"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 01:21:11 on
Thu, 21 Nov 2013, Paul Corfield remarked:
Which would be quicker from King's Cross, Crossrail or tube + HEx?

Around 30 mins with HEx+Tube, 40 mins with Crossrail+Tube and 55 mins via
Piccadilly line. However, the latter is more frequent and involves no
changes, so typical journey times may be more favourable than those
numbers
suggest.

I would still expect the Picc Line to do well post Crossrail for
journeys to Heathrow. Your points about frequency and a direct train
to all of the terminals is a definite advantage although the longer
journey time and potential for standing for part of the trip are
downsides.

If you're laden with luggage or encumbered with family then changing
trains is not something you'll be keen on. Going from KX to Heathrow
using Crossrail involves getting to Farringdon (going backwards!) then
having to get to the new ticket hall from the e/b platform (not easy)
then down escalators and then down again to reach Crossrail (if I'm
remembering the layout properly). You then get on a train which may
take you to your terminal at Heathrow or you may need to change at
Heathrow to reach T4 or T5 (can't remember which station CR1 runs to).
There may be more luggage space on a CR train and certainly more seats
and it'll be quick. However passengers hate changing and going via
Farringdon is not necessarily intuitive.

If you were to apply passenger preference weights to each journey I
suspect the Picc Line would win out over Crossrail as people weight
frequency highly and really dislike changing trains and complicated,
lengthy interchanges.

Please note I am talking about normal people not mega buck salary
business people.

And when coming into London, it may not be so obvious to even mini-buck
business people and tourists, that taking the tube is better. They won't
know how passenger friendly it is (and having experienced perhaps the
Paris Metro may assume that tube+luggage is no-go).

And impression that will not be improved as they try to "walk" their luggage
through the (what I can only assume is a) terrorist barrier at T123
underground entrance