I find the choice of this weekend to block the route from Heathrow to
central London particularly inconsiderate to passengers. I'm sure this is
one of the busier weekends at Heathrow with people on Christmas and New Year
breaks returning. There were a lot of people with luggage everywhere.

I flew off on a holiday on 27th December with no mention of the works and
got back this evening recommended to change at Acton Town and Ealing
Broadway to reach King's Cross via the Central Line and Oxford Circus. TfL's
Journey Planner suggested a journey time of 1 hour 20 minutes, not too bad.

With no indication at Heathrow T123 we discovered the train we found and
took terminated at Northfields. That is just taking the **** when the
service was terminating at Acton Town anyway. It's not as if the frequency
was high. The next train at Northfields was a 10 minute wait. Then the PA at
Acton Town was directing people to replacement buses when the signboards
were telling them to go over the bridge to get a District service from
platform 2 to Ealing Broadway (as had the Journey Planner). The west end of
platform 1 had stop blocks so was out of use. All that luggage would have
been interesting on replacement buses!

Does the signalling at Acton Town really not allow a District Ealing
Broadway shuttle to and from platform 4? That would have allowed a
cross-platform connection from Heathrow to Ealing Broadway, where there is a
level connection to the Central Line. There was a huge queue for the Acton
Town lift from people with luggage and little staff presence to help people
with the disruption (none at all at Northfields).

In the end our journey to Kings Cross St Pancras took and hour and forty
minutes with four changes. Not good, especially with three large cases plus
smaller bags, a wife with a broken arm and six-year-old granddaughter.

Why oh why don't they let airport passengers use Heathrow Express or Connect
as an alternative when there are blockages like this and why can't they
avoid the busiest holiday weekends?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

My condolences. Now you know why many people with luggage prefer to
travel to and from Heathrow by car: their own or a cab.

wrote in message
...

Why oh why don't they let airport passengers use Heathrow Express or
Connect
as an alternative
They do, don't they? = or are you saying Heathrow Express wasn't running
either?

You had a number of options at various prices for the journey. You took a
choice for the price you were prepared to pay, and that's the service you
got.

--
DAS

In article , (D A Stocks)
wrote:

wrote in message
...

Why oh why don't they let airport passengers use Heathrow Express or
Connect as an alternative
They do, don't they? = or are you saying Heathrow Express wasn't
running either?

They stopped allowing tube passengers from using HEx as an alternative ages
ago. They also seem to have an awful lot of engineering possessions closing
all four tracks between Hammersmith and Acton Town.

You had a number of options at various prices for the journey. You
took a choice for the price you were prepared to pay, and that's the
service you got.

The best option by far for me with luggage is normally the Piccadilly Line.
King's Cross to Heathrow direct on one train with no unavoidable stairs to
platforms at either station. It's how we got there on December 27th.

Heathrow Express goes to a useless destination made more so by the
curtailment of the Circle service. More lengthy stairs without lifts at
Paddington or Edgware Road. Though lifts like those at Acton Town with so
many passengers with luggage around are also pretty hopeless.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

wrote in message
...

Heathrow Express goes to a useless destination made more so by the
curtailment of the Circle service. More lengthy stairs without lifts at
Paddington or Edgware Road. Though lifts like those at Acton Town with so
many passengers with luggage around are also pretty hopeless.

--
Colin Rosenstiel



Assuming you mean Paddington, not Heathrow, I think the interpretation of
"useless destination" rather depends on where you are starting from. Those
served by the FGW network might find it quite handy.



Cambridge is not, necessarily, the centre of the universe.

In article ,
(J Lynch) wrote:

wrote in message
...

Heathrow Express goes to a useless destination made more so by the
curtailment of the Circle service. More lengthy stairs without lifts at
Paddington or Edgware Road. Though lifts like those at Acton Town with
so many passengers with luggage around are also pretty hopeless.

Assuming you mean Paddington, not Heathrow, I think the interpretation of
"useless destination" rather depends on where you are starting from. Those
served by the FGW network might find it quite handy.

Cambridge is not, necessarily, the centre of the universe.

I meant for a journey from Heathrow to Kings Cross St Pancras which is
simplicity itself by Piccadilly Line when it is running.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

wrote in message
...
In article , (D A
Stocks)
wrote:

wrote in message
...

Why oh why don't they let airport passengers use Heathrow Express or
Connect as an alternative
They do, don't they? = or are you saying Heathrow Express wasn't
running either?

They stopped allowing tube passengers from using HEx as an alternative
ages
ago. They also seem to have an awful lot of engineering possessions
closing
all four tracks between Hammersmith and Acton Town.

However, the fact remains that the service was there and Colin *chose* not
to use it.

You had a number of options at various prices for the journey. You
took a choice for the price you were prepared to pay, and that's the
service you got.

The best option by far for me with luggage is normally the Piccadilly
Line.

.... but only if it's running. It wasn't and, knowing this (complete with
those three large cases plus smaller bags, a wife with a broken arm and
six-year-old granddaughter) you *chose* to use the service that was on offer
for the price you payed.


Heathrow Express goes to a useless destination

Hang on a minute, in your original post you said

Why oh why don't they let airport passengers use Heathrow Express

--
DAS

Paul Corfield wrote in
:

On Sun, 6 Jan 2013 10:37:46 -0000, "D A Stocks"
wrote:

wrote in message
...

Why oh why don't they let airport passengers use Heathrow Express or
Connect
as an alternative
They do, don't they? = or are you saying Heathrow Express wasn't
running either?

Not routinely. It only happens on limited occasions when travel
options are very limited or rail replacement vehicles are in short
supply due to the volume of work on any given weekend. Even then it is
often only Heathrow Connect that can be used as HEX don't seem to want
people overloading the Express service. I expect money is also a
factor.


Has this ever actually happened? It has been several years since Heathrow
Express was allowed as an alternative and the 15 minute service was running
as nine cars and basically full (but without much standing). Limiting
people to Connect (a five car train every half hour) would cause gross
overloading.

David

(Who suspects money is the main factor)

In article ,
(Paul Corfield) wrote:

On Sun, 6 Jan 2013 10:37:46 -0000, "D A Stocks"
wrote:

wrote in message
...

Why oh why don't they let airport passengers use Heathrow Express or
Connect as an alternative
They do, don't they? = or are you saying Heathrow Express wasn't running
either?

Not routinely. It only happens on limited occasions when travel
options are very limited or rail replacement vehicles are in short
supply due to the volume of work on any given weekend. Even then it is
often only Heathrow Connect that can be used as HEX don't seem to want
people overloading the Express service. I expect money is also a factor.

Previous closures of the Heathrow branch itself has seen coaches used
express from Acton Town to Heathrow because of their superior luggage
carrying capabilities. Buses are still needed for the all stns
service. No matter how you try to do it there are no convenient
locations for rail replacement transfer in West London.

Hammersmith - busy, overcrowded, overloaded bus stns, congested roads.
Acton Town - local roads struggle to cope with the volume of buses,
pavements too narrow for waiting passengers.
Ealing Broadway - similar to Hammersmith but with less room in the
ticket hall. Oh and a 1 way system past the station making drop offs /
pick ups difficult.

However the tracks and bridges on the 4 track section really do need
work doing to them. Unfortunately you can't run trains while doing that.

Is it really not possible to close only two tracks at a time more? The most
inexplicable was the choice of such a busy weekend at Heathrow for a
blockade.

You had a number of options at various prices for the journey. You took a
choice for the price you were prepared to pay, and that's the service you
got.

I am off to hide under a table as I can feel the wrath of Rosenstiel
approaching!

When I found out about the works (daughter's boyfriend tipped her off while
we were away) and looked at the TfL journey planner from abroad it didn't
seem an unreasonable alternative via Acton Town and Ealing Broadway. In
particular it seemed to compare OK with any via Paddington option.

Reality turned out to be rather different with the inexplicable decision to
terminate Heathrow shuttles at Northfields and the abysmal lack of support
for large numbers of passengers with luggage there, at Acton Town and at
Ealing Broadway (best of the bunch). There was a tendency for what staff
there were to hide in a room giving out occasional PA announcements with
blank platform information screens.

Then there was the total confusion of contradictory information at Acton
Town. Loads of people heading to and from Heathrow just seemed bewildered.

TOCs do seem to do better at staffing up for disruptions like this to assist
their customers.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

wrote:
In article ,
(Paul Corfield) wrote:

On Sun, 6 Jan 2013 10:37:46 -0000, "D A Stocks"
wrote:

wrote in message
...

Why oh why don't they let airport passengers use Heathrow Express or
Connect as an alternative
They do, don't they? = or are you saying Heathrow Express wasn't running
either?

Not routinely. It only happens on limited occasions when travel
options are very limited or rail replacement vehicles are in short
supply due to the volume of work on any given weekend. Even then it is
often only Heathrow Connect that can be used as HEX don't seem to want
people overloading the Express service. I expect money is also a factor.

Previous closures of the Heathrow branch itself has seen coaches used
express from Acton Town to Heathrow because of their superior luggage
carrying capabilities. Buses are still needed for the all stns
service. No matter how you try to do it there are no convenient
locations for rail replacement transfer in West London.

Hammersmith - busy, overcrowded, overloaded bus stns, congested roads.
Acton Town - local roads struggle to cope with the volume of buses,
pavements too narrow for waiting passengers.
Ealing Broadway - similar to Hammersmith but with less room in the
ticket hall. Oh and a 1 way system past the station making drop offs /
pick ups difficult.

However the tracks and bridges on the 4 track section really do need
work doing to them. Unfortunately you can't run trains while doing that.

Is it really not possible to close only two tracks at a time more? The most
inexplicable was the choice of such a busy weekend at Heathrow for a
blockade.

You had a number of options at various prices for the journey. You took a
choice for the price you were prepared to pay, and that's the service you
got.

I am off to hide under a table as I can feel the wrath of Rosenstiel
approaching!

When I found out about the works (daughter's boyfriend tipped her off while
we were away) and looked at the TfL journey planner from abroad it didn't
seem an unreasonable alternative via Acton Town and Ealing Broadway. In
particular it seemed to compare OK with any via Paddington option.

Reality turned out to be rather different with the inexplicable decision to
terminate Heathrow shuttles at Northfields and the abysmal lack of support
for large numbers of passengers with luggage there, at Acton Town and at
Ealing Broadway (best of the bunch). There was a tendency for what staff
there were to hide in a room giving out occasional PA announcements with
blank platform information screens.


Actually, you were lucky that both lifts at Acton Town were working:
judging by the Picc's Twitter feed, those lifts fail rather often.

I wonder if reversing capacity at Acton Town was limited, hence the
decision to terminate some of the shuttles at Northfields?