National Express West Midlands Reviews 

The bus doesn’t come when it’s meant to and the times always change

Painful. In this day and age it should not be this difficult to order a bus pass for my daughter at Warwick University.

I originally mistakenly believed that after procuring the ticket there would be an app that you show you ticket details to the bus driver and use straight away.

Instead you are gated behind a 7 working day lead time whilst they issue a Swiftcard to you. There is an app called MTicket which you have to separately register for (make sure you use the same email) and then you have to hope that your ticket and direct debit details appear in there.

I am on iteration 2 of applying. The first attempt was foiled perhaps due to user error because the form I had to fill in had transposed the direct debit name to be that of my daughter's rather than me. That led to a payment being taken and then reversed about 3 days later.

The second attempt was made purely in my daughter's name using direct debit instructions relating to her own accounts. So far there has been nothing on the Mticket app and no sign of a Swiftcard.

I rang today to check on progress but due to data protection laws they would not confirm with me whether the first direct debit relating to my bank credentials has indeed been cancelled. I will have to get my daughter to ring up and check for me.

Maybe it is just me but I expected things to be a little more integrated with the use of apps etc. Hopefully all is well and the Swiftcard turns up soon and that will be an end to it.

National express west Midlands bus 31 is always delayed. I'm currently in traffic and im on the 31 and there's literally two other 31s behind me. You planning on taking the 31 anywhere? Don't. Flipping 31 years it took. By the way, yes I was incredibly late to my destination. National Express do something about your buses bro this is actually diabolical.

Lovely driver on Bus No. 4, the new lady with the hijab. She’s always so kind, helpful and friendly, and always has a smile for passengers. Just wanted to say she’s doing a great job!

I rate minus 5⭐. Rickety buses, never turn up or if they do it's late or early. Drivers look at you moody, not all of them but too many. Ring the bell for bus to stop and just drive on and start ringing alarms when told about themselves not paying attention as they didn't hear dinger and hit multiple kerbs along the x12 route mainly for me. Disgusting company. Prices keep increasing, have to sit on bus full of youths blasting horrible music, shouting, swearing, booting windows out and smoking. Rubbish everywhere. Everything that should be right is wrong. National express west midlands should be ashamed of themselves, but they're not because they don't care as long as the money keeps rolling in. As for date of experience, almost every day unfortunately

The driver of bus 20 who passed at Queen Victoria bus stop from Coventry to Nuneaton around 7:35am needs to be reported(9/9/2026). 2 days in a row, he drove past me yesterday and today. It couldn't have been a mistake, the 2nd time. He needs to be withdrawn if he doesn't want to take passengers even when they put out their hands. It is so wrong. It's making people late and it's not right.

Why is it that, in this day and age, it feels like you just can’t catch a break?
I’m only writing this review because this has now happened for the 10th time, and honestly, I’m at the point where I feel completely frustrated and fed up.
I am a single parent and I had to take a secure job quite a way from home because I need to support my family. I didn’t have the luxury of choosing a job five minutes down the road. I have a 1 hour 40 minute commute each way, every single day, which means I am spending over 3 hours a day travelling on buses.
I rely on the bus because a train pass is simply too expensive. I leave home in plenty of time and make sure I get to the bus stop before the advertised time because I know I have such a long journey ahead of me. My wages are actually deducted if I am more than 5 minutes late for work, so getting there on time really matters.
Yet time and time again, I have arrived at the bus stop in good time, only to find that the bus has turned up early and gone. On several occasions, the driver has actually seen me running towards the bus and has still chosen to pull away and leave me behind.
What makes it even more upsetting is that around 4 out of the 10 times this has happened, I have then literally run across to the other side of the road to try and catch the same bus at the next stop, only for the same driver not to stop there either.
At that point, I’m not just frustrated. I’m exhausted. I’m running because I’m trying to get to work, protect my income and provide for my family. I shouldn’t have to be put in that position because a bus has arrived before the time it is supposed to.
If a driver is early, could they please just have a little look around before pulling away? Even a quick glance to the side of the road, especially when they are already pulled into the stop, could make such a difference. I’m not asking drivers to wait around for several minutes. But if they are early and can clearly see someone running towards the bus, surely waiting a few seconds would be reasonable.
I completely understand that bus drivers have schedules to keep and that delays happen. But passengers have schedules too. We have jobs, families, bills and responsibilities. We plan our journeys around the timetable because we have to.
For me, this is not simply about missing a bus. It can mean being late for work, having money deducted from my wages and having even more stress added to an already demanding daily routine.
I’m a single parent doing my best to work, support my family and keep everything together. I don’t expect special treatment. I don’t expect a bus to wait indefinitely for me. I simply expect it to arrive at the time it is advertised to arrive and, if it is early, for the driver to show a little awareness of the people who are relying on that service.
After this happening 10 times, I really hope someone takes the time to look into it.
Sometimes a few seconds of consideration from one person can make a huge difference to someone else’s entire day.

The absolute worst buses of all time. Never show up on time sometimes just don’t show up at all the 41 bus terrible are they told Sunday service just means they don’t have to show up at all?

Waited for the x 10 15.03 bus from merry hill for 25 mins ,when it arrived it was parked behind a 2A bus filling up with passengers, instead of waiting it's turn for the 2A to vacate the only automatic door access it drove off , we waved at it to stop and the driver saw us but carried on regardless, I had to get a taxi home as they only run hourly, however in this searing heat there were numerous elderly people who would have to wait another hour . I tried making my complaint to nx west Midlands but basically they had automatic voice answering service ( which weren't answering) so as a last resort I've had to come on trust pilot to make my views known

Andrew on the 450 from Leicester was really supportive. Helped me out during a sticky situation and was very understanding.

Zero star, very bad service ,never on time bus 42,43 to bilston. Rubbish 🗑

To much disgusting service
The bus doesn't come on showing timee
Didn't expect

terrible service - was waiting for Number 1 bus Birmingham Saint James -Five ways for 40 mins i waited and nothing this service is total joke and this company is joke.

the drivers are a mixed bag, some are lovely and some are terrible. luckily my most used route tends to have the same polite drivers

i use the bus daily and while i do expect a little bit of lateness it’s sometimes too much, particularly with the less frequent routes. after a long day at work the bus being late is exactly what you don’t want

but i digress. for the most part the bus is perfectly serviceable and it gets me where i need to go

my biggest concern is the amount of people being let on for free, and the upstairs always being a cesspool of teenagers smoking and being a general nuisance. i never, ever sit upstairs as it feels unsafe

seeing people just saunter on for free with no challenge or consequences is a bit of a slap in the face as a paying customer. particularly since the bus is so expensive and i am struggling to pay for it

this happens frequently too and inspectors are nowhere to be seen. i witnessed two huge groups of lads walk on with no attempt of confrontation from the driver within 20 minutes on the 87. i may do the same, if you can’t beat them join them

Extremely disappointing service in West Midlands - Birmingham. Buses rarely arrive at their scheduled times, and in many cases they don't show up at all. The timetable displayed on Google Maps when selecting a bus stop is completely unreliable and often appears to be falsified, showing that a bus has already departed or passed even when it never arrived.

What's even more frustrating is that, despite the large number of complaints submitted directly to the service provider, very few receive a response. When they do, it's always the same generic, scripted reply with no real effort to address the ongoing issues.

This level of unreliability makes it impossible to depend on public transport. A huge disappointment.

I've complained about there's no air con on buses especiallywhen temperature reaches over 30 degrees. I've been fed a load of bs excuses by staff that are sitting in air con offices and most likely laughing at us customers. Our bus fares go up every year but instead they keep profiting whilst our health and safety is put last. I refuse to use buses in ridiculous temperatures whilst I have a 4 month old baby.
Also I reported National Express a while back for dangerous driving by a bus driver and I don't think anything ever come of it. Some of their bus drivers shouldn't be allowed behind the wheel.

Explain how your buses are late with no traffic on the road. It's Sunday morning, absolutely no traffic, and your shoddy service is of course, as ever, late.

Why are we paying increasing prices, with no discount to account for how absolutely abysmal your service is? You don't even bother responding here anymore - an obvious admission that you know how terribly you're doing.

If I could give a zero I would . Drivers are awful always crowded and no warning for diversions

The man I spoke to on the phone was rude and dismissive and very unwilling to help with my membership card. Seemed like he didn’t really want to be working as he kept yawning and tone of voice was very dull and agitated.

I would like to know why all the teenagers think its okay to walk onto the buses without paying??. I am seeing this more and more over the weeks.Last night around ten young fella marched onto the bus number 67 offering no forms of paying and the driver said not a word. Meanwhile my bus pass has increased in cost. Are we having to carry the cost for all these refusing to pay? Maybe I will just start walking on to without paying, as they say if you cant beat them , join them.