SB wrote:
Late last week and all this weekend 18/19-June-2005) the brand new
multimillion pound Heathrow Connect service has - well - not actually
connected with Heathrow. Due to the pathing problems (sorry signaling
problems) at Airport Junction the service has had great difficulty in
keeping to any sort of timetable. Indeed the delays have built up every
day until the last trains to/from Paddington/Heathrow have been
anything up to 45 minutes late. The problem is that coming out of or
going into the Airport the trains have to be switched from the slow
local lines across the fast Intercity lines. This has meant that all
trains have had to be halted to allow the Connect trains to enter/exit
the Airport Branch. The solution has been to terminate the Connect
trains at Hayes & Harlington and tell the pax to catch the 140 bus to
Heathrow. Well at least the bus is only 1.20 rather than 6 pounds for
this short one mile journey!! SB.

I thought the intention was to run the Heathrow bound trains the "wrong
way" through Airport Junction, ie. up the track between the main and
relief lines?

I have seen platform 5 used at Hayes rather a lot this week.

Also, does anyone know what FGWL is doing with the spare 165`s they`d
have freed up? Some of the rush hour trains could do with a bit of
lengthening...

Stu