V-Flyer

There are some changes being made to the Heathrow Express service. GWR will soon be running these services under a management contract for 10 years and the current fleet will be replaced with some of the new EMU's GWR have recently taken delivery of that will be modified to form a dedicated fleet: -

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/sing ... rvice.html

Unless they make it cheaper and not the expensive tourist trap it currently is, I still won’t be using the HEX. Ticket prices are an utter rip-off for what it is.

Also Paddington is neither use nor ornament for connecting to King’s Cross / East Coast National Rail. Factoring in the ~20-30min journey time from Paddington to King’s Cross plus the 15min minimum HEX time, it’s just as easy and way cheaper at just £3.50 just using the Piccadilly tube between LHR and King’s Cross.

The structure of the contract is such that there will be little integration with GWR. In effect all HAL have done is outsource the actual operation of the trains themselves which is linked to the fact that the depot has to be demolished as a result of HS2.

HAL will remain in charge of branding and setting fares. The current HEX trains will be replaced with a dedicated fleet of 387's. Similar trains are already used on Stansted and Gatwick Express. The STEX ones are quite nice and have a good hard product. GEX less so. I assume with HAL wanting to maintain a quality service they will ensure that the trains are up the standard of the current rolling stock.

I have to say I do prefer HEX over the Piccadilly line. Travel through Kings Cross and I absolutely hate the tube as it is. I work for a train company, so a first class single on HEX costs me £8 so I can't really complain about value for money to be honest!

I doubt it. There’ll still be a market for a fast, ‘premium’ airport train and I’ve no doubt HEX will continue to be promoted heavily to arriving passengers at LHR.

Other cities - Tokyo, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna all spring to mind - have a mixture of premium and commuter airport services which seem to co-exist just fine. As does LGW.

And although Crossrail will be more frequent and serve more places than the current Heathrow Connect, the trains are not ideal for people with large luggage.

I think if you book three months I'm advance it's £5.50. But Paddington is a poor location. Crossrail will shake things up a bit I'm sure...

yes book >90 days in advance and you can get HEX for £5.50 for weekends / bank holidays otherwise it's £12.10 for weekdays

That latter fare is very close to the cost of an off peak one day travel card that includes Crossrail from LHR plus bus / tube / train travel for the rest of the day.

But who on earth books a 15 minute airport train 3 months in advance?

The HEX business model relies on selling extortionate walk-up fares to businesspeople on expense accounts and pouncing on foreign tourists arriving at LHR who don't know the alternatives. Both markets are easy pickings so the model works. Crossrail will certainly have an impact but there'll still be a place for HEX, as there is for the GatEx which happily co-exists with Southern & Thameslink (albeit all operated by the same company).

I have it on good authority that HAL are specifying that the seats in the Class 332s (current rolling stock) are removed and put in the 387's with a similar configuration.

NOTE that from May 20th the ticket barriers will be up and working but at present Oyster and Contactless won't be accepted (until September) according to this

https://www.heathrowexpress.com/news/co ... 2-may-2018

There are also changes to some of the HEX ticket conditions such as they need to be used in the direction booked (so you can no longer use a LHR-PAD ticket for a PAD-LHR journey)

If ticket barriers are in place at the LHR end, will you still be able to use the HEX for free terminal transfers?

From what I read on another board there will be a mechanism for either the ticket machines or possibly staff to just hand out to issue a ticket to allow intra LHR travel.

mitchja wrote:If ticket barriers are in place at the LHR end, will you still be able to use the HEX for free terminal transfers?

Yes, Oyster/Contactless will be free and there will be free tickets if you don't have Oyster/Contactless