James Farrar wrote:
On Tue, 30 May 2006 11:24:14 +0100, Clive R Robertson
wrote:

The Piccadilly and District lines are closed between Acton Town and
Hyde Park Corner / Earl's Court for the next two weekends.

A major difference between these and the previous closures is that
Heathrow Express and Heathrow Connect will NOT be accepting London
Underground tickets. A bus will be run between North Acton (on the
Central line) and Acton Town for Heathrow passengers. Does anybody
know why Hex are refusing to accept LU tickets this time?

I could be wrong, but weren't HEX accepting Travelcards when the
Northfields-Heathrow section was shut, not when Acton Town to Earl's
Court was shut?

No, t'other way round.

I asked LU why Travelcards weren't valid on HEx and HC for these two
weekends in June. The answer, according to them, is that because of
Network Rail engineering work, there are only two tracks available into
Paddington on these weekends, which means that HEx services with be
"unreliable" (LU's word) and subject to extended intervals. HEx weren't
prepared to take the risk of a service suspension while they had lots of
additional LU passengers on their trains. There would be "huge cost" in
rescheduling either the LU or NR engineering work. Hence the bus
service between Acton Town and North Acton was seen as the next best
option.

Curiously there is nothing on the National Rail site about this
engineering work, but I know from having booked tickets for the second
weekend that there are extended journey times between Reading and
Paddington, so something is evidently happening.

LU said that these are the only such closures planned for this year,
which is odd, as there's still masses of relaying work to do between
Barons Court and Acton Town, and temporary speed limits because of the
state of the old track.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)