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Post by buspete on Jun 15, 2024 10:21:02 GMT
As we were doing about Gatwick Express on another thread, so thought it is worth asking the question has the introduction of the Elizabeth Line hit the amount of traffic carried on the Heathrow Express?
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Post by Busboy105 on Jun 15, 2024 18:14:59 GMT
As we were doing about Gatwick Express on another thread, so thought it is worth asking the question has the introduction of the Elizabeth Line hit the amount of traffic carried on the Heathrow Express? Probably. Took the Heathrow Express today. Wasn't as full as I expected. The price probably would be put people off now however TFL have pretty much matched their prices for travelling to Heathrow on the Lizzie and Piccadilly lines |
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Post by rif153 on Jun 15, 2024 18:17:32 GMT
London reconnections did an excellent piece on this a few months back: www.londonreconnections.com/2023/the-slow-death-of-heathrow-express/Heathrow is obivously not as far out of London as the likes of Gatwick, Luton and Stansted. The Heathrow Express also arrived at the airport later than the Piccadilly Line and I don't think its ever been able to fully establish itself as the "default" way of getting to the airport. The notorious rip off fare puts people off and the terminals at Heathrow are no longer draped in branding pushing you towards HEX like they used to. In addition, the express only takes you as far as Paddington which, location-wise, is a pretty poor excuse for a Central London terminus and is a frustrating place to be turfed off a train if you have to change again. Its very difficult to see Heathrow Express surviving on current trends, the Elizabeth Line's opening has really hurt its post-pandemic recovery. The Elizabeth Line is already pretty steep, but its unclear what incentive there is to pay more for the Heathrow Express to Paddington instead, unless you have more money than sense. The demise of the Heathrow Express shows that speed isn't everything, as the Elizabeth line offers an array of convenient connections that help people living all over London. If the Heathrow Express is discotinued then there I don't think there's much hope for the Gatwick Express, Heathrow has the largest business travel market of any UK airport by far but post-pandemic, even that isn't going to sustain the HEX. The convenience of a direct Elizabeth line service to Canary Wharf will beat Heathrow Express' non-stop journey to Paddington any day. There may be nothing that can save HEX. For it to survive, they will have to innovate and offer some genuine advantages to taking it over the Elizabeth line, possibly through some sort of cooperation agreement with airlines like BA which mean you're already checked in once you report to a HEX desk at Paddington for instance, or something like that. Old Oak Common opening may help Heathrow Express, attracting custom from people arriving on HS2 but once again I don't think that'll be enough either. The only question is what happens if HEX is axed. I believe the slow lines are at capacity so you can't easily fit another two Elizabeth line trains an hour on them. A rejig of the service pattern may be necessary, perhaps the Reading services could be diverted to Heathrow Terminal 5 instead. I've seen suggestions that fast Elizabeth line services to Heathrow could run to replace HEX on other forums but I don't see that happening as there's no other way to cross to the slows, on the side where the tunnel portal is, other than at Stockley floyver. If further Heathrow services do come to the Elizabeth line, I imagine they'll stop at at least Ealing Broadway and Hayes & Harlington, likely Southall too. |
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Post by matthieu1221 on Jun 16, 2024 0:04:29 GMT
London reconnections did an excellent piece on this a few months back: www.londonreconnections.com/2023/the-slow-death-of-heathrow-express/Heathrow is obivously not as far out of London as the likes of Gatwick, Luton and Stansted. The Heathrow Express also arrived at the airport later than the Piccadilly Line and I don't think its ever been able to fully establish itself as the "default" way of getting to the airport. The notorious rip off fare puts people off and the terminals at Heathrow are no longer draped in branding pushing you towards HEX like they used to. In addition, the express only takes you as far as Paddington which, location-wise, is a pretty poor excuse for a Central London terminus and is a frustrating place to be turfed off a train if you have to change again. Its very difficult to see Heathrow Express surviving on current trends, the Elizabeth Line's opening has really hurt its post-pandemic recovery. The Elizabeth Line is already pretty steep, but its unclear what incentive there is to pay more for the Heathrow Express to Paddington instead, unless you have more money than sense. The demise of the Heathrow Express shows that speed isn't everything, as the Elizabeth line offers an array of convenient connections that help people living all over London. If the Heathrow Express is discotinued then there I don't think there's much hope for the Gatwick Express, Heathrow has the largest business travel market of any UK airport by far but post-pandemic, even that isn't going to sustain the HEX. The convenience of a direct Elizabeth line service to Canary Wharf will beat Heathrow Express' non-stop journey to Paddington any day. There may be nothing that can save HEX. For it to survive, they will have to innovate and offer some genuine advantages to taking it over the Elizabeth line, possibly through some sort of cooperation agreement with airlines like BA which mean you're already checked in once you report to a HEX desk at Paddington for instance, or something like that. Old Oak Common opening may help Heathrow Express, attracting custom from people arriving on HS2 but once again I don't think that'll be enough either. The only question is what happens if HEX is axed. I believe the slow lines are at capacity so you can't easily fit another two Elizabeth line trains an hour on them. A rejig of the service pattern may be necessary, perhaps the Reading services could be diverted to Heathrow Terminal 5 instead. I've seen suggestions that fast Elizabeth line services to Heathrow could run to replace HEX on other forums but I don't see that happening as there's no other way to cross to the slows, on the side where the tunnel portal is, other than at Stockley floyver. If further Heathrow services do come to the Elizabeth line, I imagine they'll stop at at least Ealing Broadway and Hayes & Harlington, likely Southall too. There used to be in-town check-in (well that's the Hong Kong term, not sure it used to be called that here) at Paddington when HEX first opened (the desks are where the Lawn is vaguely today) for you to check yourself in and drop off your suitcases but that ended for presumably security reasons not too long after the service started (post-9/11 world and all).
Today, with internet check-in and all that, would there really be that much of an advantage to checking in at Paddington? I don't reall think so.
The Gatwick Express benefits from non-Gatwick passengers too which HEX does not have. I was surprised too, the other day when I went down to Brighton, of the amount of non-airport passengers (it helped that it was a sunny Saturday too).
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Post by buspete on Oct 2, 2024 23:02:49 GMT
Paddington Terminal Station now seems just for Intercity services only and Heathrow Express? So the slow line is only now used by the Elizabeth Line now? So would this be just 10tph?
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