Neil Williams wrote:
On Sun, 21 Mar 2010 15:14:52 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

Whatever happened to the strange new NX minibus service (between
airport and City Centre) with the dots on the side (same branding as
the then-new NXEC)? Dotty by name and dotty by nature, perhaps.

It was a failure. Probably going after a market that doesn't exist,
TBH - you're either time-sensitive in which case you will use HEx and
a taxi (or just a taxi), or you're price-sensitive in which case
you'll use the Picc.

That said, the concept seems to do well in the US.

The 'dot to dot' homepage is still there, with links to another company
(Skyshuttle) offering the same service, but only Heathrow AFAICT...

http://www.dot2.com/

Paul S

In message , at 17:07:43 on
Sun, 21 Mar 2010, Neil Williams
remarked:
Whatever happened to the strange new NX minibus service (between airport
and City Centre) with the dots on the side (same branding as the
then-new NXEC)? Dotty by name and dotty by nature, perhaps.

It was a failure. Probably going after a market that doesn't exist,
TBH - you're either time-sensitive in which case you will use HEx and
a taxi (or just a taxi), or you're price-sensitive in which case
you'll use the Picc.

That said, the concept seems to do well in the US.

Often because there isn't the cheap [rail] public transport alternative.
These sorts of minibus *are* the cheap public transport.
--
Roland Perry

On Mar 21, 5:21*pm, Roland Perry wrote:

In message ,
at 17:07:43 on Sun, 21 Mar 2010,
Neil Williams remarked:

Whatever happened to the strange new NX minibus service (between airport
and City Centre) with the dots on the side (same branding as the
then-new NXEC)? Dotty by name and dotty by nature, perhaps.

It was a failure. *Probably going after a market that doesn't exist,
TBH - you're either time-sensitive in which case you will use HEx and
a taxi (or just a taxi), or you're price-sensitive in which case
you'll use the Picc.

That said, the concept seems to do well in the US.

Often because there isn't the cheap [rail] public transport alternative.
These sorts of minibus *are* the cheap public transport.

One thing I almost said in my other reply was that I can almost
imagine a rampant free-marketeer damning the Piccadilly line (either
its very existence, or its cheap fares) for 'distorting the market' or
some such.

That said, from what I can gather the Airbus service had a decent
market for quite some time, and certainly in the 90's its fares were
higher than the Tube (from what I've managed to gather). HEx appears
to have basically done it for Airbus though - those who were
previously Airbus pax though were not particularly cost concious, but
were just after a straightforward way into central London (I'm
thinking tourists, and perhaps unfamiliar business folk), seem to be
the candidates for a switch to HEx, which would have left the Airbus
business model increasingly unsustainable.

Pure speculation on my part of course! But NX did give Airbus the chop
way back in 2004, well before the company got into any difficulties,
and after spending money on rebranding it, so I'm minded to think it
became an unsustainable service (like dot2dot).

All that said, I wonder whether ditching the recognisable Airbus name
might not have helped? At least I think the brand was ditched, and the
A2 just became assimilated into the new "National Express Airport"
uber-brand.

That's all on a bit of a tangent from dot2dot of course!

On Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:21:29 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

Often because there isn't the cheap [rail] public transport alternative.
These sorts of minibus *are* the cheap public transport.

True, though they seem to do plenty of business in New York where the
alternative (several, in fact) does exist.

Understandability may be the key, I suppose... working out the fares
and trains to get from JFK to downtown isn't all that easy.

Neil
--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
To reply put my first name before the at.

On Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:19:20 -0700 (PDT), Mizter T
wrote:

All that said, I wonder whether ditching the recognisable Airbus name
might not have helped? At least I think the brand was ditched, and the
A2 just became assimilated into the new "National Express Airport"
uber-brand.

Maybe because people expect to have to book in advance to use a
"National Express" service?

Neil
--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
To reply put my first name before the at.

On Mar 21, 6:36*pm, Neil Williams
wrote:

On Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:19:20 -0700 (PDT), Mizter T
wrote:
All that said, I wonder whether ditching the recognisable Airbus name
might not have helped? At least I think the brand was ditched, and the
A2 just became assimilated into the new "National Express Airport"
uber-brand.

Maybe because people expect to have to book in advance to use a
"National Express" service?

Maybe - though one can pitch up at Stratford on-spec for the regular
NX coach service up the M11 to Stansted - presumably if it's full (of
pre-booked pax), it's full though. More generally speaking I think NX
does suggests that they do try and be flexible when it comes to coach
services *from* airports, w.r.t. accommodating pax who want to get on
an earlier coach than the one booked.

Looking at the NX coaches website, I can't see any obvious mention of
the "National Express Airport" sub-brand anywhere so maybe that's been
de-emphasised or has gone altogether (and yes I know I did call it an
"uber-brand" earlier and have now relegated it to a "sub-brand"!).

I'm not sure that the change of brand would have made much of a
difference for the Airbus service though - but "Airbus" might have
stood out a bit more than just "National Express Airport", which
doesn't sound too different from being 'something to do with
coaches' (rather than 'this bus gets you to the airport - ta da'!).

wrote:
In article ,
(Theo Markettos) wrote:

Didn't some of the 7x7 airport coaches originate as Green line routes many
years ago?

I think GreenLine still run some 7x7 - Luton Airport to London is operated
by GreenLine and I think that's numbered 7x7. I'm not sure if there's any
connection other than they both picked the same numbering series.

If you're approaching Victoria on the Piccadilly you make a go/no go
decision on Victoria before changing to the District at Baron's court.

Good point.

Theo

On Sun, 21 Mar 2010 13:23:33 -0700 (PDT), Mizter T
wrote:

Maybe - though one can pitch up at Stratford on-spec for the regular
NX coach service up the M11 to Stansted

You can with any Nat Ex coach, but there's a risk it might be full.

(That said, on no occasion have I been on one that was, as Nat Ex are
quite good at putting on duplicates. And I have just turned up and
bought a ticket from Gatwick to MK, and it wasn't full.)

Neil
--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
To reply put my first name before the at.

On 21 Mar 2010 21:51:24 +0000 (GMT), Theo Markettos
wrote:

I think GreenLine still run some 7x7 - Luton Airport to London is operated
by GreenLine and I think that's numbered 7x7. I'm not sure if there's any
connection other than they both picked the same numbering series.

Green Line don't operate anything - it's a "franchise" brand that I
think has its origins in London Country Bus Services, though I'm not
clear who (if anyone) owns it now. Arriva operate the Luton-London
coach service.

Confusingly (and I have seen many people caught out by this), the same
coach is operated for Green Line, easyBus, Terravision and some other
brand as well, and there are separate ticket desks for each. I think
they also sell tickets for it on board easyJet flights, and these are
sold under the NatEx banner, even though NatEx operate their own
coaches (though not, I think, to London).

Neil
--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
To reply put my first name before the at.

In article
,
(Mizter T) wrote:

On Mar 21, 3:14*pm, Roland Perry wrote:

In message
,
at 05:32:22 on Sun, 21 Mar 2010, Mizter T
remarked:

Later it was sold to Airlinks, an NX company, and later
still NX rebranded it, along with other airport related brands (such
as Jetlink and Flightlink that just serve to confuse me) as "National
Express Airport".

Whatever happened to the strange new NX minibus service (between
airport and City Centre) with the dots on the side (same branding as
the then-new NXEC)? Dotty by name and dotty by nature, perhaps.

dot2dot in fact. Closed down early 2009, or maybe even late 2008. We
discussed it a little on here back in October '08:

http://groups.google.com/group/uk.ra...f7fbb74c49a456
3/

As Chris Read suggested, the fares didn't really seem appealing enough
for it to make sense to enough people.

Think dot2dot it still features on some of the station signage at
Kings Cross though.

I think it must be those signs that confused me into thinking it was still
going or had closed more recently!

--
Colin Rosenstiel