OK, I made it to the airport in one piece, but with some difficulties
that might or might not have been related to the line closure to Heathrow.

Everything was fine until Hounslow East, where we proceeded to sit in
the station for 20-25 minutes due to a signal failure at Hatton Cross.
Then the driver announced that the train would be returning to the West
End. (I will say, I very much enjoyed the driver's informal
announcements. Informal announcements are strictly forbidden here in
New York!)

The shuttle bus was quite crowded, and the style of bus (2x2 seating
with wide, cushioned seats) was ill-suited for the job, although I don't
know if anything else was available. It took a long time to load the
bus, and then the ride itself took about 15 minutes. I wonder, did the
bus dispatcher continue to send out buses on their original schedule
even when no trains were arriving to fill them? There was only one bus
on the stand.

So I probably should have gotten off at Hounslow East for the 111, but I
didn't know that at the time. Eventually, announcements at Hounslow
Central advised passengers for Heathrow to backtrack to Hounslow East,
but by then trains were moving, so I stayed put.

Once at the airport (about an hour later than I would have gotten there
if everything had been running normally), I found that, much to my
surprise, there was no check-in line (excuse me, queue) for my airline.
So, after checking my bag, I had time to wander off and photograph
some buses. I also filled out a Customer Charter form (another concept
I'm not used to from New York) -- do I have a valid claim, and does the
voucher expire? (I'm sure I'll be back in London at some point, but I
have no idea when.)

If anybody would like to see these photos, they're at
http://greenberger.no-ip.com/gallery...2_itemId=38659

You can also follow the links to photos -- many transport-related --
from the rest of my three weeks in London, as well as lots more photos
(pretty much all transport-related) from my trip last year to Europe.
(The London portion of last year's trip isn't ready yet for public
consumption.)
--
David of Broadway
New York, NY, USA