Richard J. wrote:
Roger R wrote:

"Richard J." wrote in message
o.uk...


Heathrow Connect are still only running to Hayes tonight. In fact
I've just e-mailed them about the total lack of any explanation,
forecast or apology on their site. All they say is that "Heathrow
Connect is currently only operating between London and Hayes &
Harlington", despite claiming that "it's the best way to travel
locally to and from Heathrow Airport".

Make a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority on the
grounds that what the advert says is not true. Is there any
qualifier in the advert about the service being occational or the
usual one about not operating any of the advertised services at all.


There is no such qualifier on their website www.heathrowconnect.co.uk,
just the blatant contradiction between their marketing blurb and the
actual service info.

I travelled to Hayes on one of their new Class 360s this morning.
Although it was indicated as going to Hayes on station displays, the
on-board announcements claimed it was going to Heathrow. Apparently
there is no provision in the p.a. system for terminating anywhere but
Heathrow. Amazingly there were no live announcements on the train about
stopping short at Hayes, not even when we pulled into the bay platform
there!

According to the driver, the problem at Heathrow is that once they enter
the stabling siding that they use at Terminal 4, the signal won't let
them out again. So they are stuck with terminating at Hayes until BAA
sort out the signal at Terminal 4, using their contractor Network Rail.
They couldn't even manage the Hayes-Paddington service properly this
afternoon, as the 16:41 was cancelled.

Incidentally, as far as I could see (from another train), the connection
from the Down Relief west of Hayes to the Heathrow branch is only to the
Up Airport track, so presumably the Heathrow-bound Connect services use
this track and switch to the Down Airport after the junction. By doing
this, the Connect trains won't interfere with FGW's Up and Down Main.

So far Heathrow Connect seems a bit rubbish. Didn't they do some trial
runs into T4 before they started running the service officially?

--
Dave Arquati
Imperial College, SW7
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London