National Express has launched a simpler way for passengers to track their coaches with the introduction of a free iPhone app - providing 24/7 tracking and live service updates.

Passengers with iPhones can check the progress of their service at the touch of a button using the new National Express Coach Travel app, which is now available from the App Store.

Using GPS technology the software enables passengers to pinpoint coaches on an on-screen map, so they can check if their coach is on time, see when a vehicle is due to arrive at a station or stop, or search for alternative departure times.

The app, which has been downloaded thousands of times already, can also be used to check the progress of a loved-one’s vehicle - particularly useful for people who are picking passengers up after their National Express coach journey.

The new app has a host of other functions which will allow customers to:

*  Connect using Facebook details to save favourite routes, services and locations
*  Find the nearest stop using the iPhone’s GPS
*  Retrieve coach tickets then click through to track a coach
*  Quick and easy access to book new tickets
*  Easy access to NX Twitter feeds for updates, news and offers
*  The app is an enhanced version of National Express’s existing web-based Coach Tracker tool.

The UK’s largest coach operator launched Coach Tracker in August last year, becoming the first passenger transport company to allow people to keep tabs on vehicles 24/7 in real-time.

Since then more than half of the National Express Coach Tracker website’s 1.4m visitors accessed it using a mobile device and over the same period there’s been a 28% increase in mobile users - showing the tracking facility is particularly useful to people on the move.

Visits to the site peaked in March this year at nearly 200,000 visits as the cold weather set in – showing people turned to technology to track vehicles during the cold spell.

National Express UK Coach Managing Director Tom Stables said: “We strive to provide our customers with a first class service and part of this is enabling customers to know where their coaches are. As demand for coach tracking via a mobile device has grown and grown, we’ve taken steps to enhance the tool by turning it into an app to make it simpler, faster and pack a host of other useful features.”