National Express coach tickets (IC 649885) - Feb 2004

This style of ticket was printed on thin card rather than paper and issued by National Express head office in Edgbaston, Birmingham. The two tickets shown here are actual unused travel tickets for a journey from Aberystwyth to Birmingham connecting to a Birmingham to Cambridge service.

Actual unused tickets!! The story behind this is that I had purchased tickets as part of one of the regular offers National Express staged in conjunction with some daily newspapers. These offers were usually to fill some of the seats during the seasonal lull between mid-January to just prior to the Easter peak.

On Thursday 26 February 2004 I travelled from Newmarket to London (Victoria) on the 0855 service 497 and then on the 1200 service 508 from Victoria to Swansea. As the latter coach progressed into South Wales the snow started to fall resulting in our scheduled arrival of 1630 being delayed by 51 minutes.

My plan for the next day (Friday) had been to travel from Swansea to Aberystwyth by a local Arriva service and then on Saturday 28 February by National Express from Aberystwyth to Cambridge changing coaches at Birmingham. However, I heard that the weather was worse in mid-Wales so I chickened out of the plan to venture that way.

So on the Friday I travelled from Swansea to Cardiff on a South Wales Transport coach service and then managed to get a standby seat on the 1300 National Express service 509 from Cardiff to London (Victoria) connecting for Newmarket on the 1800 service 497.

I thought I would keep my unused tickets as a souvenir.