National Express East Coast Reviews

It is difficult to communicate with some of the information staff. One of them was reading the train times backwards. Prices have increased dramatically during the last year or so. The late evening trains from London to York are often very slow. The early evening trains from London to York are packed. There is no longer any dinner service on the trains.

Apart from the extremely regular delays, National Express trains in East london are also prone to chronic overcrowding during rush hour - so much so that sometimes it's not even possible to board trains.Do National Express have any idea whatsoever about how to run a Train service?

I recently moved to a part of london only services by a rail station, which I thought wouldn't be that bad - only 15 minutes to Liverpool street....It turns out that the journey time has nothing to do with how quickly you can expect to get to Liverpool street, more the absolutely dire management of timetables and interuptions in service - This week they are averaging a delay of just over 30 minutes for every journey I have taken with them, by far the worst train operator I've ever had to use on a frequent basis.So National Express - sort yourselves out or get back to coaches!

Well my experience was fairly poor in that I was just bokking tickets throgh them. The guy at the ticket office booked them weong dates and the company refused to refund the subsequent amount I had to pay for in new train tickets!I prefer the GNER experience which has a 'golden age of rail travel' feel about it.If you have a complaint the CEO's contact details for complaining are here:Directly Operated Railways LtdEast Coast Main Line Company Ltd 4th FloorOne Kemble StreetLondonWC2B 4AN Tel: 020 7904 5043Mob: 07747 485265

National Express East Coast As a student yet to take my driving test national rail is one of my main forms of transport and I regularly have to rely on this service to get me from A to B. Although at times the staff and service they have provided has been of the standard I would expect time after time recently they have failed ...  Read the complete review

I usually use the Edinburgh - London line of the East Coast services, so my review refers mainly to this route and the website. The trains are reasonably spacious - certainly better leg room than Virgin Cross Country Trains! They are usually very clean and do not smell funny (some Virgin trains smell awful). However, my ...  Read the complete review

I have had some very good and also some very bad experiences with National Express East Coast. It will probably be easier for me to break it down into sections, so here goes.. PRICES: Being a university student I am often travelling between Leeds and my home town of Stevenage. If i buy a ticket on the day it can cost me ...  Read the complete review

Abandoned in Freezing temperatures by Arriva and National Express. My son's flight from Krakow to Liverpool on the 7th January, flight number EZY7254, was delayed several hours due to some of the most severe weather conditions experienced across Europe in over a decade. Temperatures were expected to drop to minus 20 in ...  Read the complete review

Ive been a regular user of the east coast mainline for over 2 years. Used to be able to go on line on thurs am and get a range of options for newly released advanced tickets. Now I find it much more difficult. They seem to be drip feeding the tickets onto the web or restricting the numbers of good deals available.Its so frustrating to book a ticket which is not ideal to find a few hours later the ideal ticket becomes available.I'm not a happy customer. Having spent around £10k over the last 2 years I'm now looking for alternatives.Does anyone know whats going on or is it just another case of making tarriffs complex in order to get more money out of customers.I'm glad they have lost the franchise.....good riddance!!Paul

We used the National Express train service to get down to London a few weeks ago. It was the start of our Honeymoon so for the first time ever, we paid the extra money to go in first class. Our first class tickets were £38 each (single), compared to around £25 for standard class. So what does the extra money get you? Well, the ...  Read the complete review

I use NXEC every week - no choice, I work in London, but live in the North East (my choice). Unlike MPs I can't claim the cost of travel back, so I have to grab the tickets as soon as they're released - and if you were quick (very, very quick), you could grab cheap tickets.... until about 4 weeks ago. National Express have *almost ...  Read the complete review

Many people may not be aware that nationalexpresseastcoast.com sell train tickets for any journey in the UK, not just for National Express East Coast services. The advantage of nationalexpresseastcost.com is that there is no booking fee, or credit card fee. Both charges are levied by many other online train ticket ...  Read the complete review

From my experience there are two distinct sides to the National Express trains that operate on the East Coast (the same line that GNER used to run on). To briefly sum up these sides mostly everything is very positive except for the cost of tickets. Starting with the positives, the trains are always pretty clean and I never ...  Read the complete review

I have used the East Coast Mainline for several years, mainly for trips down to London, so have experienced Intercity, GNER and National Express, and I have to say that the line has never run more smoothly (from my experience) than it has under National Express. Prices: The prices on the line vary massively depending on ...  Read the complete review

I use National express when I am travelling to London, Peterburgh, Norwich and other places and if I had a choice I wouldn't. Their prices are rising and the service is terrible, the staff look miserable and unpleasant so I try my very best to stay out the way of them. However, on the occassion I do have to ask them for ...  Read the complete review

I used to travel frequently from london to Leeds on the old GNER service. This all stopped after an 8 hour delay back in 2001 on a crowded train where i took the vow to never use public transport again. Of course after a while I mellowed slightly and, er, bought a car but recently this year I have begun using this line again which is now ...  Read the complete review

I regularly use this train on the London - Leeds catching it at Peterborough and getting off at Stevenage, quite a short duration considering the National Express East Coast (NXEC) service runs all the way from Scotland to London. I've found the train to be fast and usually on time, but if delayed it's been by no later than 5 ...  Read the complete review

Wanted to write about the extremely poor level of service I received on a recent return journey between London Kings Cross and Newcastle. Being several months pregnant, I booked myself some First Class tickets so that I could enjoy not only a better quality of train journey but also could relax before travelling in the First ...  Read the complete review

I bought return tickets to Leeds from London to attend for a conference, and chose to book first class tickets for my return, so that I could sit in the lounge and work while waiting for my train. But with National Express, any Advance First Class tickets are not actually "real" first class tickets - those who don't ...  Read the complete review

Today I am travelling from Newcastle to Manchester for work and part of my journey involves a National Express train service. I booked my ticket through the National Express website because it does not charge a booking fee (see separate review). My return fare cost £59.40 as I bought it in advance, which has increased quite a ...  Read the complete review