Long Train Runnin’
I went to Heathrow today, in a nine car Class 345 train.
Note.
- This service is the replacement for Heathrow Connect.
- My trains left from and returned to Platform 11 in Paddington station. But although perhaps eighty percent of Heathrow Terminal 5 services appear to use this platform, not all do!
At least something is at last going right for Crossrail!
Transport for London’s New Rail Line
Today, Transport for London have taken over Heathrow Connect, in preparation for the full Crossrail.
The service is now run by TfL Rail, just like the Liverpool Street to Shenfield service in the East of London.
It’s even shown on some of the new Underground maps.
I photographed this map at Kings Cross St. Pancras.
Note the double blue line, which indicates the new route of the former Heathrow Connect, running from Paddington in the top-right corner of the map to Heathrow Terminal 4 towards the bottom-left.
The intermediate stations shown are.
- Acton Main Line
- Ealing Broadway – Change for Central and District Lines.
- West Ealing
- Hanwell
- Southall
- Hayes and Harlington
- Heathrow Terminal 2 & 3 (Heathrow Central) – Change for Piccadilly Line.
Note that TfL use Heathrow Terminal 2 & 3 for the main railway station at Heathrow and Wikipedia uses Heathrow Central.
A Trip To Heathrow From Paddington
This morning, I checked into the new TfL Rail service at Paddington, using my Freedom Pass and took the 09:11 service to Heathrow Airport.
I got out at Heathrow Terminal 2 & 3 station before returning later on another TfL Rail service to Paddington.
I took these pictures on the route.
Note that the Class 360 trains are still running on the route, as there are operational issues with Crossrail’s new Class 345 trains in the tunnel to Heathrow.
Contactless Card/Oyster To Heathrow
TfL Rail also accepts contactless card or Oyster on this route.
According to TfL’s Single Fare Finder, the single fare is £10.20 in the Peak and £10.10 in the Off-Peak.
But,I’m not sure about railcards, the affect of capping or the price if you buy the ticket on line.
Freedom Passes To Heathrow
As I’d used my Freedom Pass, the two journeys cost me a big fat nothing!
It won’t be long before the many Freedom Pass holders, will realise, that Heathrow will be in their free travel area by a comfortable train and they will possibly use it more often, than the Piccadilly Line.
TfL Rail Service Frequency
Currently, the frequency between Paddington and Heathrow is two trains per hour (tph).
Provisional service details are shown under Services in the Wikipedia entry for Crossrail, when the line opens fully in December 2019.
- Four tph between Abbey Wood and Heathrow Terminal 4 stations
- Two tph between Abbey Wood and Heathrow Terminal 5 stations
All services will call at the following stations.
- All stations between Abbey Wood and Paddington stations.
- Ealing Broadway station
- Heathrow Terminal 2 & 3 station.
Plans for stopping at Acton Main Line, West Ealing, Hanwell, Southall and Hayes & Harlington stations are yet to be decided.
I suspect that TfL would like all Heathrow trains to stop at all intermediate stations, just as services do between Liverpool Street and Shenfield, in the East of London.
But Great Western Railway may have other ideas!
Speaking for myself, I’d like to see four tph on the TfL Rail route between Paddington and Heathrow, as soon as possible.
The Future Of The Class 360 Trains
When Crossrail sort out the Class 345 trains, the five sets of five-car Class 360 trains will be surplus to requirements.
They will also be joined in the sidings in a couple of years, by twenty-one similar four car trains, that are being replaced with new Class 720 trains, by Greater Anglia.
As they are modern 100 mph trains, they should find a home somewhere!
They could even be exported to Thailand, where a similar fleet operates.
Platforms 13 And 14 At Paddington Station
These pictures show work at Platform 13 and 14 at Paddington station.
It looks like they’re being tidied up and lengthened, so that when in 2018 Heathrow Connect is transferred to Crossrail, the platforms can be used by the 200-metre long Class 345 trains.
It will only be a temporary arrangement as in 2019, Heathrow Connect trains will use the core tunnel under London.
- 4 tph between Abbey Wood and Heathrow Terminal 4.
There will also be 4 tph on Heathrowc Express from Psaddington to Hrathrow Terminal 5.
So it looks Heathrow will be trying to con passengers to use the expensive Heathrow Express. Edpecially from Terminal 5!
It is only continuing to fleece passengers, as it is totally pointless for savvy travellers.
Quite frankly, if you’re anywhere to the East of Paddington, would you change at Paddington to waste money, when a change at Heathrow Central will be free?
It would be far better to run 8 tph to the Airport, with four tph going to each of Terminal 4 and Terminal 5. Four tph could start at Shenfield and four tph at Abbey Wood.
And then there’s the problem of vFreedom Passes. Will I be able to use my pass on Crossrail to get to Heathrow?
Heathrow Services Post Crossrail
To take some of the pictures for A Look At Stockley Junction, I took Heathrow Connect to the Airport..
My return ticket from Hayes and Harlington station, cost me £8.20 with a Senior Railcard, which must be one of the most expensive journeys per mile in the UK. Especially, as there are only two trains per hour (tph). Considering that I could have done the journey quicker yesterday, using a 140 bus, as the train was ten minutes late.
But it would be difficult to take the pictures I wanted from the bus.
Arriving at Heathrow, I thought that a hot chocolate would be in order, so I set off for Terminal 2.
Passenger friendly the journey is not, so as I wanted to get back, I returned to the station to catch the next train.
I did not see a single sign to Heathrow Connect, with this one being typical.
Where’s Heathrow Connect
I knew where to go, as I’d walked it.
Incidentally, it is easy enough to find the overpriced Heathrow Express, but how many passengers with a brain want to go to the disconnected Paddington?
Some like me might actually want to go to Hayes and Harlington or perhaps Maidenhead.
I didn’t ask, but I wonbder if the advice to go to Maidenhead, is to take Heathrow Express to Paddington and then get a train to Maidenhead. The Oracle (Nation Rail’s Journey Planner) recommends taking Heathrow Connect to Hayes and Harlington, but will all the staff.
Current Services To The Airport
There are four ways to get to Heathrow by public transport.
Heathrow Express – 4 tph to and from Paddington. – Overpriced
Heathrow Connect – 2 tph to and from a series of stations along the route to Paddington – Infrequent and overpriced.
Piccadilly Line – Slow, frequent, usually reliable and the most affordable.
Bus – For a lot of those living near the Airport, this is the preferred route.
This map from carto.metro.free.fr shows the layout of the rail and Underground lines.
Rail And Underground Lines At Heathrow
Simple it isn’t!
But that is what you get if you dither over the next runway in the South-East for forty years.
Heathrow’s rail links are so very Topsy, unlike those at Birmingham, Edinburgh, Gatwick, London City, Luton, Manchester, Southend and Stansted.
Not all the others are perfect, but they’re getting better.
Crossrail
Crossrail will be the new wayto get to Heathrow and in some ways it is a replacement for Heathrow Connect. This is said under Future in the Wikipedia entry for Heathrow Connect.
From May 2018, Crossrail trains will replace all Heathrow Connect trains between London Paddington and Heathrow terminals 2, 3 and 4. Furthermore, as of December 2019 all services will run through the new tunnels at Paddington to central London destinations including Bond Street, Liverpool Street and Canary Wharf
So, it would appear that there will no substantial improvement until December 2019.
This is a detailed timetable, with particular reference to going between Heathrow and the City of London and Canary Wharf.
- May 2018 – Heathrow Connect will be taken over by Crossrail. We’ll certainly see better signage and service under Transport for London’s management.
- May 2018 – The Crossrail start schedule on Wikipedia, also shows that the shuttle between Heathrow Central (Terminals 1,2 and 3) and Terminal 4, will be transferred to Crossrail. Terminal 5 will be reached by using Heathrow Express from Heathrow Central.
- May 2018 – Heathrow Connect in the guise of Crossrail will be serving erminals 1,2, 3 and 4, but not Terminal 5. Will we be seeing new Class 345 trains and a higher frequency to Heathrow? I woulden’t be surprised if Heathrow Airport, try every trick to keep Crossrail out of the Airport, to protect the revenue on Heathrow Express.
- December 2018 – Crossrail services between Paddington and Abbey Wood will start, thus linking Paddington to the City of London and Canary Wharf. There will probably be a longish walk between the two parts of Crossrail at Pasddington, but the tunnel across London, will give Paddington the much need-connectivity, it’s needed since the Second World.
- May 2019 – Crossrail services between Paddington and Shenfield via Whitechapel will begin, thus meaning that many travellers East of Paddington, will use a single change there to get to and from Heathrow.
- December 2019 – The full Crossrail should open, meaning that there will be direct trains between Abbey Wood and Heathrow Terminal 4 calling at Canary Wharf, Liverpool St-Moorgate, Farringdon, Tottenham Court Road, Bond Street, Paddington, Heathrow Central and all the stations in between.
Trains into the Airport will be.
- 4 tph – Heathrow Express for Paddington, where many passengers will change to and from Crossrail.
- 4 tph – Crossrail to Abbey Wood.
One will be expensive and the other will be affordable and much more convenient, as it reaches the places passengers want to start or finish their journey.
It looks good, but there are a some questions to answer.
Is eight tph enough trains to and from the Airport?
If you compare Heathrow with Gatwick, Luton and Stansted, eight tph seems good.
However, I found this article in TravelWeekly, which is entitled Gatwick outlines plans for a train departure to London every three minutes.
It gives a very good summary of the train services that will run to Gatwick after Thameslink is completed.
- Four tph dedicated Gatwick Express trains to Victoria
- Six tph to Victoria – originating from East and West Coastway, Horsham/Littlehampton, and Three Bridges/Haywards Heath
- Four tph to Bedford via London Bridge – originating from Gatwick and Brighton
- Two tph to Cambridge via London Bridge – originating from Brighton
- Two tph to Peterborough via London Bridge – originating from Horsham
- Two tph to London Bridge – originating from Littlehampton/West Coastway, and Haywards Heath/Three Bridges.
That is a total of twenty trains to and from London and beyond and most of the South Coast from Southampton to Hastings.
How many better rail-connected airports are there anywhere in the world?
Luton and Stansted are also have aspirations to improve their rail links.
I think that passengers will press for increase in the frequency of services to the Airport and they’ll want more destinations.
After all Shenfield and Abbey Wood are planned to have 8 tph all day to and from Central London, with at least twice as many in the Peak.
How do passengers get to and from Iver, Langley, Maidenhead, Reading and all staions to the West of Hayes and Harlington?
A rail link into Terminal 5 from the West is planned, but something needs to be done before that is completed probably in the mid-2020s.
After December 2019, their will be four routes.
- Go to Paddington and use Heathrow Express – Expensive
- Go to Hayes and Harlington and take Crossrail into Heathrow Central – Requires two step-free changes of train.
- Take a coach from Reading.
- Go to Hayes and Harlington or West Drayton stations and use a local bus.
I can see something innovative being done at Hayes and Harlington station.
There is probably capacity between Heathrow Terminal 5 and Hayes and Harlington stations for a 4 tph shuttle in both directions, that would also solve the Terminal 5 connectivity problem.
Southall could even be an interesting alternative, as there is lots of space.
What Would Be My Solution?
I would use Hayes and Harlington station, as the interchange for Heathrow Airport.
In an ideal layout there would be three slow lines through Hayes and Harlington station, with two island platforms separating the lines. From the South, they would be.
- The Reading-bound (Up Slow) line.
- The Heathrow shuttle line, which would also be used by Crossrail trains going to and from Heathrow Terminal 4. This liine would be bi-directional.
- The London-bound (Down Slow) line.
Between the platforms would be two welcoming island platforms to give passengers a step-across interchange, between trains.
It would need a major rethink of the station.
But consider.
- Passengers from the West for Heathrow would just walk across the platform to get their train.
- Passengers for Heathrow Central could take any train.
- Passengers for Terminal 4 or Terminal 5 might need to wait a few minutes for an appropriate train.
- Crossrail passengers for Terminal 5, would change at Hayes and Harlington.
- Passengers from Heathrow for the West would just walk across the platform to get the train.
- No passenger would need to change platforms using the step-free bridge.
What is being provided at Hayes and Harlington station is very much a poor design.
Will the current Heathrow Connect service between Paddington and Heathrow Central and Terminal 4 be dropped?
I can’t see any point to it, after Crossrail has an all-stations service to the Airport from Paddington.
How do passengers get to and from Terminal 5?
I proposed the shuttle to do this, with passengers changing at either Hayes and Harlington or Heathrow Central stations, to a train going to either Terminal 4 or Terminal 5.
Will passengers be able to use contactless cards to the Airport?
I think if the decision was down to the Mayor, Transport for London or the people of London, Oyster and contactless bank cards would be a way of paying a fare to Heathrow, as it is to Gatwick.
Will passengers like me with Freedom Passes, be able to use Crossrail to Heathrow?
Boris said Yes and I suppose the current Mayor, Transport for London and card holders, will expect it to be possible, as it is on the Piccadilly Line.
Conclusion
The Heathrow spur of Crossrail has not been thought out too well!
Is Heathrow Connect Worth Keeping?
Today, I’ve gone to Heathrow using Heathrow Connect, ostensibly to take the pictures of the new Stockley Viaduct on the way in and the way out.
There seemed to be very few people going the whole way in either direction and at a price of £13.05 for the round trip with a Senior Railcard, it’s not cheap. But then if you went from Paddington to Heathrow by Underground, it’s only probably about twenty minutes slower.
Quite a few people were using the intermediate stations like Ealing Broadway and Hayes, but as these would not be on special expensive Heathrow prices, I suspect that they are not very profitable for the company.
When Crossrail is completed in 2019, Heathrow Connect is going to be dropped anyway as the new railway will call at all Heathrow Connect stations.
One thing I didn’t like about it was the lengthy underground walks to the station from Terminal 1.
I hope Crossrail will be improving the interchange to the terminals, when it opens. But then Crossrail will not be serving Terminal 5 and a change of train will be required.
How customer-friendly is that?
As Terminal 5 is exclusively British Airways, they must be splitting blood.
The Viaduct At Stockley Coming From Heathrow
I took these pictures coming back.
Such an impressive structure, is one of those that can’t be photographed too many times.
Note that coming back around midday the Heathrow Connect train was almost empty until it pickedup passengers in the Ealing area.
The Viaduct At Stockley Going To Heathrow
I mentioned in this post, that one of my reasons for using Heathrow Connect was to get pictures of the new viaduct at Stockley that carries the Heathrow branch of Crossrail over the Great Western Main Line.
The pictures were taken going to Heathrow.
It looks to be a very substantial viaduct. But then news reports are saving it is one of the largest bridges in the area since Brunel built the Great Western.
Restrictive Rules On Heathrow Connect And Express
I might go to look at Stockley Junction today and the best way would be to get Heathrow Connect to the airport and back.
So I checked up whether I can use my Senior Railcard on the train services. This section on the Heathrow Express gives the details about how you can. There is also this statement.
Yes, you can use a number of railcards on Heathrow Express to obtain discounted travel. To qualify you must purchase at the ticket office, not online or on board.
Obviously, they don’t agree with TfL’s policy of closing ticket offices.
They also don’t agree with the policy of the Gatwick Express as stated here.
Gatwick Express now accepts railcards online allowing you to make great savings on the already discounted online price if you have one of the following cards:
So Heathrow and Gatwick are out of step. Or you can always use the Piccadilly line, where the main problem is overcrowding.
It does appear though that according to Boris, as reported here, Crossrail will have a similar ticketing regime to the Underground.
So perhaps time will be up for the rip-off Heathrow rail services?
A Misunderstanding With Heathrow Connect
I was talking to an e-friend last night in California, who shares my interests of trains and large projects. He is getting on a bit and asked me to find an easy route from Heathrow to Barking, from where he can get a mini-cab to his sister’s. He’s coming in to Heathrow and asked me, if I knew of a step-free route.
Last time he took the Piccadilly line to Kings Cross from where he took the lifts up to the Metropolitan line for Barking. He managed it with ease, but wondered if Heathrow Express or Connect would be easier.
As I wanted to go to see the new Crossrail flyover at Stockley and I thought that Heathrow Connect would be a good camera platform to get a photo, as the train turned towards Heathrow, I told my e-friend, that I’d find out.
I checked last night and a web site told me, that my Freedom Pass could be used after 09:30 this morning.
Before I boarded the train, I asked the First Great Western man on the gate and said I’d be alright after 09:30. As it was 11:00, I boarded the train.
But I had to get off at Hayes and Harlington, as the rules seem to have changed.
I was not pleased, to say the least.
There’ll be an unholy row, if when Crossrail opens in a few years time, Freedom Passes can’t be used to the airport.
Update – I spoke to my friend late last night and he’ll be using the Piccadilly line with the Oyster card, he uses when he’s in London. He was also pleased to know, that probably from the end of this year, he’ll be able to use a contactless card as a ticket.
The Anonymous Widower 