National Express will fully suspend its national network of scheduled coach services with effect from midnight on Sunday.

Passengers who had travel booked can choose to hold the ticket and amend their booking for travel within the next 12 months, free of charge, regardless of the terms and conditions. Chris Hardy, managing director of National Express UK Coach, said:

“We kept a limited coach network running to be able to help those individuals with essential travel needs, but it is no longer viable to continue to do this. Passenger numbers continue to fall as the public rightly follow government advice to avoid non-essential travel.

"The decision to temporarily suspend all services is the right one based on the current unprecedented circumstances and I hope our passengers understand this.

“It is very clear that the critical thing we must do to protect our NHS and save lives is to stay at home. All journeys before Monday 6 April will be completed and we will ensure customers are not stranded but until further notice, we will not be running any services.”

Customers wishing to rebook their travel do not need to make contact until they are ready to switch to their new dates. For passengers who do not want this option, a full refund will be issued for cancelled services in line with terms and conditions. Full details are available at nationalexpress.com. Chris added:

“Our drivers, customer service teams, customer contact centre and the wider National Express team have been working incredibly hard to keep our services running safely and we thank them for their efforts.

“We know this is a worrying time. We take the welfare of our customers and employees extremely seriously and will continue to take guidance from the Government to ensure we do everything we sensibly can to keep them safe.

“Regular updates will be provided through our website, social media channels and email alerts and, when the time is right, we look forward to resuming services and welcoming customers back on board.”

It should be noted that this affects National Express coaches only. At the present time, National Express West Midlands bus services are continuing to run.