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.

Pretty poor for a new, high-profile service. One hopes that the
equipment, layout and timetabling is robust enough for these to just be
teething problems. However it may be that infrastructure works are
needed sooner rather than later if this new service is not to heavily
impact on both Great Western and Heathrow Express operations.