On Apr 21, 12:24*am, Mr Thant
wrote:

On Apr 20, 11:54*pm, Abigail Brady wrote:

Are the HEX platforms at Paddington gated; and is there anywhere to
touch out at the Heathrow end?

No and no. So the journey is free.

I believe the publicity last time this happened implied you needed to
have a Z1-6 Travelcard (paper or Oyster) or a paper ticket, but the
Heathrow Express conductors aren't issued with Oyster card readers,
and are not instructed to even ask what's on the card.


That's not quite right. Initially the publicity stated that you needed
to have a Z1-6 Travelcard if you wanted to use HEx, and also if you
wanted to use Heathrow Connect to/from Heathrow (even if you were only
starting from Ealing Broadway for example).

However during later Picc closures and associated HEx substitution
this changed to stating that you could use Oyster PAYG so long as you
had sufficient PAYG credit on your card, or some other such ambiguous
wording.

I only realised there had been a change because I decided to go for a
ride on the HEx during one of these weekends, and armed myself with a
Travelcard - I was then surprised to see the number of people who
wielded an Oyster card when the conductor turned up. So once at the
Heathrow end I asked one of the several LU passenger assistants who
was milling about what the story was - they said Oyster PAYG could
indeed be used, and also that there was no requirement to touch-in or
out at the start/end of the HEx or HC journey [1]. I again asked the
same question at the Paddington end and got the same answer.

I then looked at the publicity and it also stated that Oyster PAYG was
acceptable. In other words the rules for 'LU passengers' using the HEx
on substitution days had indeed changed to become more flexible. I
have buried somewhere a few leaflets regarding the Picc line closures
which illustrate this change, so I guess I could scan them if I find
them soon. I'd intended to post about this here on utl, but I'm afraid
I never quite got round to it at the time.


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[1] With regards to Heathrow Connect, one can see the potential for
getting hit with an unresolved journey if changing between the Tube
and HC at Ealing B'way and not touching-in/out on the interchange
validators there - or likewise the potential for an unresolved journey
if entering or exiting the system at Ealing Broadway. That is, unless
the gates and readers at Ealing Broadway had been reconfigured for
that weekend so as to merely charge the minimum PAYG fare and exclude
it from being categorised as an unresolved journey, which I think it
possible - I thought of getting to Ealing B'way to test this out, but
I hadn't the time on that day.