New Rail Services to LHR

[Tiger]

On 12th June a new service from London Paddington to Heathrow commences which will stop at Ealing Broadway, West Ealing, Hanwell, Southall, and Hayes Harlington. The services are run by Great Western Link and will run every half hour. See First Great Western web site for full details. The service will be cheaper that the Heathrow Express which will continue to run as it does. Season tickets will be available to staff.

The new service will be known as Heathrow Connect.

[airhumberside]

The services are run by Great Western Link
In association with Heathrow Express/BAA.

These services already run as far as Hayes and Harlington

[apaddyinuk]

Well its about bloody time. This is brilliant news and definately much needed!!!

[Re-Heat]

I wondered what those new trains were for that I saw yesterday passing the depot. Are they intending running any West eventually or does that not happen until Crossrail starts up?

[Hotel Mode]

At 12 quid single from Hayes to Heathrow (3 miles) i'll stick with the bus.

[Skylion]

Twelve quid from Paddington I think, but Heathrow wont be shown as a destination there so as to reduce any spillage from Heathrow Express. Six quid from Hayes, but still not attractive.
Sadly although 2 additional platforms are being built at T 5 for possible future developments a) Extensions arent in current plans b) A link onwards to Feltham and Waterloo is likely to happen before any link back to the Western Main Line heading west.
Also in the forthcoming Crossrail Bill there appears to be a clause allowing Hetahrow Express to be compulsorily purchased from the BAA and merged into Crossrail,- which could mean the end of the express Paddington- Heathrow service. Crossrail itself is already " thrifted" by the bean counters. Ideally it , and the electrified track which it requires ,would extend to Reading to feed into the major rail interchange there ( itself also already downgraded from the ideal plans into a lower cost/lower capacity version). Instead it will terminate at Maidenhead, a gateway to nowhere, so not replace the present coach link.
Heathrow and Reading could be a first rate combination, but it would be un-British to go for the ideal solution when we can just about get by with a lesser one. We are masters at sub- optimisation, the ultimate ambition of accountants, and will be stuck with it for years to come.

[Jordan D]

Skylion - Crossrail ... great idea, cr*p people behind it. If only people had used their brains on the design .... oh don't get me started :mad: ....!

Jordan

[Young Paul]

... and there's still no way of getting to LHR by train from outside London. Integrated public transport ... not!

[Jordan D]

Well originally the plan was for direct Heathrow-Europe train services, and (as mentioned above) for T5 to be connected to the west by train .... I say originally, because we all know what the f***ing British government are like.

Jordan