On Sep 6, 9:45*am, Neil Williams wrote:
On 5 Sep, 10:57, "John C" wrote:

Yes they do run empty to terminal 5.

To the platform? *If so, how bloody silly. *I assume they don't run in
service deliberately to make it less convenient and make people use
HEx.

Neil

Oh yes - they run the CONnect to T5 to 'turn it round' - well park it
for a while out of the way of the HEX and T4 shuttle.

Now they don't really need the CON since it was part of the strategy
to improve surface access to Heathrow to aid the case for the third
runway. The latter has now been more or less abandoned and so BAA
isn't so focused on improving public or worker access to the airport.

But part of the deal for CON was to take the paths of the Slough
FGWL / Thames Trains locals. So it has to continue to serve the local
stations between Hayes and Paddington - a role that apparently BAA is
not too happy to continue. And BAA is cash strapped hence the run down
of CON services.

Airport workers actually rarely use the CON even with concessionary
fares. The lack of use can be clearly seen when almost everyone
detrains at Hayes and the CON goes into the aiport empty. Likewise at
hayes the CON comes out of the airport empty to mainly pick up at
Hayes. There are better and cheaper public services to/from Hayes /
Southall and the airport in the shape of the grossly over-crowded 105
and 140 buses.

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.

And even the CON's on-board staff are demoralised since they rarely
check tckets like they used to.

CJB.

P.S. BAA is well cash-strapped. When we passed through T5 a few
weekends ago we were gobsmacked to see the LED boards that usually
list arrivals and departures (e.g. flight nos., times and gates etc.)
have been replaced with displays of adverts for IBM, Toyota, etc. We
had to hunt the Terminal for any dep. or arr. displays.

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?

Colin McKenzie

--
No-one has ever proved that cycle helmets make cycling any safer at the
population level, and anyway cycling is about as safe per mile as walking.
Make an informed choice - visit www.cyclehelmets.org.

In article op.viu222raby8eno@sheepdog, (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?

That nasty taste of HEx being more about screwing than serving the public
is why I refuse ever to use it.

It is scandalous that the main public transport route to London's main
airport is allowed to get away with it. The result is even more cars to
the airport of course.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

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.

Mizter T wrote:
suburban London services don't
appear to be the highest priority of FGW!


It doesn't actually matter which part of FGW you are talking about. No
FGW user from London to Penzance, Swansea, Hereford or Banbury would
ever get the impression that the services they use are FGW's priority.
FGW's contempt for its customers is total and encompasses every part
of their empire.

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".

On Sep 11, 1:43*pm, David wrote:
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".- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

"Now I believe they say "calling at... and Heathrow Airport". " - not
so.

They say "calling at ... [silence]" where [silence] should be
"Heathrow Airport" or "Heathrow Central."

And the closure of T2 is nothing to do with any of this 'cos T2 was
never announced at any FGW stations before.

On board the failure to inform about the T5 and T4 connections /
shutttles is also deliberate. Its not so much FGW treating passengers
with arrogant disdain, its BAA who can't even run a simple out and
back train service.

BAA is so strapped for cash that even the arrival / departure screens
at T5 (and possibly other terminals) has been replaced with adverts
instead of arrival / departure information.

CJB

On Sep 13, 9:36*am, CJB wrote:
On Sep 11, 1:43*pm, David wrote:





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".- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

"Now I believe they say "calling at... and Heathrow Airport". " - not
so.

They say "calling at ... [silence]" where [silence] should be
"Heathrow Airport" or "Heathrow Central."

And the closure of T2 is nothing to do with any of this 'cos T2 was
never announced at any FGW stations before.

On board the failure to inform about the T5 and T4 connections /
shutttles is also deliberate. Its not so much FGW treating passengers
with arrogant disdain, its BAA who can't even run a simple out and
back train service.

BAA is so strapped for cash that even the arrival / departure screens
at T5 (and possibly other terminals) has been replaced with adverts
instead of arrival / departure information.

CJB- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Another anomly is that the T4/T5 shuttles are not mentioned at all -
either on the FGW timetables nor on board the HEX or CONnect.
(Actually sometimes the CONnect driver - usually a woman - WILL make
an ad-hoc announcement about the shuttles - but this is unauthorised
by BAA).

On the FGW timetables for Saturday there are big gaps in the apparent
CONnect services from Paddington to T4. It is as though there are no
services at all to T4 - therefore intending passengers MUST use the
expensive HEX. As I said there is no mention of any of the shuttles.

The whole situation of the HEX and CON are appalling - but I believe
that its not FGW but BAA that is deliberately misleading the public.

CJB.

Was it different before?
I remember it was hourly at the end of April, and pretty sure I saw it
announced as hourly last year.