(12 Jan 2018, 12:53 am)James101 wrote I caught one of the newest Elites between Leeds-Manchester in their first week in service. It was the most impressive vehicle I'd rode on in a while. I booked the journey the same afternoon for £3 and the station staff and driver were all pleasant. Coach left bang on time too. 

Later I traveled on Nat Ex form Manchester to Stoke. It cost £15, the coach interior had litter and the driver seemed stressed and unfriendly. Granted, the variables here could apply to either company on an 'off day', but national express appears to be stagnating while megabus is improving the passenger experience, launched a better website and are expanding into new routes and partnerships with regional operators to offer new destinations and multiple-leg journeys.

I've often avoided using National Express as they are often much more expensive than Megabus on competing journeys, and haven't had much in the way of bad experiences on Megabus (bar an overnight trip to London which ended up being a duplicate service - never again), but the one thing I have noticed is that National Express tends to attract a better clientele of passengers.

My experience of a Transdev Cityzap service to York was seriously let down recently by those connecting from Leeds. They looked like they'd just been to a music festival, with sleeping bags, etc. They were very loud and did not show any consideration towards other passengers.