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Old November 11th 19, 09:49 AM posted to uk.transport.london
Recliner[_4_] Recliner[_4_] is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Jul 2019
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Default Heathrow Express slashes fares (so it says!)

Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 09:15:34 on Sun, 10 Nov
2019, Recliner remarked:
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 08:35:36 on Fri, 8 Nov 2019,
Recliner remarked:

Ealing Broadway (in general not just the station) is rather inhospitable
as a railhead. I don't think I'd recommend it for a novice overseas
visitor.

Why? Lift up to the station, a few steps through the barrier, taxi rank
right outside. Far better than the long hike at Paddington from platfrm 6/7
to the taxi rank above and beyond the H&C line platform 16.

For someone who spends so much time in first class lounges, you have a
high expectation that others will want to "slum it" in an unfamiliar
(and rather run-down) London suburb.


Paddington is a much worse area than Ealing, which has some very nice,
leafy parts just near the station.


Padding station has many excellent facilities, and you don't need to
tangle with the streets outside.

It's obvious that you're condemning it while knowing nothing about the
station or the area.


Strangely, I spent a week on holiday in Ealing Broadway, selected
because of the rail service to London. I was hoping for leafy-suburb but
got much more of an inner-city experience.

And why do you assume that Ealing is more unfamiliar than Paddington?


The people I'm talking about are foreigners, just off a plane. Why would
they be familiar with Ealing Broadway? What they will be slightly more
familiar with is the concept of capital city mainline stations, and what
they might expect to find there, compared to a commuter station in the
suburbs.

Someone using it as a railhead would be doing so deliberately, because it
was conveniently located.


I don't happen to think it's convenient for very much, other than people
whose destination is Ealing Broadway.


You seem to think that the HEx target market consists solely of rich,
ignorant, timorous foreigners, travelling to London for the first time, who
have done precisely zero research into how to get to the address in London
they're aiming for. You also think that very particular market will be
large enough to survive after Crossrail.

I don't think many agree with you. I certainly don't.