NatEx signs ‘historic’ Highways Agency agreement

National Express and the Highways Agency have signed what has been described as an ‘historic’ agreement that will see the two organisations pool expertise. The operator has become the first commercial organisation of its kind to sign a formal agreement with the Agency. It is intended to lead to faster information sharing where incidents occur, providing earlier notification of incidents so the operator can react more readily to divert coaches and keep them on track as necessary. It will also see increasingly agile responses by National Express by improved forward planning around road works and improvements. In general, the operator will share its 40 plus years’ experience to help identify where the Highways Agency could focus attention to improve journey times for coach passengers.

National Express Group Chief Executive, Dean Finch, said, ‘National Express continually strives for excellence across all our operations and working in partnership with The Highways Agency will enable us to deliver a better service for the millions of customers who use our coaches every year, as well as supporting road users generally. We have an unrivalled expertise in passenger transport and believe this offers unique insight that can be harnessed to the benefit of road users across the UK.’