Rail travel from Heathrow to destinations outside London.

[markskoda]

I tried to book a ticket from Heathrow to Worcester while I was in The Czech Republic. The National Rail website quoted me a price and gave me the times of trains, some via Paddington others via suburban stations. So far so good.
I entered my request. I was given a list of stations at which I could collect my ticket at the ticket machine. Surprisingly Heathrow collection was not available.
I could have collected at Paddington however, but this would have meant travelling on the Heathrow Express without a ticket even though the fare would have been paid. I queried this at the Heathrow Express ticket counter and the young guy on duty told me that there was no "infrastructure" at Heathrow for such transactions. He added that it was a common problem that had never been "addressed". I could have paid the £18 single fare into Paddington but my fare to
Worcester quoted on National Rail website would have been similar to my original quote and I would have been well out of pocket. Even with a senior railcard this adds up to very expensive travel. It seems to me that the operators of Heathrow Express don't really want passengers with ongoing tickets for which they would ultimately receive less revenue.

 

[maniacmartin]

Heathrow station and the section of line between Heathrow and Hayes & Harlington is a private railway (owned by BAA, the owners of the airport), and not part of the national railway network. As such it does not offer the full range of station facilities or tickets.

One idea might be to book a ticket on suburban routes from Hayes & Harlington or Paddington and collect there, buying a short ticket to do the beginning of the journey on the day, but as you say this will cost more. As you're currently abroad I don't think there's much else you can do

 

[telstarbox]

Heathrow [is] not part of the national railway network. As such it does not offer the full range of station facilities or tickets.

Which isn't very helpful for passengers considering that Heathrow is our major international airport, and the point where many foreign visitors encounter the British transport system for the first time. IMO the Heathrow spur should be integrated with the national network in the same way as the other large London airports (Gatwick, Luton, Stansted and even the comparatively minor Southend) and many regional airports (Manchester, Birmingham, East Midlands, Liverpool, Southampton).

 

[Bakerbloke]

If it was better integrated and offered direct shuttle services to Major UK airports would there still be need for a third runway?

 

[ess]

Hayes & Harlington does have a TVM with collection facilities and there's no steps if you arrive on a London bound train.

 

[starrymarkb]

If it was better integrated and offered direct shuttle services to Major UK airports would there still be need for a third runway?

Yes... Heathrow is where the demand is. Plus the time needed to transfer between airports would be too long. It's bad enough swapping Terminals at Heathrow. Plus you'd loose benefits like through checked luggage to your destination.

 

[W230]

I entered my request. I was given a list of stations at which I could collect my ticket at the ticket machine. Surprisingly Heathrow collection was not available.

I had this same problem a few years ago. As far as I could tell, all (or certainly most) of the other airports with railway stations allowed you to collect your tickets from the airport.

I bought a ticket from Heathrow to Sheffield (I was going via the underground to St. Pancras) and selected collection at St. Pancras, naievly thinking there would be a National Rail desk at Heathrow that would be able to print my ticket out. Sadly there wasn't!

 

[jopsuk]

As said above, every other airport station* is owned by Network Rail and is on their tracks. Heathrow is on a private railway- indeed, the National Rail Conditions of Carriage do not apply to Heathrow Express services (the HEX CoC are remarkably similar however!).

it is still, though, baffiling why despite this Heathrow Express do not allow ticket collection of through tickets. They are afterall a member of ATOC, accept ATOC railcards and set through fares.

*as I understand it, Southend is officially owned by Network Rail, though it is managed by (and I think construction was funded by?) Stobart Rail- Stobart Air run the airport

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Even more baffling when you recall that Heathrow Express is owned by BAA - an organization which you'd have thought would a very strong vested interest in making it convenient for people to arrive at Heathrow by air!

 

[dzug2]

Even more baffling when you recall that Heathrow Express is owned by BAA - an organization which you'd have thought would a very strong vested interest in making it convenient for people to arrive at Heathrow by air!

I would think they have a vested interest in selling HEX tickets to Paddington regardless of where the passenger is headed.

 

[E16 Cyclist]

As said above, every other airport station* is owned by Network Rail and is on their tracks. Heathrow is on a private railway- indeed, the National Rail Conditions of Carriage do not apply to Heathrow Express services (the HEX CoC are remarkably similar however!).

it is still, though, baffiling why despite this Heathrow Express do not allow ticket collection of through tickets. They are afterall a member of ATOC, accept ATOC railcards and set through fares.

*as I understand it, Southend is officially owned by Network Rail, though it is managed by (and I think construction was funded by?) Stobart Rail- Stobart Air run the airport

Heathrow Express aren't full members of ATOC they are only an associate member and as such don't have the full range of benefits and aren't able to issue tickets to other destinations apart from their own, part of the problem is because of this is a passenger in sheffield can buy a ticket all the way to heathrow via the express but staff at heathrow are unable to do the same. Apparently other toc's don't want hex to be full members as the benefits to them would be limited with more benefits being available on the heathrow express side of the deal.

They don't offer through fares as such its just the cost of the express added to the price of the ticket, railcards only started being accepted about 7 or 8 years ago and was a business decision designed to increase passenger numbers and therefore extra revenue.

Interestingly had rail privatisation never happened the situation may have been completley different as the original proposal was a joint venture between BAA and Network Southeast, but as it is BAA bore the sole cost of the tunnel infrastructure its ended up as a private section of railway