|
|
Post by wirewiper on Nov 26, 2019 16:03:57 GMT
Just recently there has been a growth in the number of TfL routes serving (or about to serve) Heathrow Airport. What makes these unusual is that the seem to be supported financially by Heathrow Airport itself, and that they are/will be on the road for very long hours with the first buses reaching Heathrow Airport before 04.00 and the last ones departing the Airport around midnight, seven days a week. Examples so far are: Courtney Buses/Thames Valley 10 (Dedworth & Windsor - Terminal 5) was upgraded from 3rd November 2019 and now operates seven days a week. The first bus leaves Dedworth at 02.57 and the last bus leaves Terminal 5 at 23.45 every day of the week and for much of the time a regular hourly service operates. www.courtneybuses.com/thamesvalleyCarlone Buses 442 (Staines-Stanwell Moor - Terminal 5) was upgraded from 10th August 2019 and also operates seven days a week. The first bus leaves Staines at 03.20 and the last departure from Terminal 5 is at 23.00 every day of the week. There is also an express route X442 which operates direct via the A3044 and omits Stanwell and Stanwell Moor. carlonelimited.co.uk/442carlonelimited.co.uk/x442Reading Buses 459 (Terminal 5 - Langley & Iver) is a new route that runs in a one-way loop around Iver and Langley. A free preview service commenced on Monday 4th November and will operate on Mondays to Fridays between 09.30-14.30 until Friday 31st January. From Monday 3rd February the route will become a daily service and will operate hourly from 03.00 until after midnight. www.reading-buses.co.uk/new-bus-link-heathrow-airportCarousel Buses 102 (High Wycombe - Heathrow Central) - from Sunday 29th December this route will be extended from Uxbridge to Heathrow Airport and most journeys will be operated using coaches displaced from route X90, to provide extra luggage capacity for Airport passengers. First bus will arrive at Heathrow Airport at 03.40 and the last departure will be 00.10, although early and late journeys will only run as far as Beaconsfield and will not serve High Wycombe. www.carouselbuses.co.uk/news/services-changes-december-2019/ |
|
|
|
Post by mark on Nov 26, 2019 16:54:21 GMT
Anyone would think they are softening up public opinion in advance of a planning inquiry about a new runway...
|
|
|
|
Post by goldenarrow on Nov 28, 2019 16:38:09 GMT
I have a look at the 102 timetable and running times and its...awful. Any non-TfL service that stops between Uxbridge and Heathrow is frankly a dead ringer because you just can't compete with a £1.50 flat fare. High Wycombe could benefit from a Rail Air stayle point to point service if working in tandem with Chiltern Railways offering multi-modal through ticketing and a competitive journey time of 25mins. Instead we are saddled with this donkey of a route that would have been much more effective it only up to Beaconsfield with more niftier single deckers. Like the RA2 Guilford, I think this route will not stand up by itself once Heathrow pull funding.
|
|
|
|
Post by M1199 on Dec 2, 2019 0:05:11 GMT
Stumbled across the proposed livery for the coaches to be used on the 102 on the Oxford Chiltern bus page: www.oxford-chiltern-bus-page.co.uk/Pictures%20for%20issue%2083/OxfordBus/Airport-Coach-livery-Carousel_InPixio.jpgFair play to Carousel for having another stab at Heathrow, hopefully they'll carry more than the penny numbers on their previous attempt. As for the use of coaches, do find that bizarre, seeing as the majority of passengers are only doing local hops. Along with Carousel's apparent 'any vehicle will do' allocation. I wonder how long it'd be before one sneaks out on something like the 1 or 40! I'd rather of them refurbished the 3 Merc OC500U MCV's (873-875) as they visually look different, given them luggage racks, more luxurious seating, USB ports, better WiFi, better sign writing to promote the route (think Chiltern Hundreds is terrible!) and maybe onboard announcements and taken it from there. The 459 is a interesting one, I don't think Iver & Richings Park residents have ever had a bus link to the Airport, cause of that I reckon it'd take time for workers to make that reluctant change to public transport. I certainly hope that Reading Buses or Thames Valley give it enough time to make residents know there is a frequent, reliable service for them to use. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2020 2:35:59 GMT
Looks like another one from 29th March. Oxford Bus Company looking to start an X50 between High Wycombe and Heathrow Central via Maidenhead and T5. An hourly service covering approx 18hrs of the day. Vehicle spec looks to be former X90 coaches. Timetable at consultations.tfl.gov.uk/lsp/1f2d3c7c/ |
|
|
|
Post by MoEnviro on Jan 16, 2020 7:31:48 GMT
Looks like another one from 29th March. Oxford Bus Company looking to start an X50 between High Wycombe and Heathrow Central via Maidenhead and T5. An hourly service covering approx 18hrs of the day. Vehicle spec looks to be former X90 coaches. Timetable at consultations.tfl.gov.uk/lsp/1f2d3c7c/I’m surprised it’s being registered as Oxford, I would have thought Carousel would have had it as an express ‘hundred’. |
|
|
|
Post by goldenarrow on Jan 17, 2020 17:56:31 GMT
Looks like another one from 29th March. Oxford Bus Company looking to start an X50 between High Wycombe and Heathrow Central via Maidenhead and T5. An hourly service covering approx 18hrs of the day. Vehicle spec looks to be former X90 coaches. Timetable at consultations.tfl.gov.uk/lsp/1f2d3c7c/I’m surprised it’s being registered as Oxford, I would have thought Carousel would have had it as an express ‘hundred’. I totally agree its a bizarre. Chiltern Hundred 102 was a LSP modification but can't use Stand 20 at Heathrow CBS because they have opted to use coaches so now have to rub shoulders with NX, Megabus, RailAir and OXF Airline services which isn't going to well as the 102 have had a litany of bumps and scrapes on Stands 7-17 since its introduction. At least the X50 isn't trying to masquerade as local bus route which was hilarious because Carousel genuinely couldn't see the issue of getting a coach on the local bus stands, clearly they had forgotten about the laws of physics.... |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 18, 2020 2:49:03 GMT
Looks like another one from 29th March. Oxford Bus Company looking to start an X50 between High Wycombe and Heathrow Central via Maidenhead and T5. An hourly service covering approx 18hrs of the day. Vehicle spec looks to be former X90 coaches. Timetable at consultations.tfl.gov.uk/lsp/1f2d3c7c/I’m surprised it’s being registered as Oxford, I would have thought Carousel would have had it as an express ‘hundred’. They are running it under their ‘Airline’ brand. I wouldn’t be surprised if the coaches are operated from Carousel’s base though as a new outstation, particularly as the engineers there are looking after identical vehicles now. |
|
|
|
Post by N230UD on Jan 26, 2020 20:17:08 GMT
I travelled on the revised Courtney route 10 yesterday, from Windsor to T5. A BA cabin crew member and I were the only passengers for the whole journey. There must be busier journeys though, and I can't judge a whole service on just one journey I used. May be due to the fact this particular Saturday afternoon journey doesn't run during the week, where there is usually a large gap. Good to see staff using it though. Was a nice comfy Solo SR which I charged my phone on via the USB socket, and a friendly driver too.
A fascinating route though, from the pretty but tourist trap of Windsor, then villages like Datchet with small narrow roads, and past numerous reservoirs. And then suddenly thrown into one of Europe's busiest airports. Quite a contrast.
With all this new funding for routes from Heathrow, I was hoping to see more publicity and better information at the Terminal 5 bus station. Nope, it's still absolutely rubbish. E-tiles still not updated, posters mentioning routes withdrawn years ago. There doesn't seem to be a main sign telling you all the buses and where to find them. To find out where to get your bus, you have to look at each individual stop to check, and hope there is a timetable actually there, and hope it's up to date!
I'd expect this in some market town, but not at a major transport hub in a capital city.
So, brave tourists have to interrupt drivers breaks to try and get some information.
|
|
|
|
Post by goldenarrow on Jan 26, 2020 21:37:09 GMT
With all this new funding for routes from Heathrow, I was hoping to see more publicity and better information at the Terminal 5 bus station. Nope, it's still absolutely rubbish. E-tiles still not updated, posters mentioning routes withdrawn years ago. There doesn't seem to be a main sign telling you all the buses and where to find them. To find out where to get your bus, you have to look at each individual stop to check, and hope there is a timetable actually there, and hope it's up to date! I'd expect this in some market town, but not at a major transport hub in a capital city. So, brave tourists have to interrupt drivers breaks to try and get some information. T5 has had an information blackout on the bus stands ever since HAL stitched up the tendering process for the operations contract at said terminal. It was deferred at least three times and that left the stops in a dire state as none of the works teams were ever dispatched because of the perviced change to contracts that never took place. Things should start to change in April as the new contactor takes over management of the stops at T5 then. |
|
|
|
Post by N230UD on Jan 29, 2020 20:56:13 GMT
With all this new funding for routes from Heathrow, I was hoping to see more publicity and better information at the Terminal 5 bus station. Nope, it's still absolutely rubbish. E-tiles still not updated, posters mentioning routes withdrawn years ago. There doesn't seem to be a main sign telling you all the buses and where to find them. To find out where to get your bus, you have to look at each individual stop to check, and hope there is a timetable actually there, and hope it's up to date! I'd expect this in some market town, but not at a major transport hub in a capital city. So, brave tourists have to interrupt drivers breaks to try and get some information. T5 has had an information blackout on the bus stands ever since HAL stitched up the tendering process for the operations contract at said terminal. It was deferred at least three times and that left the stops in a dire state as none of the works teams were ever dispatched because of the perviced change to contracts that never took place. Things should start to change in April as the new contactor takes over management of the stops at T5 then. Thanks for that info, I wasn't aware of that. Lets hope things start to change in April. Even spending an hour or so just putting stickers over the long withdrawn bus routes shown on the 'where to get your bus' poster, with the revised routes would be helpful. Surely that can't be too difficult? Also, i'm guessing the e-tiles are TfL's responsibility as they are TfL stops. Of course, the routes that need updating are non-TfL routes, but still... |
|
|
|
Post by goldenarrow on Jan 29, 2020 21:20:46 GMT
N230UD , Experience tells me that once a contractor is appointed, all ongoing works no matter how small stop. Only project ongoing at the moment is a capacity study to review the timetable allocations given at certain times of the day. Apart from that, everything else is paused. You're correct that the London Bus stops are under the jurisdiction of TfL with regards to tiles and associated posters but they only act on the maintenance logs carried out by the contractor which Heathrow haven't passed on for quite some time because of their endless dirthering on this issue.
|
|
