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Scottish beauty on track for the model way to travel!

14 Feb 2008

Miniature prices make travel simpler on award winning website

Former Miss Scotland, Aisling Friel, shows small is definitely beautiful as she dazzles travellers at Edinburgh Waverley station with her new eye-catching outfit.

Aisling, 25, was on hand with a miniature model of a National Express East Coast train crossing some of Britain’s best loved landmarks to launch a new campaign to promote value fares to great destinations.

Heads turned on the platform as Aisling, sporting a mini dress made up of rail tickets, posed for pictures.

Alongside the pretty Scottish model was the tiny train, mounted on a three-dimensional map of Britain featuring popular landmarks on the East Coast route including the iconic Forth Rail Bridge and even the Loch Ness Monster!

The model train, which was specially made by famed model railway makers Hornby, stars in a series of advertisements launched this week along the East Coast route to promote the miniature prices available exclusively at www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com.

Says Aisling: “The train is so realistic, and the model landmarks on the map show how easy it is to get to some great places without breaking the bank”.

National Express East Coast spokesman Angela McKenzie said: “We wanted a model way to tell everyone about the miniature prices available on our website, where all advance bookings attract a ten per cent discount.

“Aisling is a well-known figure across Scotland – and as someone who travels regularly with National Express East Coast, she knows that the only small thing about us is our advance purchase fares!”

ENDS.

Notes to Editors:

The model National Express East Coast train features in a series of posters appearing in several regional daily newspapers along the route, as well as on the London Underground and Tyne and Wear Metro, and at high-profile roadside sites.

Examples of the miniature prices available exclusively online at www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com include (all fares are one-way):

• Glasgow or Edinburgh to London from £14
• Edinburgh to York from £9.50
• Inverness or Aberdeen to London from £16

More than ten per cent of National Express East Coast passengers travel on tickets which are cheaper in real terms than pre-privatisation almost twelve years ago.

National Express East Coast offers more cheaper tickets on more services than its domestic airline competitors, and its market share compared with airlines on relevant routes has grown by offering good value.

The National Express East Coast website, www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com, has been awarded a top five-star rating by Web User, the UK’s best-selling internet magazine. The review praised the website’s ease of use, ticket searching options and new lowest fare finder for “making rail travel easier than ever”.