On Mon, 1 Jun 2015 12:32:55 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at 12:06:28 on
Mon, 1 Jun 2015, Recliner remarked:
There certainly won't be a grade-separated route from the GW main
lines to the Crossrail tunnels in 2018.

We are talking about post-2023

What happens then?

In message , at 11:47:32 on
Mon, 1 Jun 2015, Paul Corfield remarked:
Sorry but the £230m has now turned into £70m because of the view of
the CAA. All included in the National Audit Office report on
Crossrail. The DfT have to pick up the tab for private sector funding
shortfalls.

Still within the contingency (for such hiccups).

See para 2.16 of
http://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/upl.../Crossrail.pdf

You'll excuse me if I'm not very sympathetic to Heathrow's position
even if it was their regulator who made the final determination as to
the Crossrail contribution.

Clearly, if they get a third runway then they'll get more benefit, and
maybe the sums will be done again.

Given that the only reason Heathrow built HEx, at their own expense, was
to meet local emissions rules (arising from less road traffic to the
airport) I'm not as unsympathetic as yourself about later decisions from
regulators who are in effect saying that Crossrail can't increase the
passenger usage of the airport, and therefore why should the airport pay
so much to install a competitor.

Are Crossrail paying a commercial rate to use the stations at the
airport, or is that another subsidy from HAL?

--
Roland Perry

On Mon, 1 Jun 2015 12:41:52 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at 11:47:32 on
Mon, 1 Jun 2015, Paul Corfield remarked:
Sorry but the £230m has now turned into £70m because of the view of
the CAA. All included in the National Audit Office report on
Crossrail. The DfT have to pick up the tab for private sector funding
shortfalls.

Still within the contingency (for such hiccups).

See para 2.16 of
http://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/upl.../Crossrail.pdf

You'll excuse me if I'm not very sympathetic to Heathrow's position
even if it was their regulator who made the final determination as to
the Crossrail contribution.

Clearly, if they get a third runway then they'll get more benefit, and
maybe the sums will be done again.

They'll have to be. If LHR does get the third runway, there will
undoubtedly be all sorts of strict additional emissions, noise,
transport links, etc, requirements and restrictions.

On Sun, May 31, 2015 at 10:41:19AM +0100, Paul Corfield wrote:

They are not permitted to undercut parallel TOC services.

We wouldn't want to have multiple operators on a route actually
competing with each other, would we!

--
David Cantrell | top google result for "topless karaoke murders"

Irregular English:
ladies glow; gentlemen perspire; brutes, oafs and athletes sweat

On Sun, May 31, 2015 at 10:07:38AM +0000, Recliner wrote:

Surely it's worth having [Stansted] on Oyster, whoever runs the
trains? I think a lot more Londoners would use it if no separate
tickets were required.

Hands up everyone who chooses which airport to fly from based on what
species of train ticket you'll use to get there.

[looks around]

So that's approximately no-one.

--
David Cantrell | top google result for "topless karaoke murders"

Vegetarian: n: a person who, due to poor lifestyle choices,
is more likely to get arse cancer than a normal person

On Mon, 01 Jun 2015 13:09:22 +0100, David Cantrell
wrote:

On Sun, May 31, 2015 at 10:07:38AM +0000, Recliner wrote:

Surely it's worth having [Stansted] on Oyster, whoever runs the
trains? I think a lot more Londoners would use it if no separate
tickets were required.

Hands up everyone who chooses which airport to fly from based on what
species of train ticket you'll use to get there.

[looks around]

So that's approximately no-one.

As I'm sure you know, I meant more people would choose to travel to
the airport by train, not that more people would choose that airport.

Mizter T wrote:

Other than the graphic and initial loading, is there any functional difference
between a regular and visitor Oyster card?


Yes. There's no deposit so (I think) you actually own the Visitor Oyster
card and can't return it, and you can't add season Travelcards or Bus
Passes to it, nor load any concession (e.g. Railcard discount, the Bus &
Tram Discount card for those who qualify).

Interesting - thank you.

In message , at 13:09:22
on Mon, 1 Jun 2015, David Cantrell remarked:
Surely it's worth having [Stansted] on Oyster, whoever runs the
trains? I think a lot more Londoners would use it if no separate
tickets were required.

Hands up everyone who chooses which airport to fly from based on what
species of train ticket you'll use to get there.

[looks around]

So that's approximately no-one.

I obviously didn't get my hand up quickly enough.

My decisions (for myself and travel-agent-dad) on which airport to use
are as much dominated by the public transport options getting there and
back from home, as the price of the flights.

--
Roland Perry

In message , at 12:38:34 on
Mon, 1 Jun 2015, Recliner remarked:
There certainly won't be a grade-separated route from the GW main
lines to the Crossrail tunnels in 2018.

We are talking about post-2023

What happens then?

The current HEx contract for access between Airport Junction and
Paddington expires. So *something* will get re-negotiated.
--
Roland Perry

David Cantrell wrote:
On Sun, May 31, 2015 at 10:07:38AM +0000, Recliner wrote:

Surely it's worth having [Stansted] on Oyster, whoever runs the
trains? I think a lot more Londoners would use it if no separate
tickets were required.

Hands up everyone who chooses which airport to fly from based on what
species of train ticket you'll use to get there.

[looks around]

So that's approximately no-one.


To be fair, I do choose which airport I fly to partly based on the cost and
convenience of the rail journey in London (my destination normally being
south London.) If I have a straight choice between Gatwick, Luton and
Stansted then Gatwick wins every time (sadly I only get that choice in
winter because EJ only fly here during ski season.) The relative cheapness
of the fare on Southern combined with now being able to use The Key to
avoid the ticket queues make it a comparative pleasure to use Gatwick (back
when you had to join the queue for the ticket machines, less so.)

Between Luton & Stansted, I'll fly to Luton wherever possible because
despite the inconvenient bus element it's considerably cheaper to then get
into town.

The outrageous cost of the StEX strongly puts me off Stansted - I have
flown more than once on tickets where the train to London cost more than
the airfare. The availability of the aforementioned 'any train on the day'
apex tickets will influence my decision, but if they had Oyster /coupled
with somewhat less outrageous fares/ that would make a real difference to
my choice of flights. Until then, once (I presume you can't yet?) you can
use Oyster at Luton & Gatwick, the already limited appeal of Stansted is
definitely going to be diminished.

(For completeness, flight costs mean Heathrow is rarely in the equation!)