THE National Express timetable will be reduced from today (Tuesday, March 24) after which it will run a limited network of coach services.

Chris Hardy, managing director of National Express UK Coach, said: "Latest Government advice is that people should avoid travelling unless it is essential. We are still operating to be able to help those individuals with essential travel needs and ask all others to follow guidance and not travel unnecessarily.

"We have taken additional steps to keep anyone travelling with us safe. These include enhanced cleaning of vehicles, ticket vending machines and other customer touch points; and limiting capacity on all vehicles to a maximum of 50% to help customers to socially distance.

"We are continually monitoring and will respond to ongoing updates and guidance from the Government and UK public health authorities.

"Our drivers, customer service teams, customer contact centre and the wider National Express team are working incredibly hard to keep these services running safely. We are doing all we can to support everyone who works in our business at this challenging time , especially our front-line staff who can't work from home; including paying company sick pay from day one.

"And we're trying to help our customers as best we can in this uncertain time by offering a free amend to re-book their travel with us again in the next 12 months or a full refund for anyone whose travel has been cancelled.

"Finally, we're already speaking to organisations about how we might be able to support where we can during these testing times.

We will continue to update customers through our website, social media channels and email alerts."

Customers should check www.nationalexpress.com for full details of changes.