In message , at 09:33:28 on Tue, 16 Nov
2004, Paul Terry remarked:
Customers will inevitably re-evaluate Heathrow, which is usually
cheaper and in the future may prove quicker.

Maybe customers in SWT-land.

Those are the ones we are discussing, yes.

I used to live in SWT-land (near Surbiton). I was *extremely* surprised
to find that there's no SWT train running in the early morning that
would have connected me with the first E* from Waterloo - necessary if
you want to make a morning meeting on the Continent. Presumably that
first train is entirely for people within a taxi ride of Waterloo
(including those forced to overnight in a hotel).

But what about customers on the Central
Line? Or customers living in Beckton? Or folks on the District?

They are likely to have to suffer the appalling interchange planned for
Stratford. The last I heard, Union Railways are even resisting putting
in a travelator (it is rumoured they want to force people to walk past
a quarter of mile of shops to get to the International station).

Ah, just like all the airports, then?

To a large extent it will depend on whether those needing to go to
Brussels and Paris for business meetings, or choosing to go there on
leisure breaks, live mainly in SW London or in Beckton etc. I suspect
it is mostly the former, and Eurostar are therefore going to be forced
to start building a new customer base from scratch instead of building
on their existing market.

You need to factor in several other variables. For example, as a result
of the impossibility of catching the first E* in the morning from
anywhere outside central London, the business traveller with a morning
meeting has to be funded well enough to either overnight in London, or
Paris/Brussels.

--
Roland Perry