Another nightmare weekend courtesy of the BAA - g*d help us when the
Spanish takeover.

This last weekend the T4L London to Heathrow Pic. line was out of
action yet again for repairs / rebuilding / planned engineering works /
whatever - but this time HEX / Connect were NOT accepting Z1-6
Travelcards into/out of Heathrow. The two alternatives were T4L bus
rail replacement services to/from North Acton (??), or a ripoff £15 /
£9 for a single ticket on the BAA's toy electric trains. Heathrow
Airport staff were equally inconvenienced by this alternative
arrangement.

Secondly the Network Rail / Railtrack signalmen at Reading were really
playing trains - as they usually do at weekends - by swopping the
tracks of FGW Intercity and HEX / Connect services. So frequently at
Hayes Station whilst say a FGW Intercity train sped through on the up
slow local, a Connect from Heathrow came into platform 2 on the up fast
and stopped there - but unfortunately for the pax. waiting for it on
platform 4 was unannounced. Unfortunately dozens of hapless passengers
then had the choice of running up and down stairs from platform 4 to 2
or simply not botherng. The Connect staff however chose the dangerous
process of closing the doors as passengers were still running over the
footbridges and along the platforms. As readers will remember there is
an issue with Connect services stopping far away from the station
entrance. Some pax. made it, some did not. The doors were closed on
them regardless - whilst both the driver and the ticket checking staff
laughed at them as the train drew away. This is appalling customer
service and dangerous - but exactly what local users of HEX / Connect
now expect from the BAA which is more interested in running airport
hypermarkets than running a decent transport service.

CJB.