National Express Coach route 040

National Express Coaches Route 040 is an express coach service operated by National Coaches in England between Bristol and London. One journey a day continues to Burnham-on-Sea.
History
Coach services between Bristol and London had commenced when a service was introduced by Greyhound Motors in February 1925.
On 9 January 1972, Greyhound Motors commenced operating an express Bristol to London service via the new M4 motorway. By this stage Greyhound Motors had been bought out by Bristol Omnibus Company and was a subsidiary of the National Bus Company, with services operated under the National Express brand from 1974.
Expansion
In 2008, National Express announced an additional 24 departures per week in each direction to meet rising demand. There are currently 28 departures each day from Bristol to London.
Operation
Former operators have included First Bristol, Classic Coaches, East Yorkshire Motor Services, Applegates Coaches, Coachmiles, Turners Coachways and TWH Travel.
The route was the last National Express service to be operated by First Coaches; their workings were won by South Gloucestershire Bus & Coach in January 2010. Prior to this time South Gloucestershire Bus & Coach operated a number of the additional weekend journeys on the route. When South Gloucestershire took over full time operation in January 2010, three Caetano Levante coaches were transferred from Nat Ex ops to South Gloucestershire Bus & Coach to operate the route along with 5 Levantes, that were new to South Gloucestershire Bus & Coach for the 200, which were then allocated to the 040.
As of 2013, South Gloucestershire Bus and Coach operate the majority of journeys on service 040 with the exception of four additional journeys running on Fridays and Sundays only which are worked by Chalfont Coaches.
Between 2003 and 2010, East Yorkshire Motor Services operated one daily departure in each direction. The vehicle on this diagram worked down to London on a 562 service from Hull/Beverley and then worked an early evening departure on service 040 to Bristol. The vehicle overnighted in Bristol before doing a return 040 trip in the morning of the following day and then returning North on the 562 service to Hull/Beverley. In January 2010, operation of this service transferred to Classic Coaches who interworked it with the 425 Newcastle-London service and in January 2012 operation transferred to Yourbus, Durham. The service passed to SGBC during July 2013.
A number of operators have been contracted to run additional journeys on the route at weekends using vehicles in their own livery. Such operators have included Turners Coachways of Bristol, Applegates Coaches of Berkley, TWH Travel, Coachmiles of Cheddington and Chalfont Coaches of Southall who still operate 4 journeys on the route in each direction on Fridays/sundays. During September 2005, the additional weekend journeys on the route(which at the time were worked by Turners Coachways(X1), Applegates(X1), Chalfont(X2) and TWH Travel(X1)) were discontinued. When these journeys were re-instated in March 2007, Chalfont returned to operating on the route, however the diagrams formally operated by Turners and Applegates passed to SGBC and the diagram previously operated by TWH travel passed to Coachmiles. This was however, taken over by Chalfont Coaches during 2010.
Applegates Coaches still occasionally provide duplicate coaches on the 040 route whilst Turners Coachways operate an additional weekend diagram on the competing Megabus service (M10) between Bristol and London.
Incidents
In August 2009 a vehicle on the route caught fire on the M4 motorway near Bristol.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu