Take the National Express, when your life's full of stress... (National Express East Coast)

Member Name: DannoStanno

Product:	National Express East Coast
Date:	19/05/09 (25 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Clean, quick, can get cheap tickets if book ahead

Disadvantages: Expensive if dont book, engineer works at weekends

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 National Express owned.

I can only comment on the service from Kings Cross to Leeds but everytime I used it I was impressed with the cleanliness of the train and the comfort of the journey. At about two and a half hours long, the journey was made comfy by having enough leg room on my pre-booked tickets, a decent and not overpriced (relatively) buffet and trolley service and a lack of delays.

Generally I book online in advance which means you can get return tickets from £25 upwards, which is a bargain in itself. However, booking on the day may cost you a small fortune so just be aware.

Also note that on many weekends they have engineering work being carried out. I have only been stuck once coming back from Leeds in this and was forced to take a coach from Huntingdon to Hatfield,, before boarding another train. This took my journey to over four hours. However, I had been warned in advance and the connections were very quick and comfortable with no hassle at all, so fair play to them.

Summary: Does a much better job than the old operators, GNER, though still could be better