WHICH WAY FROM HEATHROW?
The relatively short journey from Heathrow Airport to Central London can be made in a number of ways by rail, and passengers are faced with a confusing choice of cost, speed and convenience, as John Heaton FCILT discovers.
PADDINGTON station remained in the throes of Elizabeth Line construction at the end of January 2022. Heathrow Express, the headline operator for access to Europe’s busiest pre-pandemic airport, made its impact with the strapline ‘Famous for Fifteen Minutes’. That Andy Warhol-inspired four-word slogan managed to convey the key message of a 15-minute core frequency and 15-minute journey time from Paddington to Heathrow Central (Terminals 2/3).
Competitors had an uphill fight to counteract its effect. The stopping service, originally branded as Heathrow Connect, has six intermediate calls and takes 28 minutes (27 minutes net) to Central. The brand was transferred from the Great Western franchise to Transport for London (TfL) in May 2018, and will soon become part of the Elizabeth Line with penetration through central London, thus assuming prime position for ‘airport to East London’ journeys.
At the start of 2022, TfL was operating two stopping trains an hour to the airport, but each was scheduled to be overtaken at Hanwell by the next Heathrow Express. In the raw, ‘tooth and claw’ atmosphere of on-rail competition – which was encouraged elsewhere in the early years of Privatisation – we should perhaps be pleasantly surprised that Heathrow Express staff are not encouraged to draw attention to this fact as their train whisks past the cheaper but slower TfL Class 345. After all, Heathrow Express is an independent operator, not linked to Department of Transport service contracts or franchise agreements.
In contrast, the policy of Heathrow
Airport Limited (HAL) is to promote the various options in an even-handed and transparent way, fostering awareness of the Express service whilst recognising the importance of the stopping services – especially for the 90,000 staff working in the aviation industry at Heathrow, many of whom live en route. HAL employs the station staff and is the infrastructure operator up to the Network Rail (NR) boundary, although some maintenance functions are outsourced to contractors, including NR.
Just how this independent status sits with the creation of Great British Railways remains to be determined. The Williams-Shapps Plan recognised a role for open access operators without defining too closely how it would work beyond being ‘supported by national co-ordination and new safeguards’, which has the potential for conflicts if the intention is to create a single homogeneous entry to a simplified railway product.
Fare confusion
The potential for conflict is nowhere more amply demonstrated than at the gateway to the British railway system at any one of the Heathrow
“The brand was transferred in May 2018, and will soon become part of the Elizabeth Line with penetration through central London, thus assuming prime position for ‘airport to East London’ journeys”
terminals. A typically tired long-haul passenger, perhaps with tenuous language skills and possibly limited railway experience, immediately sees the array of Heathrow Express ticket machines, and, once there, is drawn into choosing between an express train or a TfL service.
Understandably plumping for what sounds like the fastest way of reaching their destination, passengers will find they have selected Heathrow Express’s £25 fare. TfL’s current off-peak single fare to Paddington is £10.80 using Oyster/contactless bank card (£11.60 paper ticket), while an off-peak TfL Travelcard covering Heathrow and central London is £14.10 Oyster/contactless (£14.40 paper). Perhaps the difference between Heathrow Express and TfL fares is insignificant in relation to an international journey, while regulars could well be aware of such unintentional traps, sometimes from bitter experience.
It should also be emphasised there are many advance fare options that reduce the gap, and these are able to be purchased alongside air tickets. For instance, booking a month before travel would bring a Heathrow Express return down to £36, two travelling together booked before the day of travel is £27.75 per person, group savers cost £16.68 per person and carnets of 12 singles equate to £16.50 per single journey. ‘Under 16s’ are free! The bargain basement return is £11 if booked more than three months in advance, although this requires a degree of faith as it is beyond the 12 weeks timetable
planning timescales, and all these options assume an aware customer who has known what to look for in advance. One might also ask how this plethora of fares for such a short journey will sit with future simplification of the fares’ structure. There is another bank of machines offset from the Heathrow Express/TfL ticketing area, labelled ‘Underground’, giving access to Piccadilly Line trains that are also owned by TfL but, avoiding further confusion, thankfully not shown as such. Most travellers are effectively frozen out of this option by the location of the machines, but the Tube offers considerable savings without a significantly extended journey time for destinations beyond Paddington. For example, a journey from Terminal 5 to Piccadilly Circus at 11.30 on a weekday morning is shown as taking 39 minutes by Heathrow Express and Bakerloo Line at a cost of £27.50, or 52 minutes with no changes on the Piccadilly Line for £3.50 using Oyster Card/contactless (paper tickets are £6.30). As the popular idiom has it: I think we should be told! Or perhaps we should just jump in a black cab at £73, especially if there is more than one passenger, with a possibly optimistic 38min journey time being suggested. Or ring for Uber, at half that price for some of their options.
What I need to know first when using a foreign airport transit system is the journey time, frequency and cost, followed quickly by how to pay. Obviously, Heathrow Express will promote its own products on its own machines, and cannot reasonably be expected to draw attention to the issues of extra onward travel costs from Paddington to various final destinations.
Passenger choices
These factors will become more important with the opening of the Elizabeth Line later this year, which will reach further into London from Heathrow than peripheral Paddington and also double the service frequency to four trains an hour. However, transfer from Heathrow Express to a London taxi will probably be easier at Paddington than at an Elizabeth Line central area station, which introduces another variable in the overall journey choice. My guide on the January trip is the highly experienced career railwayman, now Heathrow Express Board member, Mike Hodson, a friend for almost 50 years. He rightly points out that we are into the realms of apps nowadays, with upstream selling of products to remove head-scratching and unsuitable concourse decisions. After negotiating lifts and (if luggagefree) the escalators of the brutally designed transfer areas, put to shame by the swish decor and vegetation of many foreign counterparts, even a well-prepared passenger can meet further bewildering options. As an aside, Mike suggests the airports I am describing do not sound to be as fire safety compliant as Heathrow. At Terminal 5, travellers can be faced with two trains with similar liveries. Having paid the premium fare, they can be charged an extra £10.80 TfL fare for mistakenly jumping on what turns out to be the ‘stopper’, while someone who has chosen the cheaper option can end up with a Heathrow Express surcharge. Mike points out that there is a high level of staff presence to prevent such events, and explains the three disruption levels that prompt immediate ticket inter-availability – for instance, if Heathrow Express has to drop to a half-hourly service. For passengers joining at Heathrow Central, there is normally a wait on an empty platform and chance to study the departure information. Mike Hodson spots that the scrolling of subsequent departures to the one most imminent could cause confusion, and notes it for investigation.
Travelling to Heathrow from arriving on the Paddington concourse at 11.00, the outward choice of journey to the airport has probably been made and if not, it is pretty obvious what to do - join that welcoming Heathrow Express train right in front of you. All departures were restricted to just one platform (No. 7) during the Elizabeth Line work, so the unique selling point of always having a train ready to be boarded was suspended. The use of a single platform can cause delays, but I am informed there is a contingency level when the signallers can bring No. 6 back into use for Heathrow Express. Arrivals are scheduled at xx.02/17/32/47, allowing an eight-minute turnround before each departure. Given the short and relatively uncomplicated journeys, coupled with a high level of operational discipline, this rarely causes consequential delays. Mike Hodson says Heathrow Express has high ‘within five minute’ punctuality figures, but on a 15-minute run (20-minute even from Terminal 5) the operator pays closer attention to the absolute right time figure (actually within 59 seconds). On the day of our visit, this was 82% and 100% within five minutes. With reduced travel because of Covid-19, this was only the second trip I had experienced under the latest regime. It is difficult to believe that the futuristic CAF/Siemens Class 332s were almost 25 years old when withdrawn. At the turn of the last decade, they were beginning to show their age, and delays owing to traction problems were increasing.
Technical issues
Heathrow Express chose to engage First Great Western to run its service, drawing on a fleet of Bombardier ‘Electrostars’, with some speciallybranded for their new duties. The sub-fleet has been fitted with European Train Control System (ETCS) equipment for the Heathrow Airport tunnels, extra passenger facilities (including high-speed wi-fi), business class seating, additional luggage racks and sources of entertainment. Nevertheless, these sets fail to make the special impact I felt travelling by the silver Class 332s, but they are permitted to run at 110mph instead of the 100mph that applied to the former. Many changes have occurred since Heathrow Express started running in 1998, not least the Ladbroke Grove crash in 1999. One of the many consequences was the reduction of running speeds to 50mph in the area (about two miles west of Paddington). This called for greater emphasis on acceleration along the down main line for the next nine miles to Airport Junction among the intensive Great Western high-speed services. The Class 387s have a power/weight ratio of 11.5hp/tonne, some 6.5% higher than the Class 332s. At the time of writing, the Class 387s were permitted to run only in 2x4-car formations according to ETCS certification temporary arrangements, which is annoying if there is an off-peak train failure that cannot be tackled by splitting another double set. At pandemic traffic levels, that ruling also results in a considerable waste of energy. Yes, I know it will hardly save the planet, but it should improve the operator’s bottom line. The same goes for the inflexible off -peak nine-car TfL/Elizabeth line Class 345s…and do not get me started on four-anhour 12-car off-peak Class 720s to Bedford. ‘Where does ETCS come into the equation?’ one might well ask. Well, HAL is already operating ETCS. However, the current main line signalling from Airport Junction to Paddington is based on comprehensive deployment of Train Protection & Warning System (TPWS), but this is in the process of being upgraded to ETCS in accordance with current national standards for major resignalling work, partly in reaction to the decreasing reliability of the Advanced Train Protection
(ATP) technology, which is now more than 30 years old and decidedly ‘non-standard’.
The Business Standard Class is disappointing compared to the rather
‘entitled’ but luxurious feel of the spacious Class 332s, although the Class 387 seats have been specified to be similar to those on the ‘332s’. On a single standard journey, the price differential is £7 – or, I suppose, 50p/minute. In Standard Class, the Class 387s seats seem quite tight. Perhaps I have expanded since my last Class 332 journey though, and they are certainly no less comfortable than the rocksolid Class 345 seats – considerably fewer pins and needles per journey. Indeed Great Western seems to have no qualms about sending the ‘387s’ off on 112-mile journeys to Bristol Parkway, or even beyond there to Cardiff.
There are potential reliability problems associated with the maintenance of the Heathrow Express Class 387s at Reading, 36 miles from Paddington. In my experience, such arrangements rarely work and are never ideal. Besides the extra movement costs and potential infrastructure failures, there is the delay in response times compared to whistling up a solution from the former Old Oak Common Class 332 depot, which was adjacent to the line of route and only three miles from Paddington.
However, Mike Hodson is quick to praise the support Heathrow Express receives from its supplier. The drivers work in a special GWR Heathrow link, therefore gaining allegiance to the product, although they do not work interchangeably with other Heathrow Express posts, which often proved a strength of the old arrangements. They can, however, move to and from other GWR driving positions, which removes a constant recruitment and training element from Heathrow Express costs.
To the airport
Making a right time start from Paddington’s platform 7 is not quite as easy a prospect as it sounds. There are many moves to and from platforms 1-6. While outbound conflicting departures can be routed to Ladbroke Grove on a variety of lines before filtering into the desired order, the automatic route setting computer sometimes resorting to imaginative solutions, it is more difficult to avoid inbound trains.
Despite considerable disruption to up trains – resulting from a failed train on the Berks & Hant’s Line near Pewsey, with many subsequent Melksham diversions – our 11.10 is able to depart spot on time but soon has to slow, making it ½min late from Ladbroke Grove to Ealing Broadway. This was recovered while cruising at 108mph before reducing speed for the 75mph turnout to the Heathrow branch at Airport Junction, taken at a conservative 66mph.
Speed reduced to 26mph before entering Heathrow Tunnel at 45mph. I had experienced this effect on my previous trip and decided it felt like the glitch that applied for years at the end of the Ansaldo signalling installation approaching Crewe from the Manchester direction.
The effect of the speed reduction is masked by 1min recovery time, so arrival at Heathrow Central is on time, having taken 14m56s for the journey, advertised 15min, working time 14½min gross and 13½min net (see
Table 1). Some readers will be puzzled about such attention to detail, but it is essential to the metronomic demands of high-density train running.
A generous 2½min is allowed at Central for passengers to decamp and the odd terminal transferee to join (there is free travel between terminals). Four minutes are allowed for the last 1.69 miles to Terminal 5, for which the Class 387s took 3m41s, 20sec early and a notch on the absolute right time tally.
On our second run in Table 1, this time with the 12.55 from Paddington, the start from Paddington was 3min late. The reason was not evident. Two up IETs had closely followed each other into platforms 3 and 1, the second having shown a 12.54 arrival. It was important to make a fast run to Airport Junction to avoid consequential delays, a clear run making up the ½min differential with the earlier checked run. However, subsequent speeds were a shade lower, although similar times were made on the Ladbroke Grove to Hayes & Harlington stretch. This second run was 10mph down on the first trip as we took Airport Junction at 56mph, speed then reducing as on the first run. The journey took 14m42s, arriving 3min late on working times with the 1min recovery time being lost in the wash.
Looking at the equivalent runs with Class 332s, the original net schedule was 1½min quicker than currently, the benefit being gained by the time the trains passed Acton West, booked in just 4½min from Paddington after having reached Westbourne Park at 75mph and Ladbroke Grove at 81mph instead of 40 and 50mph respectively nowadays. We also took the Airport Junction turnout at the full 75mph, and had no intermediate speed reduction before the 50mph permanent speed limit at Heathrow Tunnel Junction. A Paddington-Heathrow Central (Terminals 1/2/3 as it then was) time of a few seconds over 12min was possible, but the net schedule was 12min after a 2min recovery time allowance. Yes, it was different back then.
I had a cab ride on a Class 332 in 2011 with Heathrow Express operations director Keith Harding and driver Trufi D’Aurelia, which was delayed in the initial stages and took 16m20s out to Heathrow Central on a 14½min schedule, 13½min net. This is also shown in Table 1.
“Our unwary passengers to Piccadilly Circus have to make decisions on means, time and cost without easily accessible information”
To the capital
The first of the current return trips started at Terminal 5 spot on time at 12.12, taking 3m49s on the 3½min timing to Central.
The 2½min booked station dwell allowed departure by the public time, ½min early on ‘working’. Speed came down from around 50mph in Heathrow Tunnel to 33mph at the exit before running briskly down the ramp of the flyover to the up main, taking the junction at 65mph (authorised 75mph), reaching 101mph at Southall and a momentary full 110mph at Ealing Broadway after picking up a ½min performance allowance. The run had left the TfL’s 12.07 Class 345 departure from T5 in our wake before picking up a 1min recovery allowance to pass Ladbroke Grove 1½min early.
The single platform syndrome applied, as the 12.25 departure for Heathrow was delayed by the arrival of the 12.18 arrival from Bristol Temple Meads 6½min late. Nevertheless, our inbound train managed an ‘on time’ arrival, just 9sec late, in 15m6s from Central, advertised 15min, working time 15min, net schedule 13½min (see Table 2).
On the second up run, joining at Heathrow Central, we were again able to depart ½min early by the working time, taking 14sec longer to clear the tunnel despite a 7mph faster exit, but then being stopped on the flyover downgrade ramp for the 11.59 CheltenhamPaddington IET to pass 3min late. That altered my perception about IETs always being held for airport trains. Heathrow Express considers a 3min punctuality standard to be important if absolute right time has to be sacrificed, compared to the ‘within 10min’ Public Performance Measure for long distance GWR trains.
Passing Southall 2½min late with 1½min of allowances to come meant that a right time arrival was unlikely, and so it proved as further subdued running was necessary. Speed at Ealing Broadway was 98mph instead of 110mph on the previous run, 51mph instead of 61mph at Old Oak Common, and the overall time of 17m27s to a stand was 2½min late. This run is also shown in Table 2.
My visit earlier in the month was on time after it had taken 14m51s, having passed Ealing Broadway on time at 107mph, but the 1min recovery time once again seeming illusory, partially covered by the notebook entry ‘very slow along platform’ indicating more caution than used to be deemed necessary.
Table 3 shows a down run with a Class 360/2 five-car EMU in the days of Heathrow Connect, shown in comparison with a current TfL Class 345. The running times are similar, but perhaps we will see scheduled improvements of the approximately 2min available in due course.
Table 4 shows examples of the equivalent up runs with the stopping services. The new Class 345s can accelerate from 0 to 60mph, even between stations as closely spaced as the 0.9 miles from West Ealing to Ealing Broadway, taking as few as 36sec to reach this speed.
Choice or simplicity
The choice of train (and even mode) for travel between Heathrow Airport and Paddington station is, in principle, no different from that facing potential travellers on any journey within Britain. But perhaps at Heathrow, more than most locations, passengers require a clear range of time and cost options to their destination. HAL’s intention of promoting rail access depends on satisfying passenger expectations as far as financially sensible. How this can be made to fit with a desire for simple access to the rail system remains to be seen. At present, our unwary passengers to Piccadilly Circus have to make decisions on means, time and cost without easily accessible information, and could well end up paying £27.50 (£25+LUL) instead of £14.10 (Oyster/ contactless Travelcard) by TfL or as little as £3.50 by Underground. Alternatively, they might not bother and simply take the more convenient, less green and more expensive taxi alternative. Meanwhile, the much-anticipated Elizabeth Line revolution is on its way, opening even more options for the passenger but posing business implications for Heathrow Express.