'Luton Airport Express' Rail Service

[CAP670]

Can anyone shed light on this 'new' service that's now shown on the London Luton Airport website (quotes rail services from London to the Airport by Thameslink, 'Luton Airport Express' and Midland Mainline).

Maybe a new rail service connecting Parkway with St Pancras?

The current Midland Mainline service does the run each way in 23 minutes non-stop which is only bettered by the Heathrow Express to the Heathrow Central Area Station.

Just unfortunate that the shuttle bus connection gets stuck in the traffic at peak times because of the lousy road infrastructure! But it's still an overall quicker journey than the Stansted Airport Express...

:hmm:

[Buster the Bear]

Is that not the name of the high speed rapid transit people mover service linking Luton Parkway to the Tinminal (Otherwise known as the NCP bus)?:{

http://whipsnade.co.uk/picturelibrary/jpeg150/br/brown_bear_120_wide.jpg

[Powerjet1]

Yes it is. Launched last November by the airport to provide 'seemless travel' to London by the express shuttle bus & then the train. So they would have you believe!!!!

[LTNman]

The Luton Airport Express was launched around a year ago but it is just a name the airport uses for the standard Thameslink service.

The airport authority could do with putting in a bendy bus service between the airport and the station to increase capacity or better still putting in a driverless monorail so passengers feel like they are at the airport when they arrive at Parkway.

TBI were recently looking for grants for a feasibility study into a monorail link, which is somewhat strange as a feasibility study was carried out a few years back. In fact the road tunnel under taxiway Alpha was built double width to allow for a monorail through it.

Parkway was meant to have check-in desks on the first floor but they never materialized. The front of the building marks the edge of the runway safety zone, which is why it is an odd shape with several short escalators to get to platform level. The multi story car park falls within the safety zone but the argument went that the car park would not be packed with people so it was allowed.

The journey to the station is much faster now in rush hour since the council modified the approach to the Gipsy Lane roundabout by adding a second lane on and off it. Congestion from the airport has now disappeared although it is no better in the other direction.

[CAP670]

Thanks for the info, guys. Thought that there was now a dedicated train service cf. Gatwick (soon to end), Heathrow and Stansted.

Powerjet 1: Your definition of a 'seamless' link into London - does it include the transit system from LGW's North Terminal, followed by the walk or escalator ride and descent into the Airport Railway Station....???

:p

[Buster the Bear]

Mr CAP670, are you a bus spotter?:ok:

Oh yes, the check in at Parkway, the next time you saw your luggage was at your destination! This was 'value engineered' out of the project (Too expensive) a bit like the glass for the Tinimnal!

http://whipsnade.co.uk/picturelibrary/jpeg150/br/brown_bear_120_wide.jpg

[LTNman]

With most new terminals being light and airy one does have to wonder if Foster and Co were having a bad day when designing Luton’s new terminal. The gloom of the check-in area isn’t helped by the large number of 40w bulbs what always seems to be broken in the ceiling. The window that was put in by check-in desk 60 has allowed a shaft of light to enter the murk but complaints by the check-in staff that they were being roasted has meant that a heavy tint was put on the glass which has somewhat defeated why the window was put in.

[brabazon]

LTNman

Did Sir Norman Foster really design the Tinminal? I know Stelios complained that it was a "Taj Mahal" style project when it was proposed, but I'm surprised that Foster would come up with something so bland - or did LTN just adapt his plans?

[Buster the Bear]

From memory, Foster removed his name from the design once most of the glass was removed from the plans due to costs.

http://whipsnade.co.uk/picturelibrary/jpeg150/br/brown_bear_120_wide.jpg

[outofsynch]

I dont know how long it is since you travelled on the STN express.

All my recent journeys have been 35min or so, so pretty hard to beat with a 23min train ride, transit, and slow bus!

[LTNman]

This was the original 1997 design but shown without the link building which starts from halfway along the terminal so you can forget about the windows in the back half of the building. http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/888596 Just click on the thumbnail. Note the flat roof!

The airport authority also claim that the existing new terminal was also designed by Forster and Partners.

[nickmanl]

Jeez, I've never seen those orginal designs. So did the airport reject that and replace it with what is basically a corrugated iron shed? Luton airport must be the most ungainly looking design in the world, with the old terminal looking out of place next to that steel monster!

[jabird]

CAP670,

dedicated train service cf. Gatwick (soon to end), Heathrow and Stansted

Could you explain that one a little more. Surely the Gatwick Express would not invest all that money in shiny new trains (which would not operate on any other airport shuttle route due to 3rd rail electrics), only to cancel the service?

LTN Man:

No mention of Luton on Foster's site - just STN, HKG & PEK

From the Google cache of the LTN site (page doesn't display):

"The main feature of this development phase was a £40 million terminal, based on an original design by Foster and Partners"

[LTNman]

"So did the airport reject that and replace it with what is basically a corrugated iron shed"

No idea but I didn’t think much of the original design either. The thumbnail comes from an autumn 1997 edition of a free airport newspaper but by autumn 1998 the newspaper was showing the design is as we know it today.

The problem for Foster’s was that the building had to be on two floors (well actually it is on four floors as there are two floors below the check-in desks for services) due to limited space so there was no natural light from above as at Stansted. Saying that there is no natural light from above on the top floor either.

Luton Council that were running the airport at the time before Barclay’s took control, which later become TBI, approved the design.

Another building that changed was the station. It looks nothing like the original plans. In fact the landside terminal was meant to be built over the railway with everything at the top of the hill being airside. A second and third thumbnail has now been added to the original link to show the station.

As for Gatwick the SRA want to shut down the Gatwick Express as not enough people use it. Read my thread here. http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=144294

[jabird]

LTNman,

Yes, I've read the news items on the Gatwick express - should check more before posting back. They are talking about re-allocating the trains so they run through to Brighton & include a stop at East Croydon. Some pax won't like it, but if it makes better use of congested track, it sounds like a good idea to me.

[nickmanl]

LTN man, is there no way of zooming in on those pictures to get a closer look?

[LTNman]

Nickmanl

I have sent you an email via PPRUNE. If you send me a reply I will email you a copy of all three scans.

I see some artist impressions have appeared around the terminal for the new development. A glass walled walkway will extend from above the end revolving entrance door closest to the link building and cross the terminal entering the new lounge around the halfway mark to the left of the Ibis Hotel advert. This must mean that the link building will be extended out towards the taxi rank.

[Eric T Cartman]

@ outofsynch
Slightly off thread, but can recommend the National Express bus, Stansted to Stratford. Takes slightly longer than the train but for £6 single as opposed to the Stansted Express @ about 3 times the cost it's great value. At Stratford you have a choice of the Central, Jubilee or Docklands trains into central London :-)

[Navy_Adversary]

For the next 35 weeks Thameslink is closed at Kings Cross for the re-constuction work on the Eurostar Terminal at KX/St Pan.

Southbound Thameslink trains terminate at St Pancras, northbound ones at Kings Cross Thameslink, if you are going between the two, allow 15 mins.

When the work is completed Thameslink will have a new station directly under St Pancras station.

FWIW I caught the bus to and from LAP last week with no problems either way, however I could see that a Bendybus would be more appropriate given the increased pax numbers at LTN.

[LTNman]

When the work is completed Thameslink will have a new station directly under St Pancras station.

Not quite. Only an empty shell will be built during the blockade. When the link is reopened trains will still stop at Kings Cross Thameslink and not St Pancras. I read somewhere that funding still hasn’t been approved for the fitting out of the station.

Once Eurostar moves to St Pancras Paris will only be around 2.5 hours away which I guess will kill off the easyjet service from Luton to Paris.

[jabird]

LTN man,

I can see the appeal going from central London, but from Northern London, MK, Bedford and even up as far as Northampton, Coventry etc, EZ will still have a market to CDG, unless one of the locos picks up the route from the Midlands

[Tudor]

A bendybus is certainly needed. I was on this bus at 11pm last night and the sheer amount of luggage and number of people on board was at best ridiculous, at worst downright dangerous.

Not that I'm complaining mind, if you're flying in and out of LTN in the same day it's financially prudent to park at Parkway for four quid a day. I don't know what it costs in short-stay but I'd imagine it's quite a bit more.

[WHBM]

Only an empty shell will be built during the blockade. When the link is reopened trains will still stop at Kings Cross Thameslink and not St Pancras. I read somewhere that funding still hasn’t been approved for the fitting out of the station.I believe money was provided but has been lost on overspends on the rest of the Kings Cross project. To finish the Thameslink station now will require additional funds.

So railway closed for 6 months now to spend lots of money to half-build something that at the end of the 6 months will be unusable for the foreseeable future.

Only on Britain's privatised railways !

[LTNman]

Not that I'm complaining mind, if you're flying in and out of LTN in the same day it's financially prudent to park at Parkway for four quid a day. I don't know what it costs in short-stay but I'd imagine it's quite a bit more.

Also the Parkway station car park meets the latest police security standards while the airports car parks don’t.

Short term airport parking

up to 30 mins £ 1.60
30 mins to 1 hour £ 2.70
1 to 2 hours £ 5.40
2 to 3 hours £ 8.10
3 to 4 hours £10.80
4 to 5 hours £13.50
5 to 6 hours £16.50
6 to 24 hours £17.50

Mid Term Parking Daily Turn up rate is £12.00

Pre-book (per 24 hours) rates start from £9.00

Cup of tea in the terminal to get over the shock £1.35