Mizter T wrote:
On 25 Oct, 11:33, "Chris Read" wrote:

National Express are looking to close their Dot2Dot airport transfer service
by the first quarter of next year, unless a buyer can be found. The service
has delivered a loss of £5m since inception - a worse than expected
performance for this 'start up' venture.

Dot2Dot runs a fleet of high-spec'd Mercedes and VW mini-buses, ferrying
tourists and business folk between Heathrow and central London hotels/Canary
Wharf, on a pre-booked basis. Fares were typically circa £20 one way (more
to Docklands), although I note there is now a £16 special offer on their web
site, advertised as under-cutting HEX.

This always struck me as being a (small) niche market. Those with generous
expense accounts ((prepare for backlash!)) no doubt continue to find black
cabs or HEX more convenient and flexible, whilst the pool of leisure
travellers willing to stump up £80 for a group of four must be somewhat
limited.



I would have thought there's a big enough market between those two to make
it worthwhile. I agree that it's not cost-effective for family groups, but
there's a substantial number of business travellers who can claim back the
full cost of international air or rail travel, but are on fixed daily rates
for everything else. They want something like a cab, but can't afford it.

However, whatever I think, it seems NX haven't found this market. I agree with
what others have said that the publicity wasn't great. I pass through Kings
Cross almost every day and travel on NX trains either in or out of there.
There was a lot of publicity *about* dot2dot, but it didn't do a good job
of telling me what it was. I could see that it involved a minibus, and it
was run by national express, and it stopped at Kings Cross. When I finally did
pick up that it was a shared ride service to Heathrow, I kicked myself that
I hadn't used it on the two occasions during the preceding months when
it could have been useful.


NX made a big fuss about their new Dot2Dot service at the time of
their rebranding, they were trying to portray an image of being an
innovative and fresh thinking 'total transport' company. I have to say
I wasn't convinced by the Dot2Dot proposition, but maybe that just
shows I'm unimaginative and stuck in an old mindset.


Shared ride services seem very popular at US airports, and there are usually
competing providers except at airports like Washington Dulles where the airport
does an exclusive deal with a single operator. They're competing with cabs,
car hire and (in a small number of cases) public transport, and definitely
going for the business traveller in most places I have seen them. I've
found them variable in quality, but generally usable. It's interesting
that they haven't taken off here.