"Martin Underwood" wrote in message
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"Richard Rundle" wrote in message
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"Mike Hughes" wrote in message
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I'm a London licensed taxi driver so I can speak with some authority
about the Heathrow system.

Taxis plying for hire at Heathrow have to first queue in a taxi feeder
park which can take as much as 3 hours before they get to the actual
terminal. The drivers are all 'green badge' drivers which means that
their knowledge is of the central London area, where the majority of
taxi passengers wish to go.

If taxis are waiting up to 3 hours between returning to Heathrow and
reaching a rank where they can pick up a passenger, doen't this suggest
that there are too many taxis? The ideal number would be such that there
is no queue in a feeder park and as a taxi leaves the head of a queue at
one terminal, another is just being marshalled to the end of that queue.
Obviously you need *some* slack in the system, but three hours seems to be
excessive.

But this is at the drivers' choice. As has been noted, the possibility
of a plum pickup must make this wait worthwhile or they wouldn't
do it.

tim