Late last week and all this weekend 18/19-June-2005) the brand new
multimillion pound Heathrow Connect service has - well - not actually
connected with Heathrow. Due to the pathing problems (sorry signaling
problems) at Airport Junction the service has had great difficulty in
keeping to any sort of timetable. Indeed the delays have built up every
day until the last trains to/from Paddington/Heathrow have been
anything up to 45 minutes late. The problem is that coming out of or
going into the Airport the trains have to be switched from the slow
local lines across the fast Intercity lines. This has meant that all
trains have had to be halted to allow the Connect trains to enter/exit
the Airport Branch. The solution has been to terminate the Connect
trains at Hayes & Harlington and tell the pax to catch the 140 bus to
Heathrow. Well at least the bus is only 1.20 rather than 6 pounds for
this short one mile journey!! SB.

SB wrote:
Late last week and all this weekend 18/19-June-2005) the brand new
multimillion pound Heathrow Connect service has - well - not actually
connected with Heathrow. Due to the pathing problems (sorry signaling
problems) at Airport Junction the service has had great difficulty in
keeping to any sort of timetable. Indeed the delays have built up every
day until the last trains to/from Paddington/Heathrow have been
anything up to 45 minutes late. The problem is that coming out of or
going into the Airport the trains have to be switched from the slow
local lines across the fast Intercity lines. This has meant that all
trains have had to be halted to allow the Connect trains to enter/exit
the Airport Branch. The solution has been to terminate the Connect
trains at Hayes & Harlington and tell the pax to catch the 140 bus to
Heathrow. Well at least the bus is only 1.20 rather than 6 pounds for
this short one mile journey!! SB.

I thought the intention was to run the Heathrow bound trains the "wrong
way" through Airport Junction, ie. up the track between the main and
relief lines?

I have seen platform 5 used at Hayes rather a lot this week.

Also, does anyone know what FGWL is doing with the spare 165`s they`d
have freed up? Some of the rush hour trains could do with a bit of
lengthening...

Stu

wrote:
SB wrote:
Late last week and all this weekend 18/19-June-2005) the brand new
multimillion pound Heathrow Connect service has - well - not actually
connected with Heathrow. Due to the pathing problems (sorry signaling
problems) at Airport Junction the service has had great difficulty in
keeping to any sort of timetable. Indeed the delays have built up every
day until the last trains to/from Paddington/Heathrow have been
anything up to 45 minutes late. The problem is that coming out of or
going into the Airport the trains have to be switched from the slow
local lines across the fast Intercity lines....

I thought the intention was to run the Heathrow bound trains the "wrong
way" through Airport Junction, ie. up the track between the main and
relief lines?

I have seen platform 5 used at Hayes rather a lot this week.

On Thursday they were alleging a points failure, and all trains were
turning at H & H. There were cancellations too - though the trains ran
non-stop to try to catch up instead of just being relabelled as the
next train.

Also, does anyone know what FGWL is doing with the spare 165`s they`d
have freed up? Some of the rush hour trains could do with a bit of
lengthening...

Already (last December) redeployed on longer-distance services.

Colin McKenzie

SB wrote:
Late last week and all this weekend 18/19-June-2005) the brand new
multimillion pound Heathrow Connect service has - well - not actually
connected with Heathrow. Due to the pathing problems (sorry signaling
problems) at Airport Junction the service has had great difficulty in
keeping to any sort of timetable. Indeed the delays have built up every
day until the last trains to/from Paddington/Heathrow have been
anything up to 45 minutes late. The problem is that coming out of or
going into the Airport the trains have to be switched from the slow
local lines across the fast Intercity lines. This has meant that all
trains have had to be halted to allow the Connect trains to enter/exit
the Airport Branch. The solution has been to terminate the Connect
trains at Hayes & Harlington and tell the pax to catch the 140 bus to
Heathrow. Well at least the bus is only 1.20 rather than 6 pounds for
this short one mile journey!! SB.

Pretty poor for a new, high-profile service. One hopes that the
equipment, layout and timetabling is robust enough for these to just be
teething problems. However it may be that infrastructure works are
needed sooner rather than later if this new service is not to heavily
impact on both Great Western and Heathrow Express operations.

wrote in message
ups.com...

Also, does anyone know what FGWL is doing with the spare 165`s they`d
have freed up? Some of the rush hour trains could do with a bit of
lengthening...

IIRC, they have (had?) three or four on loan from Chiltern, which one would
expect to be going back to them now.

wrote:

Pretty poor for a new, high-profile service. One hopes that the
equipment, layout and timetabling is robust enough for these to
just be teething problems. However it may be that infrastructure
works are needed sooner rather than later if this new service is
not to heavily impact on both Great Western and Heathrow Express
operations.

Heathrow Connect are still only running to Hayes tonight. In fact I've
just e-mailed them about the total lack of any explanation, forecast or
apology on their site. All they say is that "Heathrow Connect is
currently only operating between London and Hayes & Harlington", despite
claiming that "it's the best way to travel locally to and from Heathrow
Airport".

"If you have to rely on London Underground to get you to the airport
everyday, this service will revolutionise the way you travel." Some
revolution!

The National Rail site talks about signalling problems.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

Richard J. wrote:
"If you have to rely on London Underground to get you to the airport
everyday, this service will revolutionise the way you travel." Some
revolution!

I never understood the real point of services from paddington. Unless
you
live in or near the paddington area or routes leading into it then
you've still got to crawl around on the circle line to get there and
wait
for the service to leave. By the time you've done that you could
probably
be halfway to heathrow on the piccadilly line and have paid less than
half
the price. Surely if they want a really useful airport service they
should extend the 3rd rail system from south of the river to heathrow
too?

B2003

"Richard J." wrote in message
. uk...

Heathrow Connect are still only running to Hayes tonight. In fact I've
just e-mailed them about the total lack of any explanation, forecast or
apology on their site. All they say is that "Heathrow Connect is
currently only operating between London and Hayes & Harlington", despite
claiming that "it's the best way to travel locally to and from Heathrow
Airport".

Make a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority on the grounds that what
the advert says is not true. Is there any qualifier in the advert about the
service being occational or the usual one about not operating any of the
advertised services at all.

Its about time the ASA used their powers to force the transport industry to
shape up.

Roger

Boltar wrote:

Richard J. wrote:

"If you have to rely on London Underground to get you to the airport
everyday, this service will revolutionise the way you travel." Some
revolution!


I never understood the real point of services from paddington. Unless
you
live in or near the paddington area or routes leading into it then
you've still got to crawl around on the circle line to get there and
wait
for the service to leave. By the time you've done that you could
probably
be halfway to heathrow on the piccadilly line and have paid less than
half
the price.

Well, Heathrow Express is for business types in a hurry who probably get
a taxi to/from Paddington anyway; for others, even though it's so
expensive, it's quicker for a journey like Euston - Heathrow.

Heathrow Connect isn't designed for Paddington, it's designed to serve
the bits of west London that other rail services just can't reach.

Surely if they want a really useful airport service they
should extend the 3rd rail system from south of the river to heathrow
too?

They should do that anyway, yes. That's been mooted for ages though
(known as Airtrack).

--
Dave Arquati
Imperial College, SW7
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London

In message
Dave Arquati wrote:

[snip]

Surely if they want a really useful airport service they
should extend the 3rd rail system from south of the river to heathrow
too?

They should do that anyway, yes. That's been mooted for ages though
(known as Airtrack).


They were talking about doing that when I lived near Feltham and I left there
in 1957, so don't hold your breath.

--
Graeme Wall
This address is not read, substitute trains for rail.
Transport Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail/index.html