Luton Airport’s DART train is delayed (again)

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• lumma says:

  11 Oct11 October 05:02

  You can now go to Luton Airport Parkway with contactless but you still need to pay for the bus. No amex either

  • SamG says:

    11 Oct11 October 08:24

    Last time I took it there was a big queue for those needing to pay for the bus but those with a ticket could get straight on

    Apparently it is going to be £4.90 e/w once it does open!

    • r* says:

      11 Oct11 October 09:25

      was there ever any doubt that theyd be charging more than the bus?

    • ADS says:

      11 Oct11 October 11:40

      So over £1 per minute … and I thought the bus fare was expensive!

      And it’s unusual to find decent prices on the train to Luton Airport Parkway … I often find cheaper train fares to Birmingham and Liverpool airports!

  • Rhys says:

    11 Oct11 October 09:17

    Yep…I’ve made that mistake before. The whole thing is a bit silly. The airport should just pay for the shuttle bus…would make the transition much smoother (and faster)

    • Gulz says:

      11 Oct11 October 09:37

      The problem is that there is an NCP car park at the parkway station. If the airport made the shuttle bus free, loads of car park users will be getting to the airport for free.

      • Rhys says:

        11 Oct11 October 09:42

        …does NCP actually own the car park, or lease it from Luton Rising? If the latter, just increase the charges!

      • John says:

        11 Oct11 October 11:05

        Exactly just include the shuttle in the parking price

        • Londonsteve says:

          11 Oct11 October 18:09

          The car park is primarily intended for rail passengers. The fact that it happens to be close to Luton airport and there is a direct shuttle bus to the airport terminal is entirely ancillary to its primary function as a place for commuters to park and take the train into central London. Luton airport would really rather you didn’t park there as the rates are comparatively so competitive.

    • Lady London says:

      11 Oct11 October 13:29

      The shuttle bus used to be free.

• aseftel says:

  11 Oct11 October 07:21

  I read the DART news differently. They aren’t necessarily planning to open in ‘early 2023’. That is their timeline to be able to communicate a launch date (which could be whenever).

  “The announcement of an official opening date for the pioneering Luton DART infrastructure project will be made in early 2023”

  • Rhys says:

    11 Oct11 October 09:18

    They’re giving a crossrail a run for their money!

    • KevinS says:

      11 Oct11 October 11:45

      And the idiots who manage various football stadiums which are always late and twice over budget (eg Wembley and Spurs etc)

    • Alex Sm says:

      13 Oct13 October 14:46

      Let alone Berlin airport

• martin says:

  11 Oct11 October 07:46

  Cityflyer have done ABZ before – when I did it with them (in 2013, eek) it was with an Eastern Airways-leased Saab 2000.

  • Rhys says:

    11 Oct11 October 09:19

    Are there any routes left that CityFlyer hasn’t flown at some point?!

    • Andrew. says:

      11 Oct11 October 10:24

      London-Oxford to Edinburgh? Minoan ran the service for just 5 months, it was incredibly convenient.

      They can accommodate an Embraer-195 and ITA flew an A319 into it for Silverstone this summer.

  • Michael Jennings says:

    11 Oct11 October 10:55

    I did LCY-ABZ on FlyBe once, too.

• IslandDweller says:

  11 Oct11 October 08:03

  “These relate mostly to complexities and alignment of the system’s revenue and ticketing arrangements.”
  This smells just like Crossrail. The project managers on Crossrail concentrated on the tunnelling/building stuff and gave barely a though to the massive complexity of integrating the driving / safety software – even though software is now integral to all new transport projects.
  Looks like Luton concentrated on the construction bits and ignored how they would integrate their revenue control with the railway ticketing system.

  • Bagoly says:

    11 Oct11 October 09:03

    And T5 too.
    Programmers up to CIOs consistently promise unrealistic delivery times, and that everything is going to plan, until a hard deadline is missed.
    At some point one has to call it lying.
    That makes is extremely difficult for the overall project managers to know the truth.

    Although the announcement suggests that it may not have been the coding that is the issue but grasping the ridiculous complexity of railway revenue allocation and so negotiating sensible simple interfaces.

• Andrew. says:

  11 Oct11 October 09:09

  Will it open before or after the Silver line to IAD?

  I keep up to date with the progress in the Washington Post. It’s hilarious the number of US residents who claim it’s a “white elephant” and “nobody will use it” because it’s a 300 metre (underground) walk from the terminal.

  • KevinS says:

    11 Oct11 October 15:41

    Not wanting to walk 300 metres probably explains why so many Americans are rotund

• John says:

  11 Oct11 October 09:32

  “These relate mostly to complexities and alignment of the system’s revenue and ticketing arrangements.” So the infrastructure is in place, and testing largely complete, but they’re going to have a six month bun fight over rail ticket revenue instead? Presumably the existing differentiation between Parkway and Airport tickets will remain, so there will be some type of physical barrier or revenue check before boarding? So why not operate their own contactless barrier and ignore National Rail ticketing altogether?

  • ADS says:

    11 Oct11 October 11:44

    At least with Crossrail the delays were due to the technical aspects of the project (signalling integration etc)

    Delaying DART because of a bunfight over ticket revenue is just disgraceful

• Froggee says:

  11 Oct11 October 09:46

  Weird on Jade but it really is a pointless offering. Other than avoiding the World Elite fee I can’t think of any tangible benefits it offers.

  • Rob says:

    11 Oct11 October 10:12

    Agreed.

    I occasionally request free tickets for the opening night parties at second-tier art fairs in London, but it’s not exactly a VIP pass to Frieze.

  • John says:

    11 Oct11 October 11:07

    Is it only in the UK that it’s closed or other countries too?

  • BP says:

    11 Oct11 October 11:09

    The travel insurance limits are slightly higher than Premier too.

• Jeff Morgan says:

  11 Oct11 October 11:41

  Latest cost is now £281m to save 2 minutes on the travel time. While the shuttle bus was not ideal it cost the Council nothing, as it was operated by Thameslink. As for the towns people, who have paid for it, they won’t use it.

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