I find the choice of this weekend to block the route from Heathrow to
central London particularly inconsiderate to passengers. I'm sure this is
one of the busier weekends at Heathrow with people on Christmas and New Year
breaks returning. There were a lot of people with luggage everywhere.

I flew off on a holiday on 27th December with no mention of the works and
got back this evening recommended to change at Acton Town and Ealing
Broadway to reach King's Cross via the Central Line and Oxford Circus. TfL's
Journey Planner suggested a journey time of 1 hour 20 minutes, not too bad.

With no indication at Heathrow T123 we discovered the train we found and
took terminated at Northfields. That is just taking the **** when the
service was terminating at Acton Town anyway. It's not as if the frequency
was high. The next train at Northfields was a 10 minute wait. Then the PA at
Acton Town was directing people to replacement buses when the signboards
were telling them to go over the bridge to get a District service from
platform 2 to Ealing Broadway (as had the Journey Planner). The west end of
platform 1 had stop blocks so was out of use. All that luggage would have
been interesting on replacement buses!

Does the signalling at Acton Town really not allow a District Ealing
Broadway shuttle to and from platform 4? That would have allowed a
cross-platform connection from Heathrow to Ealing Broadway, where there is a
level connection to the Central Line. There was a huge queue for the Acton
Town lift from people with luggage and little staff presence to help people
with the disruption (none at all at Northfields).

In the end our journey to Kings Cross St Pancras took and hour and forty
minutes with four changes. Not good, especially with three large cases plus
smaller bags, a wife with a broken arm and six-year-old granddaughter.

Why oh why don't they let airport passengers use Heathrow Express or Connect
as an alternative when there are blockages like this and why can't they
avoid the busiest holiday weekends?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

wrote in message
...

Why oh why don't they let airport passengers use Heathrow Express or
Connect
as an alternative
They do, don't they? = or are you saying Heathrow Express wasn't running
either?

You had a number of options at various prices for the journey. You took a
choice for the price you were prepared to pay, and that's the service you
got.

--
DAS

In article , (D A Stocks)
wrote:

wrote in message
...

Why oh why don't they let airport passengers use Heathrow Express or
Connect as an alternative
They do, don't they? = or are you saying Heathrow Express wasn't
running either?

They stopped allowing tube passengers from using HEx as an alternative ages
ago. They also seem to have an awful lot of engineering possessions closing
all four tracks between Hammersmith and Acton Town.

You had a number of options at various prices for the journey. You
took a choice for the price you were prepared to pay, and that's the
service you got.

The best option by far for me with luggage is normally the Piccadilly Line.
King's Cross to Heathrow direct on one train with no unavoidable stairs to
platforms at either station. It's how we got there on December 27th.

Heathrow Express goes to a useless destination made more so by the
curtailment of the Circle service. More lengthy stairs without lifts at
Paddington or Edgware Road. Though lifts like those at Acton Town with so
many passengers with luggage around are also pretty hopeless.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 18:03:53
on Sat, 5 Jan 2013, remarked:
I find the choice of this weekend to block the route from Heathrow to
central London particularly inconsiderate to passengers. I'm sure this is
one of the busier weekends at Heathrow with people on Christmas and New Year
breaks returning. There were a lot of people with luggage everywhere.

Whenever the news reports a "busy day" at Heathrow, the numbers they
quote are usually extremely close to the average. Because most flights
at Heathrow are full, and there's no slots for extra aircraft, there
isn't much of a daily fluctuation.

(From the airport's website, daily average 190k/busiest ever day 233k)
--
Roland Perry

My condolences. Now you know why many people with luggage prefer to
travel to and from Heathrow by car: their own or a cab.

wrote in message
...

Heathrow Express goes to a useless destination made more so by the
curtailment of the Circle service. More lengthy stairs without lifts at
Paddington or Edgware Road. Though lifts like those at Acton Town with so
many passengers with luggage around are also pretty hopeless.

--
Colin Rosenstiel



Assuming you mean Paddington, not Heathrow, I think the interpretation of
"useless destination" rather depends on where you are starting from. Those
served by the FGW network might find it quite handy.



Cambridge is not, necessarily, the centre of the universe.

On 06/01/2013 00:03, wrote:
I find the choice of this weekend to block the route from Heathrow to
central London particularly inconsiderate to passengers. I'm sure this is
one of the busier weekends at Heathrow with people on Christmas and New Year
breaks returning. There were a lot of people with luggage everywhere.

I flew off on a holiday on 27th December with no mention of the works and
got back this evening recommended to change at Acton Town and Ealing
Broadway to reach King's Cross via the Central Line and Oxford Circus. TfL's
Journey Planner suggested a journey time of 1 hour 20 minutes, not too bad.

With no indication at Heathrow T123 we discovered the train we found and
took terminated at Northfields. That is just taking the **** when the
service was terminating at Acton Town anyway. It's not as if the frequency
was high. The next train at Northfields was a 10 minute wait. Then the PA at
Acton Town was directing people to replacement buses when the signboards
were telling them to go over the bridge to get a District service from
platform 2 to Ealing Broadway (as had the Journey Planner). The west end of
platform 1 had stop blocks so was out of use. All that luggage would have
been interesting on replacement buses!

Does the signalling at Acton Town really not allow a District Ealing
Broadway shuttle to and from platform 4? That would have allowed a
cross-platform connection from Heathrow to Ealing Broadway, where there is a
level connection to the Central Line. There was a huge queue for the Acton
Town lift from people with luggage and little staff presence to help people
with the disruption (none at all at Northfields).

In the end our journey to Kings Cross St Pancras took and hour and forty
minutes with four changes. Not good, especially with three large cases plus
smaller bags, a wife with a broken arm and six-year-old granddaughter.

Why oh why don't they let airport passengers use Heathrow Express or Connect
as an alternative when there are blockages like this and why can't they
avoid the busiest holiday weekends?


Who are "they" in the above sentence?

If "they" are TfL, then do you think TfL should accept being held over a
barrel by LHR Airports Ltd (nee BAA), owner of HEx, for the amount
LHR/HEx wishes to charge to allow acceptance of LU tickets on HEx? (I
understand the demand for recompense is rather significant.)

You say you flew off "on a holiday on 27th December with no mention of
the works" - just wondering if you looked out for any posters on your
outbound journey? There would certainly have been mention of the works
on the TfL website here (under "Future dates"):
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/livetravelnews/realtime/tube/default.html

Perhaps it was a bad choice of weekends, but in a sense no weekend is a
good choice given how busy Heathrow is.

wrote:
I find the choice of this weekend to block the route from Heathrow to
central London particularly inconsiderate to passengers. I'm sure this is
one of the busier weekends at Heathrow with people on Christmas and New Year
breaks returning. There were a lot of people with luggage everywhere.

I flew off on a holiday on 27th December with no mention of the works and
got back this evening recommended to change at Acton Town and Ealing
Broadway to reach King's Cross via the Central Line and Oxford Circus. TfL's
Journey Planner suggested a journey time of 1 hour 20 minutes, not too bad.

Obviously a bad journey home, for which I sympathasise. I wonder, however,
if you checked the TfL Journey Planner for the homeward journey before
departing? I always do, especially if I hope to travel over a weekend,
especially over the Xmas/new year period.

wrote in message
...
In article , (D A
Stocks)
wrote:

wrote in message
...

Why oh why don't they let airport passengers use Heathrow Express or
Connect as an alternative
They do, don't they? = or are you saying Heathrow Express wasn't
running either?

They stopped allowing tube passengers from using HEx as an alternative
ages
ago. They also seem to have an awful lot of engineering possessions
closing
all four tracks between Hammersmith and Acton Town.

However, the fact remains that the service was there and Colin *chose* not
to use it.

You had a number of options at various prices for the journey. You
took a choice for the price you were prepared to pay, and that's the
service you got.

The best option by far for me with luggage is normally the Piccadilly
Line.

.... but only if it's running. It wasn't and, knowing this (complete with
those three large cases plus smaller bags, a wife with a broken arm and
six-year-old granddaughter) you *chose* to use the service that was on offer
for the price you payed.


Heathrow Express goes to a useless destination

Hang on a minute, in your original post you said

Why oh why don't they let airport passengers use Heathrow Express

--
DAS

wrote in
:

I find the choice of this weekend to block the route from Heathrow to
central London particularly inconsiderate to passengers. I'm sure this
is one of the busier weekends at Heathrow with people on Christmas and
New Year breaks returning. There were a lot of people with luggage
everywhere.


At least you weren't trying to come in from Uxbridge.

The Met is closed as well....

David