London Banter - View Single Post - Stansted Express Train

Londoncityslicker · February 26th 04, 08:40 AM posted to uk.transport.london

(Mike Delorme) wrote in message . com...
Ken Wheatley wrote in message . ..

And what if the M11 is blocked because of a crash? Would you then
recommend that people never use that way of getting to the airport
ever again?

But to suggest that using road services is a more reliable way of
getting to Stansted is dubious advice.

Uh Ken,

This journey started out from London Liverpool Street station at
5:30AM How likely do you think the M11 is to be blocked by a crash or
jammed at this time of the morning?

It's pretty likely to be a reliable choice at such an early hour.

I'm a frequent airline traveller and use all of BAA Airport Express
services.
Over the past few years I have encountered major delays on all these
services.
The so called Heathrow Express took 35 minutes instead of 15 once so
had me rushing for the flight. Gatwick Express took 1.5 hours once and
i would have missed the flight had the plane not been delayed and the
commuter trains actually beat the Gatwick Express into Gatwick. I
managed to get a refund of the train ticket but thats little
consolation.

Clearly you can't account for train break downs or people on lines and
all that sort of thing. But a bit of information is useful. Sometimes
Customer Services Agents just announce that there is a delay without
giving any information of what it is and any expected time to sort it
out.

On an airport service everyone has somewhere to go and there is
usually a deadline well within an hour or so. So a half hour delay
makes a huge difference to rushing for checkin/flights and maybe
missing planes.

ANDY