On Jul 4, 12:27 pm, Tom Barry wrote:
I can't have any brains then, the last time I went to Heathrow I took a
suitcase, buggy and toddler on the Piccadilly Line. Lucky for me I got
one of the few occasions it worked eh?

Well its a good thing you didn't take it the other day when it was
terminating at northfields. Again. Quite what LUL expect passengers to
do when kicked out 8 miles from the airport in the middle of a suburb
with a load of luggage is anyones guess. Not that I suspect they give
a toss in the first place.

Of course, your criticisms apply to St. Pancras International, too -
would you recommend I get a cab there? Was the person who built the
Thameslink box just wasting concrete?

IMO yes , but for another reason - KX thameslink used to be a
convenient interchange with the tube. Not any more. Now for the sake
of the small number of people who'll travel down from luton or bedford
to get the eurostar , thousands of rush hour commuters are now faced
with a 400 metre hike. Genius.

B2003

IMO yes , but for another reason - KX thameslink used to be a
convenient interchange with the tube. Not any more. Now for the sake
of the small number of people who'll travel down from luton or bedford
to get the eurostar , thousands of rush hour commuters are now faced
with a 400 metre hike. Genius.

B2003

As someone who has the misfortune to have to undergo this hike twice a day,
every day, I cd not agree more. Not only is it a 400m hike, in order to get
to work I now have to go through two ticket barriers and dodge lost and
bemused tourists, people nattering on their mobiles, emailing on their
blackberries or families dragging humungeous suitcases who because they are
on holidays are in no particular rush . The flows of people have not been
properly planned and there are several places where human currents going in
opposite directions intersect with the consequent shoving, pushing and
dodging. It may be a beautiful building but for its heaviest users, the
commuters, it is an unholy mess and a nightmare, it is by far the most
stressful part of my day. I hate it.

María

wrote:
On Jul 4, 12:11 am, CJB wrote:
AND this morning Heathrow Connect was terminating at Hayes and
Harlington (an increasingly frequent occurance) whereby all pax
heading for Heathrow are unceremoniously booted out of the train on
the bay platform 5 and told to continue their journey by bus. H&H

Frankly , if you've got any brains you get a minicab to an airport.
Relying on public transport is as good as missing your flight. I can't
remember the last time I took the tube to heathrow or southern to
gatwick. Even if the mainline railways are running fine the tube will
always screw you over somehow preventing you from getting to victoria
or paddington.

B2003



You must be loaded... a cab from my house (Finchley) to any of the 5
London airports would cost a bomb! Thankfully... every time I fly (which
is fairly often) I use public transport and it works fine. Even with a
minor delay, it's still fine, since I leave a little bit of extra time,
and check-in online, so can arrive and zoom straight through to the
aircraft.

Methinks you are just a bit negative generally. Sometimes, things do go
wrong, yes, but I use 3 Tube lines and a bus daily, and 9.5 times out of
10, it works like it should.

Cheers

Steve M

In message , at 23:59:56 on
Fri, 4 Jul 2008, Maria remarked:
As someone who has the misfortune to have to undergo this hike twice a
day, every day, I cd not agree more. Not only is it a 400m hike, in
order to get to work I now have to go through two ticket barriers and
dodge lost and bemused tourists, people nattering on their mobiles,
emailing on their blackberries or families dragging humungeous
suitcases who because they are on holidays are in no particular rush .
The flows of people have not been properly planned and there are
several places where human currents going in opposite directions
intersect with the consequent shoving, pushing and dodging. It may be
a beautiful building but for its heaviest users, the commuters, it is
an unholy mess and a nightmare, it is by far the most stressful part of
my day. I hate it.

If you are arriving by FCC, I suggest you exit St Pancras by the doors
next to the "Circle" shopping centre, then cross the road towards KX
Suburban platforms, then walk along KX platform 8 to the tube (this is
in effect the route that will be mirrored by new underground passages
when the northern ticket hall opens).

Or if you are heading for the Circle Line platforms, walk along the
outside of St Pancras.

EMT passengers should stay upstairs, and walk past both the champagne
bar and statue, then down a flight of stairs direct to the western
ticket hall.

This avoids the crowds downstairs inside St Pancras, which I agree are
chaotic.
--
Roland Perry

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 23:59:56 on Fri,
4 Jul 2008, Maria remarked:
As someone who has the misfortune to have to undergo this hike twice a
day, every day, I cd not agree more. Not only is it a 400m hike, in order
to get to work I now have to go through two ticket barriers and dodge
lost and bemused tourists, people nattering on their mobiles, emailing on
their blackberries or families dragging humungeous suitcases who because
they are on holidays are in no particular rush . The flows of people have
not been properly planned and there are several places where human
currents going in opposite directions intersect with the consequent
shoving, pushing and dodging. It may be a beautiful building but for its
heaviest users, the commuters, it is an unholy mess and a nightmare, it is
by far the most stressful part of my day. I hate it.

If you are arriving by FCC, I suggest you exit St Pancras by the doors
next to the "Circle" shopping centre, then cross the road towards KX
Suburban platforms, then walk along KX platform 8 to the tube (this is in
effect the route that will be mirrored by new underground passages when
the northern ticket hall opens).

Or if you are heading for the Circle Line platforms, walk along the
outside of St Pancras.

EMT passengers should stay upstairs, and walk past both the champagne bar
and statue, then down a flight of stairs direct to the western ticket
hall.

This avoids the crowds downstairs inside St Pancras, which I agree are
chaotic.
--
Roland Perry

Thanks Roland, I shall definitely try this.

María

On 5 Jul, 02:17, Steve M wrote:
You must be loaded... a cab from my house (Finchley) to any of the 5
London airports would cost a bomb! Thankfully... every time I fly (which

Well I don't fly often so the cost doesn't matter. If I did it every
week it might be another matter.

Methinks you are just a bit negative generally. Sometimes, things do go

Only about the tube. I endured 20 years of commuting on it and I'd had
enough. Thank god I now drive to work and only use the tube to visit
the west end now and then. Give me a traffic jam any day instead of
yet another "signal failure" or "regulating the service" or "passenger
action" or whatever other feeble excuse for their incompetence they'd
picked that morning by chucking a dart at a board. They're just liars
as well as useless.

B2003

On Jul 4, 11:31 am, wrote:
On Jul 4, 12:11 am, CJB wrote:

AND this morning Heathrow Connect was terminating at Hayes and
Harlington (an increasingly frequent occurance) whereby all pax
heading for Heathrow are unceremoniously booted out of the train on
the bay platform 5 and told to continue their journey by bus. H&H

Frankly , if you've got any brains you get a minicab to an airport.
Relying on public transport is as good as missing your flight. I can't
remember the last time I took the tube to heathrow or southern to
gatwick.

So how would you know? Oh, I see, a bloke in the pub told you.

On 5 Jul, 08:41, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 23:59:56 on
Fri, 4 Jul 2008, Maria remarked:

As someone who has the misfortune to have to undergo this hike twice a
day, every day, I cd not agree more. *Not only is it a 400m hike, in
order to get to work I *now have to go through two ticket barriers and
dodge lost and bemused tourists, people nattering on their mobiles,
emailing on their blackberries or families dragging humungeous
suitcases who because they are on holidays are in no particular rush .
The flows of people have not been properly planned and there are
several places where human currents going in opposite directions
intersect with the consequent shoving, pushing and dodging. *It may be
a beautiful building but for its heaviest users, the commuters, it is
an unholy mess and a nightmare, it is by far the most stressful part of
my day. *I hate it.

If you are arriving by FCC, I suggest you exit St Pancras by the doors
next to the "Circle" shopping centre, then cross the road towards KX
Suburban platforms, then walk along KX platform 8 to the tube (this is
in effect the route that will be mirrored by new underground passages
when the northern ticket hall opens).

If you do this in the morning peak note (and it sounds like you do)
you will find that, to reduce overcrowding, the entrance to the
underground inside King's Cross station is now kept closed every
weekday morning until about 10am. Passengers arriving on King's Cross
platforms 1-8 and wanting the underground are diverted to use the
street entrance in front of the station, which at this time is kept
artifically constricted so that only one or two passengers can enter
at a time. Sometimes this causes such a crowd of people queueing to
get into the underground station that it is often quicker to cross St
Pancras Road and use the entrance under St Pancras station instead.

So Roland's alternative suggestion...

Or if you are heading for the Circle Line platforms, walk along the
outside of St Pancras.

...is probably best for the deep-level tube lines as well, at least in
the morning peak.

PaulO

On Fri, 4 Jul 2008 03:31:48 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

On Jul 4, 12:11 am, CJB wrote:
AND this morning Heathrow Connect was terminating at Hayes and
Harlington (an increasingly frequent occurance) whereby all pax
heading for Heathrow are unceremoniously booted out of the train on
the bay platform 5 and told to continue their journey by bus. H&H

Frankly , if you've got any brains you get a minicab to an airport.
Relying on public transport is as good as missing your flight. I can't
remember the last time I took the tube to heathrow or southern to
gatwick. Even if the mainline railways are running fine the tube will
always screw you over somehow preventing you from getting to victoria
or paddington.

Clearly I have an acute brains shortage because when I fly I take a bus
and then two tube trains to Heathrow. On every occasion it has taken
almost exactly 90 minutes with no delays whatsoever.

By contrast I opted to try the MRT upon arrival in Singapore to reach my
hotel. This involved struggling to find out where the MRT ran from,
catching an inter terminal shuttle, walking for almost 10 minutes to
find the station, taking a train from a very impressive station two
stops down the line and being forced out onto a packed train on another
line and having to stand, a change to another line in downtown Singapore
and then a long walk. To be fair I could have caught a bus over the last
bit but was unaware of the numbers and missed the one sign that had the
information on it. The lack of a through train to / from Changi Airport
is not well advertised and hence I would never ever use public
transport to and from the airport - on my return leg I opted to use a
taxi. And this in a city where the rapid transit system has a good
reputation!

--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

On 5 Jul, 17:58, Paul Corfield wrote:
Clearly I have an acute brains shortage because when I fly I take a bus
and then two tube trains to Heathrow. On every occasion it has taken
almost exactly 90 minutes with no delays whatsoever.

Whatever you say Mr Unbiased LUL employee.

B2003