National Express has announced ambitious plans to grow its network across the UK this spring. 

The UK’s leading scheduled coach operator has confirmed growth plans that include 15 new routes, with an emphasis on fast, frequent services connecting cities, towns and airports, taking the network’s capacity up to 11,000 journeys across the country each week. Significant investment is also being made in 130 new vehicles to add to the fleet.

The news comes following a huge surge of customers in 2022, with over 16 million people travelling on its services – up 10 million from 2021. The Queen’s funeral, the return and growth of music festivals and events and the disruption caused by the rail strikes are all believed to be contributing factors in the uplift in passengers.

The rail strikes and soaring costs for motorists continue to have had a deepening impact on traveller behaviours, with 10 percent of rail users reported switching to coach travel for better value and reliability of service. 

Ed Rickard, Service Delivery Director for National Express UK, said: “More and more customers are turning to coach for great value, reliable and sustainable travel. It’s encouraging to see customers making the switch from other modes of transport and choosing our coaches.  With our record customer satisfaction scores, they clearly like what they’ve seen, which gives us confidence that the demand is there. 

“We're expecting 2023 to be even busier as we roll out our uplift in service provision, with forecasts predicting 21 million customers travelling by coach to get them where they need to be.”

National Express, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, currently operates over 550 services across the country. The company reported a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 42 in March and rated Excellent (4.4) on Trustpilot. Punctuality and reliability are also the best they have ever been, with 90% of services on time. 

Full list of new routes:

Launched on 20 March: 

• Luton Airport - Golders Green - Finchley Road - Baker Street - Paddington - Marble Arch

• Stansted Airport - Golders Green - Finchley Road - Baker Street - Marble Arch - Paddington

Launched 31 March:

• Huddersfield - Bradford - Leeds - Meadowhall - Derby - Birmingham

• Grimsby - Cleethorpes - Louth - Lincoln - Newark-on-Trent - Leicester - Birmingham

• Edinburgh - Glasgow - Carlisle - Manchester - Liverpool

• Glasgow - Carlisle - Milton Keynes - London

• Edinburgh - Glasgow - Hamilton - Milton Keynes - Golders Green - London 

Launching 28 April:

• Leicester - Nottingham - Derby

• Hull - Scunthorpe - Nottingham - London

• Grimsby - Cleethorpes - Louth - Lincoln - Nottingham - London

• Rugby - Coventry - Warwick - Heathrow Airport - London

• Penzance - Camborne - Newquay - Launceston - Okehampton - Exeter - Heathrow Airport - London

• Nottingham - Leicester - Peterborough - Cambridge - Stansted Airport

Launching 26 May:

• Newcastle - Durham - Darlington - Leeds - London

Launching 14 July:

• Poole - Bournemouth - Southampton - Fareham - Portsmouth - Chichester - Gatwick Airport

Routes and services will be updated throughout the year. For more information, visit www.nationalexpress.com