When Greyhound met HMS Warrior 1860…
The world’s most famous coach company, Greyhound, and the world’s most famous steam-powered battleship, HMS Warrior 1860, have joined forces to attract more visitors to Portsmouth from London during the Christmas holidays.
Greyhound UK, which operates direct, low cost, luxurious coach travel between Portsmouth and London, will provide visitors to the Historic Dockyard, Portsmouth’s leading tourist attraction, with discounted travel. The Dockyard includes HMS Warrior 1860, HMS Victory, the Mary Rose Museum, Royal Naval Museum, Action Stations and Harbour Tours.
Any visitor to the Historic Dockyard can travel by Greyhound at a 25% discount. Customers booking on-line should use the promo code ‘dockyard’ and bring their Historic Dockyard ticket with them on the day of travel to show the driver. A Historic Dockyard ticket also provides walk on customers a 25% discount on Greyhound reducing the price from £10 to £7.50.
Alex Warner, Managing Director of Greyhound UK, brought one of his Greyhound coaches, ‘Sherry’ (in the true spirit of Christmas), face to face with HMS Warrior 1860 today.
He said: “We are delighted to form this partnership with the Historic Dockyard. It is a fantastic attraction and ideal for the family. I hope that between us we can encourage more people to visit Portsmouth during the Christmas holidays.”
Alex Warner added: “Like our Greyhound coaches, HMS Warrior 1860 was designed to be sleek, fast and reliable. However, the conditions on board for the Victorian sailors must have been truly challenging to say the least! Greyhound’s coaches on the other hand provide passengers with luxurious travel including free wi-fi, plug sockets, complimentary newspapers and leather seats. In fact, HMS Warrior’s sleeping quarters offered less room for its sailors than the leg room that we provide for our passengers!”
Some of the Dockyard’s Victorian volunteers, led by the current Captain of HMS Warrior 1860 – Ken Jones, were on board Greyhound today to check out the customer service features.
Robert Bruce, Managing Director of Portsmouth Historic Dockyard said: “Aligning ourselves with Greyhound further tightens our relationship with London visitors, which can only add to the numbers visiting the Historic Dockyard. With six great value attractions at one low cost - valid for a year - means that from today, members of the public can be King of the highways on Greyhound, and King of the Seas on board HMS Warrior 1860!”
Notes for Editors:
Greyhound UK
Greyhound UK operates 40 direct services every day between London – Southampton and London – Portsmouth. Fares start at £1 plus 50p booking fee.
Customer service is at the heart of Greyhound UK. Onboard features include leather seating, free wi-fi, power sockets, air-conditioning and complimentary newspapers. Greyhound coaches have 41 seats rather than the 50 or so typically operated by other coach companies meaning 20% more leg room for customers.
All the Greyhound UK coaches have names with the theme being women’s names from popular American songs. The coaches are called: Sweet Caroline, Proud Mary, Mrs Robinson, Good Golly Miss Molly, Barbara Ann, Billie Jean, Jolene, Peggy Sue, Mandy, Sharona and Sherry.
Greyhound UK is owned by FirstGroup, Britain’s largest bus and rail operator. First purchased Greyhound in 2007 and has been operating the company in the US and Canada since then.
www.greyhounduk.com or follow on www.twitter.com/GreyhoundUK
Pictured: Captain of HMS Warrior 1860, Ken Jones with Greyhound MD Alex Warner. Also pictured are Carolyne Hall, Ursula Pearce and Des Cox
Pic Zachary Culpin/Solentnews.biz
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