PETER MENDHAM worries that competition on trunk routes is steadily killing off once extensive networks of National Express services that connected towns and cities of England without a requirement to change in London — and urges us to make use of those that are left before they too disappear

St Ives is no longer on the National Express network. This June 2017 view there shows Park’s of Hamilton HSK 655, a Plaxton Elite-bodied Volvo B9R, on route 504 to London.
CHRISTOPHER CARTER
Some of the former nationalised parts of our infrastructure that have transferred to private sector companies carry the burden of providing a ‘service’ as part of their remit; for Royal Mail it is the universal postal service, BT provides the overall telecom network and for the express coach network the task falls to National Express.