Comparing Flixbus and National Express between Exeter and London

You've done it so we won't have to! Thanks for taking one for the team, Johnny 🙂

A really enjoyable compare and contrast. Top work!

I'm jealous of the train being cheaper than the bus. Not so here in East US. I did a 4 hour-ish each way trip between NYC & DC recently on Flixbus with a friend. It got us where we were going for practically no money,, but oh brother, those awful seats. On the way to meet my friend in NYC, I did the train back and forth between Boston & NYC because the road traffic between those two cities can be intolerable and even though it probably cost 4x what the bus would have. We were 2 hours late anyway on my trip home, due to downed wires!

If you are flying out of Heathrow, a train to Waterloo isn’t the best way, National Express takes you there without any changes - very good if you have extra luggage for your trip. National Express also has services around the clock, so that you can arrive at Heathrow in good time for your onward flight, whatever the timing.

Congratulations Johnny on an excellent and very informative video. I have known Exeter since 1966 so I was familiar with the HUGE coach station, right next to the bus station, which used to exist in Paris Street. Nowadays coach stops in many places are in out-of-the way back streets.

Nice, I live in Exeter too so this is nice to see.

Great to join you on a coach trip for a change of pace Jonny.🙂 Arriving at Victoria reminded me of my time working over the road at the BOAC Air Terminal. We ran buses too…to T3 LHR. In much earlier times trains left a dedicated platform behind the building taking pax to the flying boats in Southampton Water!

Thanks Johnny for these interesting journeys by coach. Sometimes it’s good to travel by another method just to compare different forms of transport, if nothing else. I was a little surprised by the prices you showed at the end, as I assumed all coach trips are way cheaper than by train, but maybe not every time! Looking forward to seeing your trip with Megabus. 😊

Brilliant video as always!!!

Great video as always

Great video, coach journey do look nice but the train journey is always better

A great video jonny,Hope you're well 😊😊

Great video. I have visited Victoria Coach station several times using Megabus, National Express and Terravision whilst they still operated the service to Stansted (from which they were banned since 2015). A good tip should you ever take a long journey on National Express. Ever since I saw a video of Mark (@Let's Make a Trip) doing an overnight to Edinburgh on National Express, I discovered the magic seat 2A of their newer coaches (you were on one of them). I always have been booking that seat ever since (I am 1.81 m tall), and on longer travels (Leeds to Luton Airport in 2022) and Birmingham to Luton Airport two weeks ago it was amazing

Great Video Johnny

I took flix bus from Warsaw to Wroclaw took about 4 hours I stop off in a Polish town I can’t pronounce. Knowing I’m the only Englishman here was a great feeling. It was cramped but you can’t beat the price

At least there are no buss conflicts as there are for the trains I am right now in England and found it quite difficult to understand how to ride and buy train tickets Travelling from Manchester Airport to Lancaster, brought a ticket in a machine but then trying to find at what time that company had a train going north wasn’t easy and even trying to understand off peak and peak. No signs was telling me about that

Different operators will be contracted to run on behalf of these companies running with a variety of vehicles so trips may not be the same. The one at 9:15 may well be one of the ones operated by McGill's in Scotland.

Great comparison. I've been on Flix twice now and found the value the real selling point. Bristol to London for £3.99 for instance but extra do cost money, neighbour free, extra baggage etc, Ryanair style up selling but I enjoyed using Flix, just unfortunate they ain't at my local stop in Chippenham yet. So for that I like to use National Express, they have a good service from here and fares have been reasonable £10.40 yesterday for 2 of us into London but unfortunately the air conditioning wasn't working 🥵. A minor glitch as it was one of the older 17 plate coaches which are set to go shortly. Overall National Express still set the benchmark for coach travel in the UK.

Some NX rivals mash together bits of National Express routes hence more meandering routes🎩

Ha, gotta watch out for those sneaky seat squatters! Thanks for the informative video - bit of a nuisance to have to go via Bristol isn`t it...