National Express Group

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National Express Group

logo
legal form PLC
ISIN GB0006215205
founding 1972
Seat Birmingham , West Midlands, United Kingdom
management Dean Finch ( CEO ); John Devaney ( Chairman )
sales £ 2.238 billion
Branch passenger traffic
Website nationalexpressgroup.com
Status 2011

The National Express Group , or NX Group for short , is a British transport company that offers transport services by coaches, scheduled buses and trains in Great Britain , the USA , Canada , Australia , Spain , Portugal , Germany and Morocco .

history

National Express was founded in 1972 by the state-owned National Bus Company (NBC) to combine the NBC Group's long-distance and express buses operated by various transport companies into a single brand. However, the companies remained with the respective subcontractors, so the establishment mainly had an impact on management and the external image.

When the NBC group was privatized in the 1980s, National Express was taken over by management in 1988. In 1992 the company finally went public with the aim of expanding its activities to other areas of the passenger transport industry. The 2011 annual profit was £ 180.2 million before tax on sales of £ 2.238 billion.

When the privatization of UK airports began in the 1990s , National Express bought East Midlands Airport , Bournemouth Airport and Humberside Airport . As a result of the focus on bus and rail transport, Humberside was sold in 1999, followed by Bournemouth and East Midlands in February 2001.

In November 2007, the group also sold Stewart International Airport in New York State , thereby ending its involvement with the airport.

Germany

Three-part Bombardier Talent 2 in Cologne
Five-part Bombardier Talent 2 in Cologne

In Germany, the group is active through National Express Holding GmbH, Düsseldorf (NX Holding). The operative business is carried out through its subsidiaries National Express Rail GmbH, Cologne (NX Rail) and National Express Südwest GmbH, Düsseldorf (NX Südwest). Further regional operating companies are to be founded.

Rail transport

In February 2013, National Express and IntEgro Verkehr were awarded the contract to operate the North Rhine-Westphalian local transport lines RE 7 “ Rhein-Münsterland-Express ” and RB 48 “ Rhein-Wupper-Bahn ” from December 2015 as part of a Europe-wide tender . 10 three and 25 five-part electric multiple units of the type Bombardier Talent 2 are used in double traction. The order for the vehicles has an order volume of 170 million euros. Deutsche Bahn, as the loser, made use of an opportunity to appeal, but the public procurement tribunal at the Münster district government found no violation of procurement law. The Talent-2 trains will be serviced in the DB works in Düsseldorf and Münster, the heavy maintenance will take place in the DB works in Krefeld.

On February 2, 2015, the Bavarian Railway Company announced that National Express had won both lots in the Nuremberg S-Bahn tender and should take over operations from 2018. National Express planned to purchase 38 five-part Škoda 7Ev “RegioPanters” from the Czech manufacturer Škoda Vagonka for around EUR 360 million . However, on October 25, 2016, the company withdrew its offer.

On June 16, 2015 it was announced that National Express had won lots 2 and 3 of the Rhein-Ruhr-Express . On June 9, 2019, the RE 5 “ Rhein-Express ” line started operating , followed by the RE 6 “ Westfalen-Express ” line on December 15, 2019 . On December 13th, 2020 the line RE 4 “ Wupper-Express ” will follow .

Bus transport

City2city logo
Bus from City2city

NX was active in bus transport through its subsidiary National Express Germany GmbH. In 2013, the company entered the German national long-distance bus service with several routes under the city2city brand . Germany boss Donker van Heel announced before joining in early 2013 that they wanted to become the market leader in the German long-distance bus line market. Before that, NLX only had a minimal share of the German market through Deutsche Touring , in whose majority owner Ibero Eurosur the NLX subsidiary Alsa has a stake. On October 13, 2014 city2city ceased operations. The first major provider of long-distance bus routes in Germany thus gave up.

criticism

In the UK, the company came under fire in 2009 for safety concerns due to insufficient maintenance of trains. Deputy Secretary of Transportation MP Paul Clark warned National Express employees fear that a major accident would only be a matter of time. The franchise for operation on the East Coast Main Line (London - Edinburgh) was given back in 2009 due to profitability problems and the withdrawal of further routes was discussed. National Express was the second company in a few years to return a franchise for the East Coast Main Line. The ECML was operated from 2009 to 2015 by the state-owned East Coast Main Line Company Limited. Before the British general election, the operation of the line was privatized again, although the state company was profitable.

The railway lines RB 48 of the Rhein-Wupper-Bahn and RE 7 in North Rhine-Westphalia, which were taken over in December 2015, are increasingly criticized by the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr and passengers. The reason for this are many massive delays and train cancellations as well as graffiti on the trains. The Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr announced consequences for the operator if there was no immediate improvement.

Web links

Commons : National Express Group  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Sabine Tkatzik: New face for the local transport operators in NRW. (No longer available online.) Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr AöR, press office, February 6, 2013, archived from the original on October 23, 2013 ; Retrieved October 29, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vrr.de
  2. Tim Schulz: Many years of experience. (PDF) In: Regionalverkehr 1/2015. Pp. 12–13 , accessed June 9, 2018 (report on National Express).
  3. Rail vehicles: National Express signs a delivery contract. (No longer available online.) National Express Group, February 9, 2014, archived from the original on February 24, 2014 ; Retrieved February 9, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nationalexpress.de
  4. Vergabekammer Münster: Local rail passenger transport on lines RE 7 and RB 48 - the award did not violate public procurement law. (No longer available online.) Münster District Government, March 22, 2013, archived from the original on February 24, 2014 ; Retrieved March 22, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bezreg-muenster.de
  5. The Railway Engineer 8/14 p. 74
  6. Quintus Vosman et al. Keith Barrow: DB loses Nuremberg S-Bahn to National Express. In: International Railway Journal. February 3, 2015, accessed June 9, 2018 .
  7. Andreas Franke: S-Bahn Nuremberg: NX gets out surprisingly. In: Nürnberger Nachrichten . October 25, 2016. Retrieved June 9, 2018 .
  8. ^ Matthias Bungeroth: Rhein-Ruhr-Express upgrades local traffic in OWL. In: nw.de. Neue Westfälische , June 17, 2015, accessed on June 9, 2018 (first train is due to leave at the end of 2018).
  9. "city2city" heads for Münster. Westfälische Nachrichten , August 8, 2013, accessed on October 29, 2014 .
  10. Jump up on the bus market . Companies & Markets. In: Handelsblatt . March 12, 2013, ISSN  0017-7296 .
  11. National Express wants to conquer the German long-distance bus market. Reuters, March 6, 2013, accessed October 29, 2014 .
  12. Jonas Jansen: City2City: First large long-distance bus provider gives up. In: FAZ. September 16, 2014, accessed October 29, 2014 .
  13. David Teather: National Express's east coast line is 'an accident waiting to happen' ( en ) The Guardian . July 27, 2009. Retrieved February 2, 2015.
  14. Chris Milner: Stagecoach / Virgin bid wins East Coast franchise. November 27, 2014, archived from the original on December 16, 2015 ; accessed on June 9, 2018 .
  15. Stefan Hennigfeld: NVR criticizes National Express. In: Eisenbahnjournal Zughalt.de. August 4, 2016. Retrieved August 5, 2016 .