On Sep 11, 11:33*am, Mizter T wrote:
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.

It has been that way for at least a year.
At Hayes and Harlington, the announcements used to say "calling at...
and Heathrow Terminal 4",
except for a few times when it lost Terminal 4 as well, so they said
"calling at... and..."
Now I believe they say "calling at... and Heathrow Airport".