The pair met on a National Express coach trip to Nottingham in 2004 when Kate and Royden Greaves separately booked their tickets from London.
Before pulling out of Victoria Coach Station, the driver of the 452 made an announcement asking all the passengers to turn to the person next to them and introduce themselves.
But after their initial introduction, Kate and Royden carried on talking.
Kate said: “I chatted with the young man next to me for the whole of the journey up to Nottingham and then parted ways, expecting never to see him again – except two days later we got exactly the same coach back to London again.”
The trip turned into a journey of a lifetime for the couple, as they kept in touch, fell in love, and married in September 2012.
The couple now live in Tunbridge Wells, and Kate runs her own online home accessories business, while Royden is a wealth manager for a private firm.
“It shows the drivers should keep doing what they do,” said Kate. “A warm friendly attitude can go a long way!”
The couple are to celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary on September 15 this year, and have enthusiastically joined in with the coach operator’s celebration of its own 50th anniversary, recording a special video about how they met.
Chris Hardy, managing director for National Express UK Coach, said: “We’ve have been a part of people’s lives for half a century and it’s been great hearing stories from our customers and staff, past and present – from couples who met on the coach and are now married, recollections from our long-serving drivers and coach station staff, to tales from our former jolly hostesses.”
As the UK’s leading coach company, National Express has clocked up 3.8 billion miles over its half century of operation The Greaves and National Express are in good company this year, as the coach operator’s hub, Victoria Coach Station, also celebrates 90 years in businessw.
The Art Deco building in central London was opened in 1932 and gained a Grade II listing in 2014, due to architectural interest and the historical interest of its place in the inter-war growth of recreational coach travel, a significant chapter in British social and transport history.
