On Sep 11, 10:24*am, "Colin McKenzie" wrote:

On Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:35:32 +0100, CJB wrote:
BAA also continues to promote the OTT expensive HEX to the detriment
of the CON. The CON is not announced at calling at Heathrow at any of
the intermediate stations. The CON's on-board p.a. does not mention
the free shuttles between Central and T4 / T5.

I have to say this does seem to be a deliberate change. The announcement *
at Ealing Broadway has been crudely doctored to remove references to *
Heathrow: the next train at platform 3 is for pause, calling at West *
Ealing ... Hayes and Harlington and pause.

Presumably too many passengers were arriving at Paddington with time to *
spare, and saving themselves 6 quid (or whatever) a head. But it's stupid *
not to mention Heathrow at intermediate stations - surely no-one would go *
in to Paddington to catch HEx from Ealing or Southall?

This will undoubtedly be a cock-up, not a conspiracy. The very raison
d'etre of Heathrow Connect is to provide a service from those
intermediate stations to Heathrow, so deliberated not not announcing
Heathrow simply doesn't make any sense at all.

My guess is that the "Heathrow" announcement has somehow become
corrupted by accident in FGW's PA playout system, and they're too
rubbish to set about fixing it quickly (suburban London services don't
appear to be the highest priority of FGW!). I know the station is
called Heathrow Central (for Terminals 1&3), but did the announcement
used to include the terminal numbers? If so there may have been some
wish to change it to delete any reference to the now closed Terminal
2.

When it started, at Paddington the Heathrow Connect services were only
announced as going as far as Hayes & Harlington, and through ticketing
from Paddington to Heathrow on HC wasn't offered - well, there was
just the more expensive HEx tickets. The cheaper through tickets from
Paddington to Heathrow on HC were a later innovation - BAA obviously
decided there was some market for offering cheaper through fares on
the HC service which wouldn't abstract passengers and revenue from the
HEx service - the marketing for this is all about 'smart Londoners',
so I think it's really aimed at attracting people who'd otherwise use
the Tube and likely would avoid HEx, what with it being somewhat
pricey.