obduro

A shame, surface access to Heathrow generally is average. It's not as bad as some other London airports, though...

madfish

The link you posted is from 2014. When following it, it makes reference to an update from Feb 2015. However, the link in the network rail website is not working. A search threw up this one.

http://www.networkrail.co.uk/heathrow/?cd=8

This looks fairly uptodate as it makes reference to a public consultation opening on 23/2/16. The link to which is:

https://consultations.networkrail.co...linktoheathrow

Although the consultation is not yet live so nothing showing on that page.

Probably all makes sense now, LHR giving access to BBC as a means of garnering interest in the consultation.

Edit: Reviewed last nights show on the iPlayer but they spend the whole three hours talking about Europe, so nothing new to add from that.

onescoop

More details on plans and consultation at Ian Visits:

http://http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/bl...row-rail-link/

Concerto

There's a secret platform in Grand Central station, New York, too, along with an elevator complex that (I think) was designed with president Roosevelt in mind, so his car could be quickly transferred to and from the train to street level.

BerksFlyer

You might think it's mad but there's another point of view. If you live in Reading, Oxford, Swindon, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter etc you do not want your journey to London slowed down by it being diverted to Heathrow. London is the dominant destination on any rail network that serves it. An airport is important but does not outweigh the importance of getting trains to London as quickly as possible.

This is evident in the fact that some trains pass through Gatiwck Airport, Luton Airpot Parkway and East Midlands Airport Parkway stations without stopping. This is because they need to get to London quickly for the majority of customers on board who do not want to go to the Airpot.

Why would any railway company annoy tens of thousands of regular customers by slowing them down on their journey to/from London just to please a few hundred once-a-year customers who want to go the airport? That would risk losing some of the tens of thousands of customers, many of whom are valuable season ticket holders travelling every day.

Comparing the railway system of LHR with FRA is apples and pears. The whole make up of the system and customers flows is entirely different.

madfish

One problem with East Midlands Parkway is that it is 4 miles from the airport. Don;t imagine that many people actually use with the intention of going to the airport, more as a park and ride syste.

Never used it, but don't a lot of services to Birmingham run through BHX?

BerksFlyer

Birmingham International station serves more than just an airport, it also serves the busiest exhibition entre in Europe. A train station at LHR serves pretty much just one purpose.

Trust me when I say that the majority of commuters in Reading do not want their 24 minute journey time to/from London extended by diverting the line and stopping all train from the west at LHR! Likewise for the business community in Cardiff for example, who value the quickest journey time to London far higher than slowing trains down to call at LHR.

LHR needs a dedicated rail service, not a service that is merged with others. Gatwick Express is a good example of how bad that would be.

callum9999

Not every train has to stop. It's fairly standard on many UK rail lines for there to be express trains and stopping trains - there's no reason I can see why a few couldn't stop (other than the expense of building the new line possibly not being worth it).

I can't say I understand what Gatwick Express is meant to signify in this comparison either?

13901

Too bad that the HS2 spur to LHR has been binned by the government... this station could've come handy at least to improve connectivity with the regions and copy what - as others pointed out - Paris, Amsterdam, Zurich, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and a few more already have.

chalf

Agree with the above. Even once or teice hourly service to LHR may be quite useful for many.

So far as I understand, the issue with Gatwick Express is that it is marketed as a dedicated service, when it is not.

BerksFlyer

Diverting the Great Western Main Line to LHR so that one or two trains an hour can stop there and be 'quite useful'! The cost of that would be hundreds of millions of pounds and the revenue would be hundreds of tens of pounds. What sort of fag packet do you do your business cases on?!

callum9999

For a start - I very clearly acknowledged that the cost may not be worth it and was specifically addressing your point about commuting times.

The Main Line wouldn't be diverted, it would branch off. And who said it only had to be one or two trains an hour using the track? Could Crossrail use it too (I'm a bit lost with the different new rail schemes that all seem to be going to the same general area!)? If so, with the proposed Heathrow Express service, there could easily be a train going past every 5 minutes in each direction.

Genius1

The part of the video showing the catenary is actually the live HEx station. There is no railway infrastructure in the 'spare' station.

paul4040

East Midlands Parkway isn't anything to do with the airport though. It just happens to have that name.

Almost every single service on the West Coast Main Line that runs to London from Birmingham runs via Birmingham International station (BHI, not BHX )

layz

In terminal 3 there's one of these 70 years signs entitled "Heathrow's secret train ration". I walked over to have a further look thinking it was probably going to be about the spare platforms in T5 but according to this sign there's an empty railway station directly under the sign in T3.

So any idea what this station is intended for and when it was built. Searching brings up a lot about the T5 platforms but nothing about T3. The location was when you head from the lounges towards the low number gates.