In message , at 09:57:30 on
Fri, 27 Sep 2019, Trolleybus remarked:
There are some 24-hour buses to Heathrow, such as the 140.

Sure, but can all the staff cram onto that one route?

I wonder if there are staff buses that operate overnight?

And do either go where the staff actually live..?

When I was a bus driver in the Birmingham area in the late 90's/early
00's, we had a few staff buses which picked up drivers on the stupid-
o'clock starts, but they only went a limited distance from the garage
(5 miles or so I think) and I lived 7 miles away. So it was drive or
not work. The company had the attitude that it was your
responsibility to get to work and if you couldn't for whatever
reason, tough, find another job...

It's a bit more difficult to have that attitude at a place like
Heathrow. I think their solution is to provide ample staff car
parking, it's not as if they don't have the room.

but they do have a mandate to lessen car arrivals at the airport

I doubt that staff travel is exempted from that requirement

Which is precisely why Heathrow Connect exists[1]. It's not a back-door
into Heathrow for skinflint passengers, it's for staff.

Staff are also latgely the reason that bus travel is free in and
around Heathrow (and subsidised to/from Stansted and I suspect other
airports).

The shuttle bus from the railway station to Luton Airport is free for
holders of staff passes. (It used to be free for everyone, but that's
another long story).

I've caught service buses from Bath Road to T5 and been charged a zero
fare.

Indeed, but more of an issue in the circumstances was when the first bus
of the day ran.
--
Roland Perry