[Colin Rosenstiel]

In article ,
(Paul Terry) wrote:

Before the Piccadilly Line extension, if you weren't travelling to
Heathrow by cab or car you would normally check in at the West London
Air Terminal in Cromwell Road. You and your luggage would then be taken
by BEA (or BOAC) coach down the A4 (and later the M4) to the
appropriate terminal building at Heathrow. Prior to 1957 I believe the
check-in was at Waterloo, although the onward journey was still by
airline coach.

Victoria, wasn't it?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

[Brimstone]

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:
In article ,
(Paul Terry) wrote:

Before the Piccadilly Line extension, if you weren't travelling to
Heathrow by cab or car you would normally check in at the West London
Air Terminal in Cromwell Road. You and your luggage would then be
taken by BEA (or BOAC) coach down the A4 (and later the M4) to the
appropriate terminal building at Heathrow. Prior to 1957 I believe
the check-in was at Waterloo, although the onward journey was still
by airline coach.

Victoria, wasn't it?

Yes, where the Colonnade Walk shopping and office complex now is.

[Mark Brader]

Paul Corfield:
Funny that years ago the Piccadilly Line used to run only as far as
Hounslow West and everyone was kicked off on to a bus to get to
Heathrow.

Yes, well, this might have something to do with the fact that the line
to Hounslow was several decades older than the airport, which became
important at a time when there was very little funding for Underground
extensions.

Annabel Smyth:
... the way you went to Heathrow then was by coach from the West
London Air Terminal ...

Well, you could also go from Hounslow West. On the 1958 sample map
in PDF at http://www.busmap.org, it's the number 91 bus; on the 1970
map, it's route A1. In 1975, due to my father making a side trip
while we were on vacation in Britain, I ended up traveling to Heathrow
both via that route and from the WLAT.

The A1 was then a single-decker bus service, and I remember that when
I paid my fare I was given two tickets that added up to the correct
total amount (I have the impression it was 12p + 3p = 15p); being
used to the North American practice that when there is a flat fare
you don't need a ticket at all, this struck me as particularly quaint.
The service from the WLAT, at a rather higher price, was a double-decker
that trundled along the M4, riding very roughly, at 40-45 mph with all
the other traffic swishing by.
--
Mark Brader | Peter Neumann on Y2K:
Toronto | This problem gives new meaning to "going out on
| a date" (which many systems will do on 1/1/00).

My text in this article is in the public domain.

[Colin Rosenstiel]

In article , (Mark Brader)
wrote:

Paul Corfield:
Funny that years ago the Piccadilly Line used to run only as far as
Hounslow West and everyone was kicked off on to a bus to get to
Heathrow.

Yes, well, this might have something to do with the fact that the line
to Hounslow was several decades older than the airport, which became
important at a time when there was very little funding for Underground
extensions.

Annabel Smyth:
... the way you went to Heathrow then was by coach from the West
London Air Terminal ...

Well, you could also go from Hounslow West. On the 1958 sample map
in PDF at http://www.busmap.org, it's the number 91 bus; on the 1970
map, it's route A1. In 1975, due to my father making a side trip
while we were on vacation in Britain, I ended up traveling to Heathrow
both via that route and from the WLAT.

The A1 was then a single-decker bus service, and I remember that when
I paid my fare I was given two tickets that added up to the correct
total amount (I have the impression it was 12p + 3p = 15p); being
used to the North American practice that when there is a flat fare
you don't need a ticket at all, this struck me as particularly quaint.
The service from the WLAT, at a rather higher price, was a double-decker
that trundled along the M4, riding very roughly, at 40-45 mph with all
the other traffic swishing by.

Was that the era of the RMAs, complete with baggage trailers?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

[Richard J.]

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:
In article , (Mark
Brader) wrote:

Paul Corfield:
Funny that years ago the Piccadilly Line used to run only as far
as Hounslow West and everyone was kicked off on to a bus to get
to Heathrow.

Yes, well, this might have something to do with the fact that the
line to Hounslow was several decades older than the airport, which
became important at a time when there was very little funding for
Underground extensions.

Annabel Smyth:
... the way you went to Heathrow then was by coach from the West
London Air Terminal ...

Well, you could also go from Hounslow West. On the 1958 sample map
in PDF at http://www.busmap.org, it's the number 91 bus; on the
1970 map, it's route A1. In 1975, due to my father making a side
trip
while we were on vacation in Britain, I ended up traveling to
Heathrow both via that route and from the WLAT.

The A1 was then a single-decker bus service, and I remember that
when
I paid my fare I was given two tickets that added up to the correct
total amount (I have the impression it was 12p + 3p = 15p); being
used to the North American practice that when there is a flat fare
you don't need a ticket at all, this struck me as particularly
quaint. The service from the WLAT, at a rather higher price, was a
double-decker that trundled along the M4, riding very roughly, at
40-45 mph with all the other traffic swishing by.

Was that the era of the RMAs, complete with baggage trailers?

Yes, indeed. Details at Ian's Bus Stop at
http://www.fortunecity.com/silversto...8/RMA/RMA.html
There are photos (the ones labelled BEA...) at
http://www.users.waitrose.com/~vangastow4/rm/rm05.htm

--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

[Mrs Redboots]

Brimstone wrote to uk.transport.london on Thu, 26 May 2005:

Mrs Redboots wrote:
And
I think there was also a terminal opposite Victoria Coach station, if
I remember rightly.

Not quite opposite, it was in Buckingham Palace Road over some of the
railway tracks out of Victoria; where there is now a big shopping/office
complex.


You are probably right - I *thought* I remembered it as being where the
National Audit Office is, opposite the Coach Station, but that's
probably my memory!
--
"Mrs Redboots"
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/
Website updated 23 May 2005

[Jim Brittin]

In article ,
says...
In article ,
(Paul Terry) wrote:

Before the Piccadilly Line extension, if you weren't travelling to
Heathrow by cab or car you would normally check in at the West London
Air Terminal in Cromwell Road. You and your luggage would then be taken
by BEA (or BOAC) coach down the A4 (and later the M4) to the
appropriate terminal building at Heathrow. Prior to 1957 I believe the
check-in was at Waterloo, although the onward journey was still by
airline coach.

Victoria, wasn't it?



BEA - Waterloo, later West London Air Terminal

BOAC - Victoria

KLM - Sloane Street

[Boltar]

Funny that years ago the Piccadilly Line used to run only as far as
Hounslow West and everyone was kicked off on to a bus to get to
Heathrow.

And because it was awkward so they extended the tube to heathrow
rather proving my point. I'm not sure what yours was, did you have one?

B2003

[James Farrar]

Boltar wrote:
Funny that years ago the Piccadilly Line used to run only as far as
Hounslow West and everyone was kicked off on to a bus to get to
Heathrow.


And because it was awkward so they extended the tube to heathrow
rather proving my point. I'm not sure what yours was, did you have one?

That it needed Heathrow to be far busier than LCY is now to consider that it was
worth it?

[Boltar]

When the tube initially arrived at Hounslow back in the 30s, heathrow
was a
patch of grass with some bi-planes sitting on it. When the jubilee line
was
extended LCA was already a busy airport and IMO was a clear target
for the JLE to terminate at instead of the rather pointless terminus
at Stratford.

B2003