National Express Olympic travel update

National Express has today highlighted the key travel trends for the Olympics, including the most patriotic towns, busiest dates for Brits escaping to the airport and European visitors arriving into London.

Key travel trends:

• Bristol, Birmingham and Bournemouth top the patriotic list with the busiest services to London between 27 July - 12 August
• Saturday 28 July will be busiest day for people escaping to UK airports
• National Express' European coach service 'Eurolines' reports the busiest dates for people arriving into Britain will be 30 /31 July ahead of athletics
• Eurolines has increased capacity into Britain by up to 45% per day to cope with demand for value travel

National Express has today reported that Bristol and Birmingham will boast the largest number of sports fans heading to London during the Olympic period. This is closely followed by Bournemouth, Cardiff and Manchester. 

The UK's largest coach operator has analysed services across the UK to reveal the top routes and key travel trends during the world's largest sporting event. National Express is currently offering one million fares from £4 which are available during the Olympics. They are also running services direct to Olympic Park from locations nationwide.

In contrast, the busiest day for people travelling to British airports to escape the Olympics will be Saturday 28 July, closely followed by the 27 and 29 July. Eurolines reports that the busiest day for European visitors arriving into London will be 30 and 31 July. The majority of continental coach passengers are travelling from Paris,
Amsterdam and Brussels and the company has increased capacity by up to 45% per day to cope with demand.

Andrew Cleaves, Managing Director, National Express coach comments: "It is great to see so many towns and cities across Britain and Europe getting excited about the Olympics by booking their travel in advance. We are currently offering fares from £4 to London throughout July and August, so there's still time to secure a bargain trip to watch the world's biggest sporting event."

He added: "Throughout the Olympic period our 24 hour control centre and station staff will work closely with the Highways Agency and Transport for London to keep our coaches moving on Britain's busy roads."

For more information visit www.nationalexpress.com and enter your journey details or call the National Express call centre 24/7 on 08717 818181

Britain's patriotic hotspots - according to advanced National Express bookings to London between 27 July and 10 August:

1.    Bristol

2.    Birmingham

3.    Bournemouth

4.    Cardiff

5.    Manchester

6.    Portsmouth

7.    Leeds

8.    Cheltenham

Notes to editors:

National Express provide Britain's only scheduled national coach network, serving more than 1,000 destinations with 21 million passenger journeys each year across the UK.