hat wrote:my experience has also been that most passengers are using the transfer coach. It surprises me that there are no checks though - what's to stop anyone transferring into T3 or even any other terminal using this shortcut?
As all PAX have been screened by a UK airport they are considered "clean", so they can be transferred to T3 on a sealed bus. Only VS pax are allowed on this bus (BA sometimes do the bus service when they have a lot of connecting pax arriving on a delayed flight), at T5 if you arrive on a domestic and are transferring onto another flight, you aren't searched before you join departures (unless you arrive on an international gate...).
Gumshoe, I often think that Simon Calder doesn't know what he is talking about, I don't understand why anyone pays him! Especially recently when he has been talking about the passenger charges at LHR increasing, saying that the rise isn't linked to anything and that it is just a gentlemens agreement! The rises are to fund much needed investment, like T5Dand E, expanding T2 when T3 shuts, adding T2 satelights, digging a new road tunnel to the south to create another way into the central teminal area, etc.