On 15/11/2013 18:31, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 18:05:56 on Fri, 15 Nov
2013, d remarked:
when Crossrail is up and running the
Heathrow Express business model will be a dead duck
Only if Crossrail goes non-stop to Heathrow from Paddington, and accepts
Travelcards/Oyster.
Otherwise it's just as lame as Heathrow Connect today for international
travellers.
Regarding your non-stop point - not at all. Even if Crossrail stops at
all six stations between Paddington and Heathrow it'll still be easier
to just stay on board (coming from points east) compared to changing at
Padd for a fast HEx train.
Re fares - that's yet to be revealed (or indeed finalised), and
hopefully journeys to Heathrow will be treated the same as if it was any
other zone 6 station. But I dare say that even if a small premium was
payable, that wouldn't be a significant deterrence to a fair number of
travellers as it could be easily be collected by Oyster / smartcard /
contactless payment card. (Wouldn't be seamless for those on paper
Travelcards though.)