Access to Heathrow this weekend and next
 

The Piccadilly and District lines are closed between Acton Town and
Hyde Park Corner / Earl's Court for the next two weekends.

A major difference between these and the previous closures is that
Heathrow Express and Heathrow Connect will NOT be accepting London
Underground tickets. A bus will be run between North Acton (on the
Central line) and Acton Town for Heathrow passengers. Does anybody
know why Hex are refusing to accept LU tickets this time?

Regards,

Clive R Robertson
--
Clive R Robertson -- AS/400 Programmer.

Webmaster of http://www.osterleypark.org.uk/ -- this describes
a beautiful National Trust property in West London.

Access to Heathrow this weekend and next
 

Clive R Robertson wrote:
The Piccadilly and District lines are closed between Acton Town and
Hyde Park Corner / Earl's Court for the next two weekends.

A major difference between these and the previous closures is that
Heathrow Express and Heathrow Connect will NOT be accepting London
Underground tickets. A bus will be run between North Acton (on the
Central line) and Acton Town for Heathrow passengers. Does anybody
know why Hex are refusing to accept LU tickets this time?


I also noticed this last week.

I think the question should really be why hasn't LU reached an
agreement with Hex as before. I'm guessing the previous deal for LU
tickets to be accepted on Hex was only for a set number of weekends
which has now expired - is LU no longer willing to cough up the cash,
or has Hex increased what it would charge LU, and LU has refused to pay?

Access to Heathrow this weekend and next
 

On Tue, 30 May 2006 11:24:14 +0100, Clive R Robertson
wrote:

The Piccadilly and District lines are closed between Acton Town and
Hyde Park Corner / Earl's Court for the next two weekends.

A major difference between these and the previous closures is that
Heathrow Express and Heathrow Connect will NOT be accepting London
Underground tickets. A bus will be run between North Acton (on the
Central line) and Acton Town for Heathrow passengers. Does anybody
know why Hex are refusing to accept LU tickets this time?

I could be wrong, but weren't HEX accepting Travelcards when the
Northfields-Heathrow section was shut, not when Acton Town to Earl's
Court was shut?

--
James Farrar
. @gmail.com

Access to Heathrow this weekend and next
 

James Farrar wrote:
On Tue, 30 May 2006 11:24:14 +0100, Clive R Robertson
wrote:

The Piccadilly and District lines are closed between Acton Town and
Hyde Park Corner / Earl's Court for the next two weekends.

A major difference between these and the previous closures is that
Heathrow Express and Heathrow Connect will NOT be accepting London
Underground tickets. A bus will be run between North Acton (on the
Central line) and Acton Town for Heathrow passengers. Does anybody
know why Hex are refusing to accept LU tickets this time?

I could be wrong, but weren't HEX accepting Travelcards when the
Northfields-Heathrow section was shut, not when Acton Town to Earl's
Court was shut?

No, t'other way round.

I asked LU why Travelcards weren't valid on HEx and HC for these two
weekends in June. The answer, according to them, is that because of
Network Rail engineering work, there are only two tracks available into
Paddington on these weekends, which means that HEx services with be
"unreliable" (LU's word) and subject to extended intervals. HEx weren't
prepared to take the risk of a service suspension while they had lots of
additional LU passengers on their trains. There would be "huge cost" in
rescheduling either the LU or NR engineering work. Hence the bus
service between Acton Town and North Acton was seen as the next best
option.

Curiously there is nothing on the National Rail site about this
engineering work, but I know from having booked tickets for the second
weekend that there are extended journey times between Reading and
Paddington, so something is evidently happening.

LU said that these are the only such closures planned for this year,
which is odd, as there's still masses of relaying work to do between
Barons Court and Acton Town, and temporary speed limits because of the
state of the old track.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

Access to Heathrow this weekend and next
 

Richard J. wrote:

I asked LU why Travelcards weren't valid on HEx and HC for these two
weekends in June. The answer, according to them, is that because of
Network Rail engineering work, there are only two tracks available
into Paddington on these weekends, which means that HEx services with
be "unreliable" (LU's word) and subject to extended intervals. HEx
weren't prepared to take the risk of a service suspension while they
had lots of additional LU passengers on their trains. There would be
"huge cost" in rescheduling either the LU or NR engineering work.
Hence the bus service between Acton Town and North Acton was seen as
the next best option.

Curiously there is nothing on the National Rail site about this
engineering work, but I know from having booked tickets for the second
weekend that there are extended journey times between Reading and
Paddington, so something is evidently happening.

It *is* mentioned on the FGW website, but as far as I can see it only
applies to the Sundays.


--
Bob

Access to Heathrow this weekend and next
 

On Fri, 02 Jun 2006 17:44:44 GMT, Bob Wood wrote:

I asked LU why Travelcards weren't valid on HEx and HC for these two
weekends in June. The answer, according to them, is that because of
Network Rail engineering work, there are only two tracks available
into Paddington on these weekends, which means that HEx services with
be "unreliable" (LU's word) and subject to extended intervals.

It *is* mentioned on the FGW website, but as far as I can see it only
applies to the Sundays.

Doesn't this happen *every* Sunday?

I thought the normal GWML Sunday timetable was arranged to only
require one pair of tracks between Paddington and Reading, so that the
other can be closed for maintenance. (That's why, for example, there
are no booked stops on Sundays at stations which don't have platforms
on both pairs of lines, like Hanwell.)

Access to Heathrow this weekend and next
 

asdf wrote:
On Fri, 02 Jun 2006 17:44:44 GMT, Bob Wood wrote:

I asked LU why Travelcards weren't valid on HEx and HC for these
two weekends in June. The answer, according to them, is that
because of Network Rail engineering work, there are only two
tracks available into Paddington on these weekends, which means
that HEx services with be "unreliable" (LU's word) and subject to
extended intervals.

It *is* mentioned on the FGW website, but as far as I can see it
only applies to the Sundays.

Doesn't this happen *every* Sunday?

The Reading-Paddington journey times on FGW for 11 June are longer than
the normal Sunday timetable.

--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

Access to Heathrow this weekend and next
 

"Richard J." wrote in news:UY0gg.79979$wl.73968
@text.news.blueyonder.co.uk:

asdf wrote:
On Fri, 02 Jun 2006 17:44:44 GMT, Bob Wood wrote:

I asked LU why Travelcards weren't valid on HEx and HC for these
two weekends in June. The answer, according to them, is that
because of Network Rail engineering work, there are only two
tracks available into Paddington on these weekends, which means
that HEx services with be "unreliable" (LU's word) and subject to
extended intervals.

It *is* mentioned on the FGW website, but as far as I can see it only
applies to the Sundays.

Doesn't this happen *every* Sunday?

The Reading-Paddington journey times on FGW for 11 June are longer than
the normal Sunday timetable.


One of the previous closure weekends saw a weekend long closure of the
relief (slow) lines at Old Oak. HEX was taking anything from the usual 15
minutes to 30 minutes when following the stopper in from Hayes.

The recommended way of getting to Acton Town and stations West on these
weekends is now a rail replacement bus from North Acton (Central Line).

David

Access to Heathrow this weekend and next
 

In message , at
16:43:59 on Fri, 2 Jun 2006, Richard J.
remarked:
I asked LU why Travelcards weren't valid on HEx and HC for these two
weekends in June. The answer, according to them, is that because of
Network Rail engineering work, there are only two tracks available into
Paddington on these weekends, which means that HEx services with be
"unreliable" (LU's word) and subject to extended intervals.

I took the HEx one Saturday in February, and they had engineering work
on the line then as well. It took half an hour instead of the advertised
23 mins (from T4), although it felt much slower than that.

HEx weren't prepared to take the risk of a service suspension while
they had lots of additional LU passengers on their trains. There would
be "huge cost" in rescheduling either the LU or NR engineering work.

A shame they decided to do both the same weekend :(
--
Roland Perry