Early years bodied
Leyland Tiger in
Liverpool in 1982 in the original livery
High Speed Train at
London St Pancras Alexander ALX400 bodied
Dennis Trident 2 at
Trafalgar Square in April 2008 In 1972, the state-owned
National Bus Company decided to bring together the scheduled coach services operated by its bus operating companies in the United Kingdom under one brand.
Sir Frederick Wood, a prominent businessman and industrialist, was asked to oversee the creation of this new business model and led the group as its chairman from 1972 to 1978. Initially branded as
National, the
National Express brand was first used in 1974. With the privatisation of the National Bus Company in the 1980s, National Express was subject to a
management buyout in March 1988. The management team pursued various means of diversification; during 1989, the company purchased
Crosville Wales.
1990s Starting in early 1990s, National Express' financial performance began to deteriorate; this led to a new management team taking over the company in July 1991 which had the backing of
ECI Partners, a mid-market private equity firm. The new team refocused the group on its core activities, leading to the sale of Crosville Wales to
British Bus. During October 1991, it purchased Speedlink, an operator of coach services between
Gatwick and
Heathrow Airports. During April 1995, National Express purchased
West Midlands Travel, the formerly council-owned bus network of
Birmingham and the
West Midlands; During April 1996, National Express commenced operating its first UK railway franchises,
Gatwick Express and
Midland Mainline. One year later, three other franchises were awarded, these being
Silverlink,
Central Trains and
ScotRail. To comply with a
Monopolies & Mergers Commission ruling on it winning the
ScotRail franchise, National Express sold the
Scottish Citylink operation to
Metroline in August 1998. In February 1997, Taybus Public Transport was acquired and rebranded
Travel Dundee. During September 1998, Crabtree-Harmon, the seventh-largest student transportation bus company in the United States was acquired, with 82 school bus contracts mainly in
Missouri, but also in other Midwest states including
Colorado,
Iowa,
Kansas,
Oklahoma and
Utah. During February 1999, Robinson Bus Service was purchased; it was followed in August 1999 by
Durham Transportation. These acquisitions placed National Express as one of the top three United States school bus operators. In May 1999, National Express purchased Australia's largest private bus operator,
National Bus Company. National Bus Company had bus operations in
Brisbane,
Melbourne and
Perth, and also held a 57% shareholding in
Westbus,
Sydney's largest bus operator. Westbus also had a London coach operation. In August 1999, National Express was awarded the
M>Train,
M>Tram and
V/Line Passenger rail franchises in the Australian state of
Victoria.
2000s During January 2000, National Express expanded into the American market by acquiring ATC, a public transportation operator. In July 2000,
Prism Rail was purchased, though which the
c2c,
Wales & Borders,
Wessex Trains and
West Anglia Great Northern franchises were added to National Express' portfolio. In December 2002, National Express handed in its rail franchises in
Victoria, Australia, having been unable to renegotiate financial terms with the
State Government. During February 2004, the London bus operations of
Connex were purchased and rebranded
Travel London. In April 2004,
National Express East Anglia commenced operating the
Greater Anglia rail franchise. In September 2004, National Express sold its
Melbourne bus operations to
Ventura Bus Lines, and
Brisbane and
Perth bus operations to
Connex. After being placed in administration in January 2005, Westbus was sold to
ComfortDelGro Cabcharge in August 2005. In June 2005, the London bus arm of
Tellings-Golden Miller was purchased by National Express, after which it was rebranded as Travel London. During July 2005, National Express sold ATC to Connex. In October 2005, the company agreed to buy most of the operations of privately owned Spanish transport operator
ALSA, which operates bus and coach services in Spain, Portugal and Morocco, and long-distance coach services to other parts of Europe. Alsa's operations in South America and China were retained by the previous owners. In April 2007, National Express acquired Continental Auto, the second-largest bus and coach operator in Spain.
Volkswagen in
London in April 2008 During November 2007, South East England coach operator
The Kings Ferry was purchased and an airport to hotel shuttle service in London branded
Dot2Dot was launched. Dot2Dot did not prove to be commercially viable and thus ceased operations in November 2008. In November 2007, National Express announced plans to re-brand all of their operations under a new unified National Express identity. It was intended to achieve greater recognition for all the group companies, to coincide with recent acquisitions and after current rail operations had improved in reliability to warrant association with the established express coach image. It coincided with the appointment of a group director for all UK operations and relocation of the head office from
London to
Birmingham, bringing all operations under a single strategic management structure. Day-to-day management remained within individual companies. During February 2007, the Department for Transport announced that National Express, along with
Arriva,
First, and
Virgin Rail Group, had been shortlisted to lodge bids for the
InterCity East Coast franchise. In August 2007, the Department for Transport awarded the Intercity East Coast franchise to National Express, leading to the creation of National Express East Coast (NXEC) shortly thereafter. Under the terms of its franchise agreement, National Express committed to paying a £1.4-billion premium to the Department of Transport over a time span of seven years and four months. However, numerous rail analysts promptly voiced concerns that the company had paid too much for the franchise, and had effectively repeated GNER's mistake in order to secure the franchise. On 9 December 2007,
National Express East Coast commenced operations, taking over from
Great North Eastern Railway. In May 2009, National Express sold Travel London and
Travel Surrey to
Abellio.
Operational safety concerns On 3 January 2007, a speeding National Express coach overturned on the
M4/
M25 slip road, leaving three passengers dead. The driver was jailed for five years. In July 2009, a junior transport minister, the
Gillingham MP
Paul Clark, listed a series of concerns to National Express in a letter following a meeting with an employee of National Express East Coast who lives in his constituency. The worker claimed that, due to reduced maintenance checks, some trains were in use with defective brakes, an allegation that was strongly denied by the company, which stated it would "never compromise on safety". He wrote: "As a result of reduced maintenance checks, 'some long-haul sets [trains] are in use with brake defects'. Increasing cuts in staff combined with an increasing pressure to ensure that trains run safely has resulted in fears among staff that a major accident is 'just around the corner'." Passengers, he added, "have been 'poisoned' as a result of coffee machines not being cleaned correctly, with cleaning fluids left in situ". The minister said he was "shocked and appalled at the information with which I've been provided. You will understand that these allegations are exceptionally serious". School bus drivers in the US have raised concerns about the safety of the buses run by Durham, a subsidiary of National Express, and the second-largest operator of school bus services in North America. According to representatives of Durham bus drivers, fluid leaks, tyres that need to be replaced, black mould and non-functional emergency equipment are regular concerns, whilst workers continued to operate buses while sick because they cannot afford to miss a day of work and drivers are not paid for all the time they work.
Default on East Coast rail franchise High Speed Train at
London King's Cross in July 2009 By 2009, National Express East Coast had come under increasing financial pressure due to various factors, including compounding rises in fuel prices and the poor economic climate of the time, commonly known as the
Great Recession. In contrast to the company's projected revenue increases during its franchise, NXEC's actual operating income (generated primarily from ticket sales) had decreased by 1 percent during the first half of 2009. According to
Rail, the franchise had quickly garnered a reputation for cost-cutting and a decline in service levels, particularly in terms of the onboard catering. During April 2009, National Express confirmed that the company was still pursuing talks with the government over possible financial assistance with the franchise, either through a reduction in the premium due or some other form of assistance. In defaulting on the franchise, National Express directly incurred losses of £72 million by forfeiting bonds. The franchise failure sparked public and industry calls for the permanent public ownership of the InterCity East Coast franchise, or even the complete scrapping of the entire franchise system. However, National Express were subsequently granted an extension until October 2011, followed by another through to February 2012.
Prospective takeover Plaxton Elite bodied
Volvo B9R in
Bolton in April 2013 With the company's finances under stress largely as a result of having overbid for the
National Express East Coast rail franchise, National Express became a takeover target in 2009. In June 2009, a takeover offer from fellow transport operator
FirstGroup was rejected. On 3 September 2009, National Express' largest shareholder, Spain's Cosmen family with 18.5%, and
CVC Capital Partners made a takeover offer of £765 million for the company. The
Takeover Panel set a deadline of 11 September 2009 for all prospective bids. During September 2009, National Express agreed to allow the Cosmen/CVC consortium to undertake
due diligence. During the following month, the Cosmen/CVC consortium had reportedly reached an agreement to sell the UK bus and rail operations to rival transport operator
Stagecoach Group if its offer was successful. The deadline for offers was subsequently extended to 16 October 2009. On 16 October 2009, the Cosmen/CVC consortium announced that they had withdrawn their offer. That same day, Stagecoach submitted its own all-share bid to acquire National Express. This, too, did not proceed and, in November 2009, National Express announced it would raise the necessary capital through a share issue.
2010s During February 2013,
National Express Germany was awarded two regional rail contracts by the
Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr, Zweckverband Nahverkehr Rheinland and Zweckverband Nahverkehr Westfalen-Lippe authorities that commenced in December 2015. In January 2015, the
Bayerische Eisenbahngesellschaft announced that National Express had been selected to operate the
Nuremberg S-Bahn system from December 2018. It was to have been the first
Deutsche Bahn S-Bahn network to be taken over by a private operator. However, in October 2016, National Express elected to pull out, citing a delay in the ability to order new rolling stock while a challenge brought on by Deutsche Bahn was resolved, would make its bid unviable. In June 2015, it was announced that the parts 2 and 3 of the Rhein-Ruhr-Express which will be introduced in 2018 will be operated by National Express. This includes
Regional-Express services RE4, RE5 and RE6 in
Northrhine-Westphalia. In December 2016, coach operator Clarkes of London was purchased with 56 vehicles. In March 2020,
Lucketts Travel was purchased.
Takeover attempt and rebranding During September 2021, it was reported that National Express had entered into talks to acquire Stagecoach Group. In December 2021, a deal was agreed between the boards of the two companies: however, it was subject to both shareholder approval and regulatory scrutiny. Having originally recommended shareholders accept the National Express offer, in March 2022, the Stagecoach board of directors withdrew its recommendation in favour of a takeover offer from a
DWS managed investment fund. In January 2023, the coach excursion business of seven National Express Transport Solutions companies (Coliseum Coaches, Lucketts Travel, Mortons Travel, Solent Tours, Stewarts Tours, Woods Tours and Worthing Coaches) were brought together under the 'Touromo' brand. Touromo aimed to provide day trips and short breaks to destinations across the UK and Europe as one combined brand, and National Express planned to expand the brand outside the West Midlands and South East England to operate across the United Kingdom. Six months later, however, it was announced that Touromo was to cease operations and that National Express Transport Solutions was to cease offering day trips and holiday excursions in October 2023. In June 2023, National Express changed its name to Mobico Group. In April 2025, it was announced that chief executive Ignacio Garat would depart at the end of the month after nearly five years. Mobico chair Phil White, who served as CEO of National Express Group between 1997 and 2006, took over on an interim basis as the search for a successor gets underway. In July 2025, Mobico sold its North American school bus operations to
I Squared Capital. ==Operations==