CJB wrote:
Another nightmare weekend courtesy of the BAA - g*d help us when the
Spanish takeover.

This last weekend the T4L London to Heathrow Pic. line was out of
action yet again for repairs / rebuilding / planned engineering works /
whatever - but this time HEX / Connect were NOT accepting Z1-6
Travelcards into/out of Heathrow. The two alternatives were T4L bus
rail replacement services to/from North Acton (??), or a ripoff £15 /
£9 for a single ticket on the BAA's toy electric trains. Heathrow
Airport staff were equally inconvenienced by this alternative
arrangement.


The Heathrow line was NOT affected by engineering works. The Picc and
District were both suspended EAST of Acton Town, but you could still
have got to Heathrow by Picc. I admit it was a farce having to find a
way to get to Acton from the east in the first place, but to their
credit, TfL had buses running every few mins from North Acton (to
connect with the Central line) and had loads of porters at Acton
helping with luggage.



Secondly the Network Rail / Railtrack signalmen at Reading were really
playing trains - as they usually do at weekends - by swopping the
tracks of FGW Intercity and HEX / Connect services.

Just as a point of order, that area is actually controlled by Slough,
not Reading! (I know I'm nit-picking!!)