It would be a slightly faster change than Paddington to/from Elizabeth line, effectively up to footbridge, walk to third island platform and down.
A related thought is whether the paths for HEX still exist when everything is stopping at OOC.
Why on earth would you do that? Reduce travel options for thousands of airport workers and passengers and overloading already popular trains simply to try and prop up an expensive service that is in steady decline?
They should still be possible, it’s why they are having 2 platforms on each of the four “GW“ lines.
There is not.
Sounds a perfect Socialist business plan. I will recommend it to the Prime Minister straight away.
What catering would you do on a 15min ride? Tea, coffee maybe
Tea, coffee, water, biscuits & a newspaper. The little touches go along way in terms of customer feedback.
Yeah, no, makes little sense.
Realistically, the only catering they could provide is a bottle or water and perhaps a snack bar which the passenger could then take with them.
Which would be a complete waste if travelling in the airport direction as pretty much everybody will go straight through security, so won't be able to keep liquids anyway (unless they hand out 100ml bottles of water...)
How would that work? The fast lines into Paddington (which HEX services use) aren't directly connected to the Cross rail tunnels. How would you fit a limited stop service in amongst the very frequent all-stations services? And how would you terminate/turn round a service in the tunnel at Liverpool St? Crossrail just isn't built for that sort of service.
Not a lot, I guess you could run an extra GWR semi fast to Reading, crossing to the reliefs at Airport Junction, but you'd have to cut EL services to accommodate.
Unfortunately the space has long gone for retail so wouldn't be given back up easily. But I agree, a luggage drop at Paddington (and Victoria) would be something BA could tout to its premium passengers. But it won't happen for another reason - the 387s don't have luggage van space that the 332s and 460s had. I can’t see DfT signing off on creating a subfleet with such van space either.
Surely the security concerns would prevent this anyway? I think security post-9/11 was the reason that the Paddington check-in closed
No, it's done for Rail&Air from Brussels to Paris CDG, where you checkin for your Air France flight at a dedicated terminal at Brussels Midi and you don't see your bag until your destination's bag drop.
Surely, with the declining usage you could just remove the seats on one of the end standard class carriages
The 387s are rarely more than half full so this would be fine and if Heathrow wanted to they could buy the space back and easily move retail elsewhere. There's a brand new arcade just outside Paddington for shops anyway. This would be a huge benefit but I'd like to see it for standard class passengers as well.
It is possible but you would have to traverse a flat junction.
Of course it makes sense to stop every Intercity train in London’s newest suburban hub. With a connection to the Overground, Central Line, Chiltern Line, HS2, GWML, Heathrow Airport, Elizabeth Line, Southern East Croydon service and local buses it would make loads of sense to stop all GWR services here
Surely that's not worth the software changes, let alone the wagon costs, that would be needed. And I don't think the main platforms at Heathrow (at least Central) are long enough for more than a 2x387 or 1x345.
A 345 carriage is longer than a 387 carriage so I’m pretty sure that you can fit a 10 car 387 in Heathrow.
I get first class for free on HEx by rights of my BA frequent flyer status and honestly the main advantage is the space and quiet particularly on the very busy Heathrow rush hour trains. Most of the time it's a complete waste of time and space. Once you get out of the Heathrow area it's only 15 minutes which is enough to do a quick review of emails and that's about it.
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