On Jun 27, 2:11*am, Mizter T wrote:
On Jun 27, 1:34*am, John Ray
wrote:





Mizter T wrote:

On Jun 26, 9:46 pm, MIG wrote:

On 26 June, 21:24, Paul Harley wrote:

During a recent discussion on uk.r regarding validity of Oyster cards
on National Rail services during the tube strike, there was mention
that HEx would not be accepting Oyster.
The following notice was displayed in the ticket hall at Kings Cross
Underground yesterday:
"Going to Heathrow Airport?
Weekend of 27/28 June
Use the Heathrow Express from Paddington or Heathrow Connect from
Ealing Broadway. *Underground tickets and Oyster cards valid for zones
1-6 inclusive will be accepted on the above dates only. *This is the
quickest route."
So if anyone feels like giving the service a "bash" at an affordable
price, this is the weekend to do it!
The concession is because the Piccadilly Line is suspended between
Hammersmith and Northfields and between Hammersmith and Ealing Common.
Rail replacement bus services operate.

By "Oyster cards valid for zones 1-6 inclusive" do they only mean
travelcards though?

No - any Oyster card will be accepted, all that actually happens is
that the HEx conductor requires sight of one. The wording is
undoubtedly ambiguous, but I guess this is so as to not give the game
away - which is that this is a free ride on HEx to anyone with an
Oyster card!

Here is the inevitable question - does "Oyster Card" include, for this
purpose, a Freedom Pass? *AS a matter of interest, the tfl website
advises that "If you are travelling between central London and Heathrow
Airport, for Terminals 1 2 3 and 5, please use Heathrow Express to/from
Paddington and for Terminal 4, please use Heathrow Connect to/from
Paddington or Ealing Broadway. These services will accept valid
Underground tickets covering all zones between 1 and 6." So another
question is, does a Freedom Pass equate to a "valid Underground ticket"?

I did think about the Freedom Pass just after I'd posted all that. My
unofficial and non-authoritative answer would be yes, a Freedom Pass
surely must count as such - it would be rather nonsensical if it
wasn't valid. If in doubt give it a bash - last time the HEx platforms
at both Paddington and Heathrow were crawling with the blue-jacketed
LU 'helpers' that are got in in to provide assistance to pax with the
special travel arrangements during engineering works (e.g. they pop up
all over the place when there are replacement buses running on other
lines), so one could ask them for confirmation it's ok first (perhaps
worth at least pretending you've got some reason for going to Heathrow
though!).- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

However I bet that hapless tourist pax arriving at LHR will still
purchase a full rip-off fare to Paddington simply 'cos they will be
directed to the HEX / Connect platforms, and also they wont be aware
of the cheaper Travelcard alternative from the Underground ticket
offices,

Likewise at Paddington, pax for Heathrow wont necessarily be aware of
the cheaper tickets, and will purchase the expensive HEX tickets -
usually from a machine - 'cos no-one will actually stop them.

As for cross-company billing it always amazes me that BAA's Connect
especially doesn't seem to tally the no. of pax. travelling on its
services. I mean from Hayes & Harlington it is possible to catch FGW
or Connect to Paddington. Yet neither company seems to account for the
passegers using its services. Mind you before computerisation and e-
tickets airlines.used to cross-bill each other using only a 2%
sampling of tickets collected. I know - that used to be my project.
But what samples do Connect and FGW use?

CJB.