Hayes & Harlington = Heathrow Interchange?

[S-Bahn]

Sorry folks, couldn't find a thread for this. As someone who had to travel to Heathrow recently from the West, I was left wondering why some GWR IET/HST services don't stop at H&H to allow passengers to change for Heathrow.

If you are coming in from the west the three main options are.

1. Leave the train at Reading and get on the bus and risk getting stuck in traffic.
2. Change at Reading onto a stopping service to H&H (45 mins) and then get on a Heathrow service.
3. Pay more to go into Paddington and then come back out again to Heathrow.

Would it not make sense if at least one of the 2TPH from Bristol & South Wales stopped there and helped reduce the need to drive to Heathrow?

I'm assuming this would require new platforms to the south of the station to allow the existing fast lines to remain in simultaneous use?

Anyone in the know as to why H&H was never developed for this?

 

[Dave_Cardboard]

You may be interested in plans under development to allow direct access to Heathrow from the west. Last I heard it was called "WRATH" (Western Rail Access To Heathrow.) I don't know how far along it is - certainly it's not under construction. Since that's in the offing, one suspects nothing (much) else will be done in the short term.

Even if WRATH gets built, one suspects we won't see any Inter-city services peeling off and heading for Heathrow, more likely a change at Reading/Maidenhead/Slough/etc. will be required for a stopper.

Alternatively, once HS2 is up and running a "change at Old Oak Common for Crossrail services to Heathrow" may be the preferred option.

 

[Ianno87]

Line capacity would be a reason why not. With only one Main Line platform per direction, stopping anything on the Main Line platforms wouls reduce the number of paths overall, being on the busiest section.

This will not be the case at Old Oak Common, which will have two Main Line platforms per direction.

 

[camflyer]

WRATH looks certain to be built. It passed the public consultation stage last summer with very little opposition and final approval is likely this year

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/our-railway-upgrade-plan/key-projects/heathrow-rail-link/

There are also plans to improve links to the south London network but these are still at the planning/proposal stage

https://heathrowrail.com/proposed-route/

 

[Bald Rick]

Line capacity would be a reason why not. With only one Main Line platform per direction, stopping anything on the Main Line platforms wouls reduce the number of paths overall, being on the busiest section.

This will not be the case at Old Oak Common, which will have two Main Line platforms per direction.

Journey time is another reason.

It costs 5minutes minimum for a station call in a train normally timed to pass at 125mph. So that would be 5 minutes on every passenger to/from London, to save those that want to go to Heathrow perhaps half an hour. So unless around 1/6th of people on the trains are going to Heathrow (which is unlikely), then passengers are net worse off.

 

[coppercapped]

This is an idea that has an illustrious history! The first mention of it that I came across was in Georges Behrend's book, "Gone with Regret: Recollections of the Great Western Railway, 1922-47", published in 1969...

There are several main issues:

1. the number of people who want to get to Heathrow from each train is small, probably to be counted on the fingers of one hand
2. to serve this small number of people trainloads of passengers would have their journey lengthened by five or six minutes. The longer journey to Paddington would make the service less competitive
3. if stops are only made by trains running on one route, then the service will serve only the passengers who can use that route. The Great Western serves other parts of the west of England as well
4. the train service on the Mains between Reading and Paddington is so intensive - off peak there are between 8 and 10 fast trains every hour - that trains making stops will reduce capacity. This is the reason that Reading was recently rebuilt to give two platform faces to each track - if trains were to stop at Hayes this would be essential work which would have to be done before the stops could be introduced
5. The cost of these works would be out of all proportion to the benefits offered to the five or six people making the connection from each train
6. the Heathrow Connect link to the airport runs every 30 minutes, so one could wait 29 minutes at Hayes for a connection...

To the fourth point, the proposed station at Old Oak Common, to enable connections to be made between the Great Western route and HS2, will have two platform faces for each track for this very reason.

The Railair coach service from Reading is in fact very reliable, and more frequent than the Heathrow Connect link from Hayes. The timetable allows for increased congestion during the peak hours and the drivers can change and modify the route they use if necessary. I have been on a coach which went via Bracknell to the M3 motorway and approached Heathrow from the south rather than using the M4.

The Railair coach also has the advantage that it collects passengers from all the Great Western's London-centric routes as well as passengers off Cross-Country trains rather than just offering a service to one or two routes. This will also be the case for the Western Rail Link to Heathrow project which now going through the planning process. This has the additional advantage over stopping the fast trains in that it will also offer a rapid service to and between the towns lying between Reading and the airport so its costs are not carried by the airport passengers alone.

So, fast trains won't stop at Hayes - and the coach link works well!

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

I don’t suppose there would be any benefit in simply replacing the Slough calls with Hayes & Harlington calls on the Oxford fasts?

 

[coppercapped]

I don’t suppose there would be any benefit in simply replacing the Slough calls with Hayes & Harlington calls on the Oxford fasts?

None whatsoever.
The Slough stop is very well used. As I wrote, the number of air passengers on any one particular train - unless it is a dedicated airport shuttle - is very small. Dozens alight and board at Slough.

Stopping on the Mains at Hayes is, from a timetabling point of view with the current track layout, an absolute nonsense. Not only are the long distance trains on the Mains but the four trains per hour Heathrow Expresses leave and join the Mains just west of the station. If you really want to screw up a timetable put stops in just there...