[posted to both utl and uk.railway]

This is effective as of Sunday 12 September - at present the Sunday
service is half-hourly. The Monday-Saturday service will remain half-
hourly.

https://www.heathrowconnect.com/content.asp?pageid=73

Seems a rather retrograde move.

Looking at FGW timetable booklet number 8, it appears this is nothing
new and part of the plan all along:
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=4934

This will also lead to a reduction in local services between Hayes &
Harlington, Southall, Ealing Broadway and Paddington from 4tph to 3tph
(Hanwell and West Ealing aren't served at all on Sundays) - i.e. down
to one HC and two FGW Reading locals per hour.

That said, these services were/are a bit bunched together rather than
spread out over the hour, so perhaps it sounds a bit worse than it is
in terms of local journeys - but the reduction down to one train per
hour to Heathrow won't do much to encourage local people on the line
to use the rail option to get to the airport, and it's hardly good
news for airport workers who currently rely on the service.

On Sep 3, 11:50*am, Mizter T wrote:
[posted to both utl and uk.railway]

This is effective as of Sunday 12 September - at present the Sunday
service is half-hourly. The Monday-Saturday service will remain half-
hourly.

https://www.heathrowconnect.com/content.asp?pageid=73

Seems a rather retrograde move.

Exactly - I mean Heathrow needs *less* public transport access doesn't
it? And Sundays are not a peak day for air travel are they?

You have to wonder at the logic behind this change.

--
Paul C
via Google

"Paul Corfield" wrote in message
...
On Sep 3, 11:50 am, Mizter T wrote:
[posted to both utl and uk.railway]

This is effective as of Sunday 12 September - at present the Sunday
service is half-hourly. The Monday-Saturday service will remain half-
hourly.

https://www.heathrowconnect.com/content.asp?pageid=73

Seems a rather retrograde move.

Exactly - I mean Heathrow needs *less* public transport access doesn't
it? And Sundays are not a peak day for air travel are they?

You have to wonder at the logic behind this change.

Isn't it to reduce the service during Crossrail enabling engineering works
on the main lines?
I doubt that it is permanent...

Paul S

On 3 Sep, 13:21, "Paul Scott" wrote:
Isn't it to reduce the service during Crossrail enabling engineering works
on the main lines?

Or is it so that when Crossrail is complete, "they" can restore the
service level and call it a massive improvement?

:-)

PhilD

--

In message
, at
05:00:52 on Fri, 3 Sep 2010, Paul Corfield remarked:
This is effective as of Sunday 12 September - at present the Sunday
service is half-hourly. The Monday-Saturday service will remain half-
hourly.

https://www.heathrowconnect.com/content.asp?pageid=73

Seems a rather retrograde move.

Exactly - I mean Heathrow needs *less* public transport access doesn't
it? And Sundays are not a peak day for air travel are they?

Trying to peel away the potential layers of irony/sarcasm... Heathrow
Connect is mainly for airport employees I thought - and you need the
same number of those every day of the week.

You have to wonder at the logic behind this change.

Attempting to economise, and hoping no-one notices the contradiction?
--
Roland Perry

Mizter T wrote:
[posted to both utl and uk.railway]
This is effective as of Sunday 12 September - at present the Sunday
service is half-hourly. The Monday-Saturday service will remain half-
hourly.

https://www.heathrowconnect.com/content.asp?pageid=73

Seems a rather retrograde move.

Looking at FGW timetable booklet number 8, it appears this is nothing
new and part of the plan all along:
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=4934

This will also lead to a reduction in local services between Hayes &
Harlington, Southall, Ealing Broadway and Paddington from 4tph to 3tph
(Hanwell and West Ealing aren't served at all on Sundays) - i.e. down
to one HC and two FGW Reading locals per hour.

That said, these services were/are a bit bunched together rather than
spread out over the hour, so perhaps it sounds a bit worse than it is
in terms of local journeys - but the reduction down to one train per
hour to Heathrow won't do much to encourage local people on the line
to use the rail option to get to the airport, and it's hardly good
news for airport workers who currently rely on the service.


Presumably Heathrow Connect helped to get BAA planning permission for
some new works or other at Heathrow, and can now be scaled back.

In a similar way, the Pods running between the Terminal 5 and the
Business car park probably helped get BAA planning permission for
something else works at Heathrow. They are no longer needed, so are
just left to gather dust.

At some future point, when no-one is looking, or cares, the guideway
will be dismantled and the pods given to any museums that will take
them.

Any recent progress with Airtrack? I thought not. No doubt the plans
will be dusted off for BAA's next planning application, never
implemented, then abandoned after a suitable period has elapsed.

In message , at 13:48:03 on
Fri, 3 Sep 2010, Bruce remarked:
In a similar way, the Pods running between the Terminal 5 and the
Business car park probably helped get BAA planning permission for
something else works at Heathrow. They are no longer needed, so are
just left to gather dust.

The pods are supposed to be a "proof of concept" ahead of implementing
pods through the old taxi tunnels to T123 (which will help keep cars out
of the central area). I haven't been to Heathrow recently - are the T5
pods running at all, or is it still in the "proving trials" phase?
--
Roland Perry

On 3 Sep, 13:00, Paul Corfield wrote:
On Sep 3, 11:50*am, Mizter T wrote:

[posted to both utl and uk.railway]

This is effective as of Sunday 12 September - at present the Sunday
service is half-hourly. The Monday-Saturday service will remain half-
hourly.

https://www.heathrowconnect.com/content.asp?pageid=73

Seems a rather retrograde move.

Exactly - I mean Heathrow needs *less* public transport access doesn't
it? *And Sundays are not a peak day for air travel are they?

You have to wonder at the logic behind this change.


Likely to just be engineering alterations, the times (past the hour)
have also changed, there is also a reduction in some of the calls
(Southall loses one of its two stops per hour) of the Reading trains
after 12th September and retiming of some of the fast services. It
will be interesting to see if the Connect trains resume in the
December timetable.

"Andy" wrote in message
...

Likely to just be engineering alterations, the times (past the hour)
have also changed, there is also a reduction in some of the calls
(Southall loses one of its two stops per hour) of the Reading trains
after 12th September and retiming of some of the fast services. It
will be interesting to see if the Connect trains resume in the
December timetable.

I've just read elsewhere that whatever the works are for, Slough to
Paddington is down to 2 tracks on Sundays for the duration...

Paul S

On 3 Sep, 14:01, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 13:48:03 on
Fri, 3 Sep 2010, Bruce remarked:

In a similar way, the Pods running between the Terminal 5 and the
Business car park probably helped get BAA planning permission for
something else works at Heathrow. *They are no longer needed, so are
just left to gather dust.

The pods are supposed to be a "proof of concept" ahead of implementing
pods through the old taxi tunnels to T123 (which will help keep cars out
of the central area). I haven't been to Heathrow recently - are the T5
pods running at all, or is it still in the "proving trials" phase?

They haven't started running a public service yet, no. All seems to
have gone a bit quiet - there used to be a section on the BAA Heathrow
website about the PRT system, but I can't find that now.