Heathrow Express slashes fares (so it says!)
 

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 22:54:23 on Wed, 6 Nov 2019,
John Levine remarked:
In article ,
Roland Perry wrote:
I don't think you are a very typical traveller. Most are very
unadventurous when it comes to foreign countries, and hence the race for
taxis (and HEx's mission to replace taxis).

Depends who the travellers are. I'm currently at an ICANN meeting (I know
you know who they are)

I'm vaguely following the proceedings from Montreal on social media.

whose travel department's phobia of public transport

I've been to about a dozen, even by train for Paris, Brussels and London
(although the latter is hardly surprising as there are no flights from
Cambridge to London). But never had any involvement from their travel
department.

Because it was my third or fourth trip to the City, I used public
transport to get to get from the airport to their meeting in Prague. I
know the RIR policy would be "you must be mad - we'll order you a limo".

ISTR Prague Airport being a pretty awkward PT transfer even for the intrepid
traveller

tim





that is not an airplane is just comic. But I don't think it's universal.

The RIRs are almost as bad!

As a result, and even as a more adventurous traveller (colleagues were
amazed I dared get a bus from Geneva to the airport, and didn't even
consider rail) I think I've only once got a train on first arrival at a
suitably equipped overseas airport.

Huh, I do it all the time.

Every *first* time you visit these places?

I can think of Frankfurt, Paris CDG, Munich, Barcelona, Narita, Haneda,
Seoul (now permanently bustituted), Hong Kong, and Singapore. And Gatwick
and Prestwick, since I live in the US.

You are much more travelled than average. And quite likely visit them more
than once, so you have a chance to come to grips with the local
peculiarities. For example, I've been to Seoul twice now, and the second
time I took an express coach back to the airport. The railway line stopped
short.

I was a bit put off by the difficulty of collecting a pre-bought TGV
ticket in Paris, though.

Gee, it's easy to put your SNCF ticket on your smartphone. (Yes, I
know.)

My experience with using foreign transport apps (and I *have* tried) is
that between them either not apparently working at all, and the steep
learning curve, if you are visiting for the first time it's easier to just
buy a paper ticket when you get there.

The HEx app scores an impressive 1.8 stars (almost all the scores are 1 -
"terrible").

It also seems to me that when Crossrail is running through trains, the
HeX time advantage will be a lost for many places Crossrail goes
beyond Paddington. It's not just the fares.

How many of the Crossrail stations will have taxi ranks?

I dunno. I was thinking that a lot of them will be within walking
distance of where one wants to go.

The kind of airline passenger who would normally have got a taxi
door-to-door previously, but decides to give HEx a try instead, isn't
likely to be wanting to be wandering round London on foot in all weathers
with with their baggage trying to find heir hotel.

And how widespread is contactless outside the UK? The USA is catching up
rapidly, but is probably still in single figure percentages.

In the US and Canada I see lots of contactless cards, now that it's a
standard feature of new point-of-sale terminals.

There's a lot more issued so far in Canada than USA, apparently.
--
Roland Perry

Heathrow Express slashes fares (so it says!)
 

In article ,
tim... wrote:
I've been to about a dozen, even by train for Paris, Brussels and London
(although the latter is hardly surprising as there are no flights from
Cambridge to London). But never had any involvement from their travel
department.

Because it was my third or fourth trip to the City, I used public
transport to get to get from the airport to their meeting in Prague. I
know the RIR policy would be "you must be mad - we'll order you a limo".

ISTR Prague Airport being a pretty awkward PT transfer even for the intrepid
traveller

Naah. There's an express bus to the central train station, and city buses
to the various metro lines depending on where you're going.

--
Regards,
John Levine, , Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. https://jl.ly

Heathrow Express slashes fares (so it says!)
 

"John Levine" wrote in message
...
In article ,
tim... wrote:
I've been to about a dozen, even by train for Paris, Brussels and London
(although the latter is hardly surprising as there are no flights from
Cambridge to London). But never had any involvement from their travel
department.

Because it was my third or fourth trip to the City, I used public
transport to get to get from the airport to their meeting in Prague. I
know the RIR policy would be "you must be mad - we'll order you a limo".

ISTR Prague Airport being a pretty awkward PT transfer even for the
intrepid
traveller

Naah. There's an express bus to the central train station,

yes

and city buses
to the various metro lines depending on where you're going.

hardly easy though, is it?

tim


--
Regards,
John Levine, , Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for
Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. https://jl.ly

Heathrow Express slashes fares (so it says!)
 

In message , at 17:11:16 on Thu, 28 Nov
2019, tim... remarked:

You might dislike the chuggers, but the people who are winning here
are other road users and local residents breathing the air[2].
Significant numbers of those choosing HEx would not be seen dead on a
local commuter service (or more to the point, might suspect they'd be
dead if they were ever seen on it).

and yet those very same people happily buy a Visitor's Oyster card for
use in travel around the sights for the rest of their holiday

Strange isn't it

Only if you think they are the same people.
--
Roland Perry

Heathrow Express slashes fares (so it says!)
 

In message , at 17:38:20 on Thu, 28 Nov
2019, tim... remarked:

Because it was my third or fourth trip to the City, I used public
transport to get to get from the airport to their meeting in Prague. I
know the RIR policy would be "you must be mad - we'll order you a limo".

ISTR Prague Airport being a pretty awkward PT transfer even for the
intrepid traveller

I don't think the metro to the airport has happened yet. One of the
issues with the shuttle bus to the metro railhead was the difficulty of
understanding whether that bus needed a ticket, and where you should pay
for it.
--
Roland Perry

Heathrow Express slashes fares (so it says!)
 

On 28/11/2019 17:38, tim... wrote:


"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 22:54:23 on Wed, 6 Nov
2019, John Levine remarked:
In article ,
Roland PerryÂ* wrote:
I don't think you are a very typical traveller. Most are very
unadventurous when it comes to foreign countries, and hence the race
for
taxis (and HEx's mission to replace taxis).

Depends who the travellers are.Â* I'm currently at an ICANN meeting (I
know
you know who they are)

I'm vaguely following the proceedings from Montreal on social media.

whose travel department's phobia of public transport

I've been to about a dozen, even by train for Paris, Brussels and
London (although the latter is hardly surprising as there are no
flights from Cambridge to London). But never had any involvement from
their travel department.

Because it was my third or fourth trip to the City, I used public
transport to get to get from the airport to their meeting in Prague. I
know the RIR policy would be "you must be mad - we'll order you a limo".

ISTR Prague Airport being a pretty awkward PT transfer even for the
intrepid traveller


Relatively simple, bus to the nearest Metro station and you are away.
Clearly marked from the terminal. I gather the Metro will eventually get
to the airport.


--
Graeme Wall
This account not read.