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National Express and it's associated companies provide the most comprehensive coach service across the UK, and times and fares for their services can be seen on the National Express web site.

There are far more coach services than National Express, here is a short list of useful ones.

Buy Coach Tickets Online:

National Express - National coach operator

Regular Coach services:

AirLinks - Provides connections to, from and between airports.

Armchair - Provides commuter coach services from Reading and Maidenhead to London.

Berry's Coaches - Services between London and the West Country.

EasyBus - A potential coach service to keep your eye on, which is intending to offer London to Birmingham for £1.

Green Line - Provides connections across South East England.

MegaBus - Amazingly cheap intercity bus travel across the UK

National Express - Travel around Britain with National Express.

Oxford Bus - Services between London and Oxford.

Scottish Citylink - Travel around Scotland with ease.

Bus information

Unlike other forms of transport within the UK, bus travel is not nationally coordinated and there is no national online bus journey planner, although Traveline is a good attempt. In addition two unofficial services are worth checking out. CarlBerry is an excellent attempt at helping people plan bus journeys across the UK. Xephos Internet has tried to produce the ultimate system, a combined bus and train journey planner.

Advice about bus times can be gained up ringing 0870 608 2 608, which is the National Public Transport information line.

Depending on numbers involved, coach travel is probably the cheapest way to get around the UK, particularly between the major towns and cities. National Express, Scottish Citylink and Ulsterbus offer daily services to more than 1,300 destinations in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. National Express offers discount coachcards to students and young people aged 16 to 25; there is also a Tourist Trail Pass offering unlimited travel for a fixed period. The Scottish Explorer Pass covers coach services to around 190 destinations in Scotland. Coaches have toilet and washroom facilities and long routes usually provide videos and steward services offering snacks.

Tourist operators provide a great many special coach tours taking in local and regional sites. Coaches and minibuses are also widely available for corporate travel and group hire.

There are regular local and regional bus services operated by town and city councils throughout the UK. However, services to and from remote rural areas tend to be infrequent.

For the latest Road travel Information please visit the following web sites:

AA Roadwatch - AA traffic reports.

AA Route Planner - Plan your journey across the UK.

Geostar - Very detailed route planner for the whole of Europe.

Get Me There - Plan your journey across the UK and Europe. Provided by Toyota.

Highways Agency - Motorway traffic reports.

RAC - With the latest traffic reports and journey planner, this is a good site for all car drivers.

Traffic Wales: North - Latest traffic report from the North Wales Regional Traffic Control Centre.

Traffic Wales: South - Latest traffic report from the South Wales Regional Traffic Control Centre.

Sea Travel

The UK is surrounded by water, but with the low cost of air travel, where and when is sea travel a viable option? Here is a guide the main ferry services from the UK.

Rail Information

The railway in the UK, started in 1825, is the grandfather of all railway systems, now featuring more than 2,400 stations serviced by 15,000 daily departures. The fast inter-city trains have standard or first class seats, the latter offering varying degrees of luxury and additional service, depending on the service operator. Standard seating is generally comfortable and most trains have restaurant or buffet cars or mobile refreshments. There are air-conditioned sleeping cars on overnight services from London to Wales, Scotland and the south-west of England.

Whenever you travel by train, ask which kind of ticket will save you the most money. There are many variables depending on when you travel. Also ask your local British Tourist Authority office or travel agent about railway ticket discount packages. The BritRail Pass, for example, is not sold in the UK. In North America it is available from Rail Europe in New York, and in Europe you can get it from Rail Europe offices, selected travel agents and major railway stations. Please not that travel on the London Underground or Heathrow Express is not included in a BritRail pass.

Make advance reservations to carry cycles by train; sometimes there is a small charge for this.

Timetables

Network Rail - Provides rail timetable information for Britain's national rail network.

DB Timetable search - Provides european (including UK) rail timetable information.

Xephos Internet - Although unofficial, a very good public transport journey planner. Includes bus and rail timetables.

Travel InfoSystems - Provides online and software application based journey planning solutions.

Live Train Running Information

National Rail - Provides a central source for all UK rail enquiries including real time running information for train services across the British railway network.

Tram information

Tram systems now exist in the following parts of the country:

Blackpool Trams - Operates between Blackpool and Fleetwood.

Croydon Tramlink - Serves parts of South London.

Metrolink - Operates in the Greater Manchester area.

Midland Metro - Operates between Birmingham and Wolverhamption.

Stagecoach Supertram - serves the city of Sheffield with three light rail routes covering 29 kilometres across the city.

Air Travel Information

| Book Airline Tickets | Airport Information | Airline Information | Track A Flight | Air Travel News | Air Travel Photos |

Book Airline Tickets (from InfoTransport)

Ebooker - Great prices from hundreds of airlines to anywhere in the world.

Air France - Travel the world with Air France.

German Wings - Great prices to Germany.

KLM UK - Travel the world with KLM.

Singapore Airlines - Direct flight to Singapore.

Virgin Atlantic - Flights around the world.

Catering

Restaraunts

There are about 50,000 restaurants in the United Kingdom. Their turnover amounted to £18.2 billion in 2001. Almost two-thirds of businesses offer takeaway facilities.

The industry is highly fragmented, with low entry barriers. The majority of restaurants are independent small businesses, trading through a single outlet.

In 2002, 93% of VAT-registered firms had a turnover of less than £500,000 (with 43% having sales of under £100,000). Only 3% of VATregistered firms had a turnover of £1m or more. The three largest chains are estimated to account for less than 10% of the market; the leading 40 chains account for less than 15%.

The degree of concentration varies though:

• almost all ‘traditional’ cafes, snack bars and

tearooms are single-outlet businesses

• chains are more prominent in the ‘modern’ fast

food (especially burgers and pizzas) and midpriced

‘family’ restaurant sectors.

Competition takes place in local markets and is strong - major chains are expanding their operations and new entrants continue to be attracted to the market.

The number of VAT-registered restaurant and takeaway businesses has continued to rise over the last five years (at a higher rate than the total number of VAT-registered enterprises which, indeed, fell slightly in 2002) and problems of overcapacity exist in some areas.

Expansion of capacity has been greatest in the low to mid-priced segments of the market, most notably amongst fast food operators and ‘niche’ operators such as coffee bar chains. For example, one estimate suggests that the number of coffee bar outlets has increased by more than 55% over the last four years. Moreover, expansion has been most rapid amongst the leading five coffee bar operators which, collectively, have more than doubled their number of outlets since the end of the 1990s. The two largest coffee bar chains are estimated to account for about 45% of the market.

Expansion has been greatest in London and the south. However, with the capital, in particular, showing signs of market saturation, the leading chains are increasingly seeking to expand in other geographical areas.

The continued expansion in the number of restaurants and takeaways in recent years has been encouraged by a long-term trend towards consumers eating-out more frequently. At the same time, the increasing willingness of consumers to try a broader range of cuisine has encouraged the development of new eating-out concepts (with London remaining a ‘testing ground’ for many).

However, catering’s share of total consumers’ expenditure has declined over the last decade as eating-out has had to compete with other goods and services for a share of consumers’ leisure spending. In 2001, catering accounted for 7.8% of total real consumers’ expenditure compared with 8.1% in 2000 and 10% in 1990.

Certainly, over the last five years, spending on eating-out has risen less rapidly than total consumers’ expenditure, with demand for catering services being particularly weak in 2001. Having increased by 3% in real terms in 2000, spending on eating-out rose by only 0.5% in 2001. Within this trend, demand deteriorated during the course of the year, spending levels being 0.4% lower in the second half of 2001 than in the corresponding period of 2000.

The foot-and-mouth crisis played a role in the deterioration in the industry’s performance in 2001, impacting adversely on independent businesses operating in rural locations, as well as on those dependent on overseas visitors.

In addition to the adverse impact of the foot-and-mouth crisis, some catering businesses dependent on overseas visitors reported a further downturn in trade following the 11th September US terrorist attacks. For example, in October 2001, the Restaurant Association of Great Britain reported that some restaurants had suffered a 20% fall in business since 11th September.

Restaurants located in London have been most adversely affected by the fall in overseas visitor numbers (especially from the United States and Japan).

Real consumer spending on eating-out has shown signs of improving in 2002: in the second quarter of the year, spending levels were 1.2% higher than a year earlier - this compares with a year-on-year increase of only 0.1% in the first quarter of 2002.

Nevertheless, spending on eating-out continues to rise at a slower rate than total consumers’ expenditure: total real consumer spending rose by 3.5% in the first quarter of 2002 and by 4.1% in the second quarter of the year.

Given that the number of restaurants and takeaways has continued to rise but that consumer spending on eating-out has weakened over the last two years, competitive pressures have increased as problems of overcapacity have been exacerbated. In the light of recent trading conditions, some chains have been re-assessing their operations (e.g. concentrating on developing the most successful areas of their businesses, ‘refreshing’ brands and disposing of underperforming areas).

However, a number of chains are continuing to pursue aggressive expansion programmes.

Consequently, there is no prospect of an easing of competitive pressures in the foreseeable future.

Public houses

There are about 60,000 public houses in the United Kingdom. Collectively, their turnover amounted to £19.1 billion in 2001.

In 2002, 93% of VAT-registered firms had a urnover of less than £500,000; only 2% had sales of £1 million or more.

The ownership structure of the pub trade has changed significantly over the last decade: the 1989 Beer Orders forced the national brewers to reduce the size of their tied estates, providing opportunities for the ‘free trade’ to more than double in size since that time. In particular, ‘newer’ large independent pub chains have been gaining market share at the expense of smaller ‘traditional’ freehouses.

In contrast, the number of brewery-owned pubs fell from about 44,000 in 1989 to just over 10,000 in 2001. However, the major brewers’ share of pub turnover has fallen less rapidly than their share of outlets since 1989: with a limit on the number of tied outlets which they may own, the major brewers have been developing estates of larger outlets.

Following a review of the 1989 Beer Orders, it was announced in December 2000 that the cap on the size of brewers’ tied estates was to be removed.

The removal of the cap could make it easier for the major brewers and larger regional brewers to expand their pubs portfolios. However, those not wishing to incur acquisition costs will still be able to secure outlets for their beer through supply agreements. Indeed, some brewing groups are seeking to dispose of - rather than acquire – pub outlets.

Alcoholic Drink Total Consumer Spending Total consumer spending on alcoholic drink has been weak for much of the last decade.

In 2001, the foot-and-mouth crisis exacerbated problems for some independent pubs in rural locations, as well as those dependent on overseas visitors. In addition, some businesses dependent on overseas visitors reported a downturn in trade following the 11th September US terrorist attacks.

Some improvement in trading conditions was seen in the first half of 2002 with sales being boosted by the World Cup and the Golden Jubilee. However, trading conditions have been mixed subsequently with, for example, poor weather being blamed for a weakening in demand in July.