a photo-card (obtainable from Pool Meadow Bus Station).
[edit] Concessionary
Senior citizens (aged 60 or over) and disabled persons who are resident in the seven metropolitan boroughs of the former West Midlands county are eligible for a free concessionary travel pass issued by Centro, it offers free multi-operator bus travel throughout England and free rail and tram travel within the West Midlands county, weekday journeys cannot be started before 9:30am however a concessionary add-on season ticket can be purchased for weekday travel within the West Midlands county before 9:30am.
[edit] Reliability
National Express Coventry have been subject to many complaints over the reliability of some of their bus services. Complaints are frequently heard from students who claim that buses routinely just do not turn up when they are expected to.
National Express Coventry has become the target of critics regarding the reliability of certain services in Coventry. After major improvements and refreshment to the Coventry bus network in April 2006 and two months of extensive service monitoring, reliability checks and public feedback National Express Coventry has responded to the findings from these conducts and are making some minor changes in line with this to adjust the services, this will help improve the service quality they provide to their customers.
[edit] Vehicle types
The following table is a summary of the current passenger service fleet which totals 160 vehicles :
| Chassis | Bodywork | Quantity | Seating | Other Info |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Optare Solo | Optare | 7 | 27-29 | "Mini" single deck bus |
| Volvo B6LE | Wright Crusader | 8 | 37 | "Midi" compact low floor single deck bus |
| Mercedes-Benz O405N | Mercedes-Benz | 52 | 43 | Full sized low floor single deck bus |
| MCW Metrobus | MCW | 13 | 73 | "Old" step entry double deck bus |
| Dennis Trident 2 | Alexander ALX400 or TransBus ALX400 |
40 | 75 | Low floor double deck bus - 21 of these have bodywork under the Alexander brand and 19 of these have bodywork under the TransBus brand (different only in name) |
| Volvo B7TL | TransBus ALX400 | 10 | 74 | Low floor double deck bus |
| Volvo B7TL | Wright Eclipse Gemini | 10 | 72 | Low floor double deck bus |
| Mercedes-Benz O405GN | Mercedes-Benz | 10 | 59 | Articulated single deck bus (also called a "bendy bus" or "bendibus") |
| Mercedes-Benz O530 Citaro | Mercedes-Benz | 10 | 56 | Articulated single deck bus (also called a "bendy bus" or "bendibus") |
Table footnotes:
[edit] Vehicle photographs
 A Optare Solo single deck bus working on route 14. |
 A Volvo B6LE / Wright Crusader single deck bus working on route 801. |
 A Mercedes-Benz O405N single deck bus working on route 32 in Gosford Green, Coventry. |
 A MCW Metrobus double decker bus working on route 19 in Canley, Coventry. |
 A Dennis Trident 2 / Alexander ALX400 double decker bus working on route 13A. |
 A Volvo B7TL / Wright Eclipse Gemini working on route 13. |
 A Mercedes-Benz O405GN articulated bus (or bendy bus) working on route 21. |
 A Mercedes-Benz O530 Citaro bendibus working on route 27. |
[edit] Route Lists
See List of National Express Coventry Bus Routes
[edit] PrimeLines
The PrimeLines initiative is a £42 million budgeted scheme which aims to improve all aspects of bus journeys on a number of selected showcase routes radiating out from the city centre of Coventry. Bus stops will be wheelchair friendly, with raised kerbs for easier boarding. New shelters, that are airier and well lit. Eventually many of the shelters will have electronic passenger information installed, so waiting passengers will know when the next bus is due. To improve reliability, the routes will have bus priority measures implemented at traffic signals and junctions, and where possible there will be lengths of bus lanes to get the bus past general traffic queues.
[edit] External links
[edit] See also
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
