Express Coach and Rail travel

how these forms of travel compare

Introduction

This chapter deals with express coach and rail travel, and asks how they compare in terms of cost, speed and convenience. Owing to the amount of data available, this study concentrates on three routes, well known to the author: The express coach service information was taken from the National Express web-site. The rail service information was taken from the National Rail Enquiries web-site.

Weymouth to Bath Spa and Bristol

Weymouth, Bath Spa and Bristol lie on the same railway line, which runs through Yeovil, Castle Cary and Westbury, as is shown in Figure 1. Bath Spa and Bristol are located close together in Somerset, 12 miles apart.


Figure 1: Location of Bath Spa and Bristol in comparison to Weymouth

Figure 2 shows a comparison of the express coach and rail times between Weymouth and these two cities. Figure 3 shows a comparison of the ticket costs for a single adult ticket. The express coach ticket is only valid on one specified off-peak coach, whereas the rail ticket is valid on all off-peak services. The route distance from Weymouth to Bath is 71 miles, so the train, taking 2 hours and 5 minutes, runs at an average of approximately 35 mph.


Figure 2: Comparison of journey times
Figure 3: Comparison of ticket costs

The express coach times compare well with rail for the Weymouth to Bristol route, and the coach ticket is cheaper too - but the express coach times compare badly with rail for the Weymouth to Bath Spa route, as well as being more expensive. This is because the route from Weymouth to Bath involves a journey to Bristol, a delay, and then an additional coach journey to Bath Spa. By comparison, the train calls at Bath Spa before travelling on to Bristol.

Figures 4 and 5 show a comparison of the services available. Time is along the x-axis, and the journeys are separated vertically up the screen so that they don't overlap one another. Rail provides for many more services every day, whereas the express coach service comprises only one journey.


Figure 4: Comparison of services to Bath Spa


Figure 5: Comparison of services to Bristol

Bath Spa to London Paddington

Bath Spa and London Paddington both lie along the First Great Western line from Cardiff to London. London Paddington is the London terminus for this route. This is shown in Figure 6. First Great Western runs high-preformance inter-city trains along this route.


Figure 6: Location of London Paddington in relation to Bath Spa

Figure 7 shows a comparison of the express coach and rail times between Bath and London. Figure 8 shows a comparison of the ticket costs for a single adult ticket. Rail tickets on this route are divided into three categories:

The coach tickets are only valid on one specified coach.

Figure 7 shows a comparison of the express coach and rail times between Bath Spa and London Paddington. Figure 3 shows a comparison of the ticket costs for a single adult ticket. The route distance for the trains is 105 miles, and the train runs this route at an average speed of approximately 70mph, twice the speed of the Weymouth-Bath Spa line. Figure 7 shows that the coach takes twice as long to make the journey as the train. On a like-for-like comparison, with tickets valid for one service only, the coach service is not much cheaper either.


Figure 7: Comparison of journey times
Figure 8: Comparison of ticket costs

Figure 9 shows a comparison of the services available. Time is along the x-axis, and the journeys are separated vertically up the screen so that they don't overlap one another. Rail provides for many more services every day, although the coach service provides almost as many journeys. The length of each line shows, to scale, how long each journey takes. The train service can go to London and back in the time it takes for the coach to go one way.


Figure 9: Comparison of services to London Paddington

Conclusions

On the Weymouth to Bath Spa & Bristol Temple Meads route, the express coach can compete with the train on the service to Bristol. The speed limit of coaches is lower than that of trains, but the average speed of the line is 35mph, and so the likely reason is that the bus travels point-to-point, whereas the train has to stop at all of the scheduled stops (and some request stops) along the route. Since train carriages are more expensive than coaches, this can be done at a lower cost too.

Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to enough passengers from Weymouth to Bath Spa to make a coach service viable. Bristol is a much larger city than Bath, and so the fudge adopted was to require passengers going to Bath to travel to Bristol, and then take a second coach to Bath. Against this, the train can easily compete, offering much faster travel, at a lower cost to the passenger.

On the Bath Spa to London route, the high-performance (average 70mph) intercity train goes from Bath Spa to London Paddington in half the time that the express coach takes, and due to aggressive yield management, does so at a similar ticket price.

Under the current situation, and extrapolating a great deal from the limited data, express coaches can compete against rail on certain key routes, with average speeds of around 35mph, but cannot compete against intercity trains with average speeds of around 70mph.