£10 Heathrow Express tickets made permanent

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• Erico1875 says:

  19 Sep19 September 05:58

  I would have thought Best Western was larger than GHA

• HampshireHog says:

  19 Sep19 September 06:00

  How annoying of Heathrow when I’ve already bought advance November express tickets for £15

• mradey says:

  19 Sep19 September 06:09

  I’m not sure that railcards can be used with the express saver ticket. At least the ‘network railcard’ doesn’t reduce the price for this £10 ticket (but does reduce the standard tickets also offered).

  • Michael says:

    19 Sep19 September 06:36

    Network railcard has a minimum price for the reduced ticket.

    • Roy says:

      19 Sep19 September 06:40

      Minimum price is £13 Mon -Fri. No minimum on weekends.

      But I’m seeing the same as @mradey. I don’t think Heathrow Express has ever offered railcard discounts on Advance tickets. There was a time when they didn’t accept railcards at all ..

      • J says:

        19 Sep19 September 06:46

        Age based railcards work for me, and have worked in the past. 16-25/26-30 etc

        • LittleNick says:

          19 Sep19 September 08:08

          Yes can confirm it works with the 18-25 & 25-30 railcards

  • aseftel says:

    19 Sep19 September 06:51

    Yes I think they have an issue with Network railcards. Network railcards do have a £13 minimum fare that would prevent any discount but that only applies Monday-Friday and they don’t seem to be working on weekends. Most other railcards have less restrictive minimum fares and seem to be working fine.

    • Roy says:

      19 Sep19 September 07:09

      Hmm, the terms and conditions do say “£10 tickets can be used in conjunction with Railcards”.

      https://www.heathrowexpress.com/tickets-and-offers/advance-discounted-tickets#/

  • Lumma says:

    19 Sep19 September 07:04

    None of them seem to work for this ticket

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    19 Sep19 September 07:19

    They can’t.

    See this page (that Rob linked to)

    “Network Card

    The following discounts apply on full-fare Express Saver Class:

    Adults 1/3 off
    Children aged 15 years and under travel free on Heathrow Express*
    Discount using the Network Railcard only available on Heathrow Express after 10:00 Monday-Fridays and at any time on weekends and public holidays.”

    The “The following discounts apply on full-fare Express Saver Class” text is pretty much there for the majority of railcards.

    • Londonsteve says:

      19 Sep19 September 11:32

      I don’t understand why they’re cherry picking which Railcards they accept to discount the Advance fare? I can get a £10 single on weekends to reduce by 1/3 if I select a Senior Railcard for example, but it won’t discount using a Network Railcard. However, the Network card WILL discount a standard fare…. So, they’ll give me a bigger discount in monetary terms on a standard ticket, but won’t apply a discount to an Advance fare. Is this a bug or a deliberate policy by HEX?

      • Nick says:

        19 Sep19 September 13:30

        Network railcards can’t be used on Advance fares with any rail operator, it’s not just HEx.

        • Londonsteve says:

          19 Sep19 September 13:56

          Ah, that explains it. I didn’t know that, it’s just lowered the value of the Network Railcard for me. £13 minimum fare Mon-Fri, no discount on Advance fares, discounted TFL paper travelcards only available at weekends and public holidays (even though the discount applies after 10am to National Rail). Mine has now expired and it might not be worth renewing.

  • Roosit says:

    19 Sep19 September 07:49

    Veteran railcard works

    • Dean says:

      19 Sep19 September 16:08

      Used it in August. Very happy with the price.

• Nick G says:

  19 Sep19 September 07:38

  Just a note on the Sofitel Heathrow. We stayed recently after using it for about 15yrs as our got to Heathrow hotel. We’ve noticed such a change. Walk in no nice aroma. Ok no big deal. Men’s toilet out of use. Ok no big deal. Ask for our room. It’s not ready despite check in time. Extra bed for our son now £35/night. Go to lounge in the evening it’s beyond rammed. Can’t sit so people are using the seats outside in the lobby to find somewhere to have a relaxing drink. No food left quickly etc etc. Package included breakfast yet we check out at 6am. No restaurant open at that time only a bag with fruit and a cereal bar is the best they can do. Complain and offered a free drinks voucher….

  Write to complain. Nothing back. So in all in all for what we paid and used to that hotel has gone right down hill and the prices shot right up. Convenience of T5 access still wins but it’s not what it used to be for anyone thinking of paying through the nose.

  • executiveclubber says:

    19 Sep19 September 10:02

    Said it before & I’ll say it again, Premier Inn plus room is unbeatable. Almost always under £100, always clean, easy to reach via lizzy line and simple bus to terminal

  • John says:

    19 Sep19 September 10:29

    Agree their late breakfast is inexcusable for an airport (!!) hotel. I once delayed myself until breakfast start time only to discover a secondary delay inside breakfast as they continue setting up while nominally open. So 6am became 6.25 if you wanted hot food etc.

• Paul says:

  19 Sep19 September 08:04

  It’s a pity the lizzie line have to pay Heathrow for access via a supplement to all fares which is why it’s £12:50.
  One way or another Heathrow get a cut

  • LittleNick says:

    19 Sep19 September 08:09

    Yes they own the track infrastructure going into the airport

    • Lady London says:

      19 Sep19 September 13:12

      Do you not think it fair that Heathrow should be able to recoup that investment they made in that last bit of track going into the airport though?

      I detest the higher prices for the Elizabeth Line if Heathrow is touched but if they invested to build that track surely they should be protected for a while?

  • The Original David says:

    19 Sep19 September 08:16

    Not if you take the Superloop bus from Hayes & Harlington…

    • MC says:

      19 Sep19 September 12:34

      I’ve not heard this mentioned before but I can’t imagine the cost saving is worth the hassle of changing onto a bus from the EL ?

      • Londonsteve says:

        19 Sep19 September 12:45

        It’s worthwhile if someone lives on the EL and has plenty of time to spare by the time they’re nearing Heathrow. Way cheaper to disembark at Hayes and Harlington and get the SL9 two stops into Heathrow Central. More awkward to get to T5 as you’d then need to get on the train or tube for a free transfer from Heathrow Central to T5.

  • JDB says:

    19 Sep19 September 08:20

    @Paul – if you had paid to build the tunnel, wouldn’t you expect to be paid for its use? Or, if you built a house would you be happy to let it to strangers rent free?

    It is a matter of public policy that Heathrow (and its associated services) should operate entirely on a user pays basis.

    • Callum says:

      19 Sep19 September 09:10

      Yes, charging public transport authorities to bring YOUR passengers and YOUR staff to your building is certainly the same thing as someone walking into your house and demanding free rent…

    • Sarah says:

      19 Sep19 September 10:01

      The tunnel is there to help get Heathrow’s customers to the airport and make it a more attractive proposition than other airports. It’s no different to a supermarket offering a car park, it’s part of the infrastructure required for its operations and most supermarkets allow their customers to park for free. Heathrow prefers to nickel and dime its customers – the drop off fee being a prime example.

    • Londonsteve says:

      19 Sep19 September 11:43

      JDB, I’ve noticed over the years (not least in replies to me) that you’re a vociferous defender of HAL’s right to charge TFL a swingeing fee for the use of a couple of miles of tunnel (and stations), resulting in much higher ticket prices for the travelling public. Their motivation is not only naked profiteering but also seeking to artificially raise the price of a competing service so that HEX can still represent an appealing alternative to a percentage of the travelling public. No conflict of interest there.

      I’ll be delighted when HAL’s strangehold on rail access to the country’s most important airport is over. Public transport and a privately operated airport are two different things. HAL should stick to operating a reliable airport with TFL responsible for offering affordable public transport, as they successfully do in my estimation.

      Quite what National Rail and TFL will eventually do with the liberated pathways is anyone’s guess once HEX hits the buffers. A worst case scenario is that since they then have a monopoly on Heathrow rail travel, they raise the price of an express Elizabeth Line service to the same level that HEX is now, although I don’t know how they could differentiate at the LHR gateline which service you’ve arrived on.

      • Roy says:

        19 Sep19 September 12:05

        That tunnel was built by and is owned by the airport (unlike the Piccadilly line tunnel). TfL has no automatic right to use it. They either pay what Heathrow asks, or they don’t run to Heathrow.

        That won’t change, even if/when Heathrow Express ceases to run. The railway from the Great Western Main Line to Heathrow is a private railway, and not owned by Network Rail. Ok, the government could perhaps nationalise it, but they’d have to pay the current owners a fair price. I doubt there’s any appetite to do that.

        • Rob says:

          19 Sep19 September 14:41

          Don’t forget too that the tunnel was a nightmare to build. It collapsed at one point, forcing HAL to open an intermediate station called Heathrow Junction for a period whilst it was fixed and then passengers moving onto buses. This cost went onto HAL, not the taxpayer. I suspect it doesn’t make a great return on its investment even with the current access fee.

      • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

        19 Sep19 September 12:16

        What “swinging fee” would that be?

        The documents have been previously posted that list the fees and they perhaps aren’t as swinging as you may think they are and they are levied on a per train not a per passenger basis.

        In any event the level is set by the Office of Rail Regulation (or whatever it’s called these days) and the last set confirmed by the High Court after HAL appealed them.

        As to your last comment the gate lines do that already, Tap out at T5 for example and you are charged based on where you tapped in as the HEX gates at Paddington are coded differently to those at Lizzie line stations. Tap in at Paddington high level (the main stations and you could have only used the HEX for example.

        • Londonsteve says:

          19 Sep19 September 12:54

          The fact that the track use fees are legal doesn’t make them per se reasonable relative to the short distance. The regulator struck a balance recognising the tunnel and stations are privately owned and having been allowed to built the infrastructure in the first place, HAL has an expectation of turning a profit on it. The tunnel should have been built with public funds to start with as it’s a key piece of national infrastructure with an obvious business case, allowing HAL’s predecessor to do this was a mistake in my opinion as they’ve got us all over the barrel now.

          I’d assume fast EL services would continue to run from Paddington low-level station as operating cross city would be a key part of the appeal, otherwise any HEX replacement would just be a rebranded HEX with the same limited target market of people that want to start or terminate their journey in Paddington. The fairest thing would be to charge the same price for journeys terminating at Heathrow irrespective if one used a fast or a stopper service. I suspect TFL would resist the temptation to operate a premium priced fast service from Paddington high-level platforms due to the aforementioned weak business case, quite apart from which the existing EL trains are far too long for passenger demand Paddington-Heathrow non-stop. TFL could take over the whole existing operation but I don’t think they’d be interested. Better to terminate it and funnel everyone onto the EL.

  • Captain Haddock says:

    19 Sep19 September 11:22

    This all expires in 2026 – 30 years after construction. The track then reverts to National Rail. This is a bit of a last hurrah from HEX to make a few quid before it is all over.

    • Rhys says:

      19 Sep19 September 11:22

      Does that include the T5 spur which was built later?

    • Roy says:

      19 Sep19 September 12:14

      I don’t understand how privately owned and financed property can somehow just “revert” to being owned by the government.

      However, Heathrow Express runs over a mix of Heathrow and Network Rail infrastucture – Heathrow from the airport to the GWML and then Network Rail from their to Paddington. This means that HEX needs a track access agreement in order to run their trains. The current agreement runs until 2028, I believe.

      • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

        19 Sep19 September 12:32

        HAL was given a concession to build and operate the HEX service for an initial period of 25 years (subsequently 30 years)

        At the end of the concession the infrastructure will revert to whomever the concession agreement says it reverts to and than can include the government for no charge.

        For example the Lewisham extension to the DLR was build and paid for by the private sector and TFL paid them an access fee for using that infrastructure because at the time the Government insisted it be built by the private sector.

        At the time in the 1990s TFL was essentially part of the government and the TFL as we know it today didn’t exist.

        A couple of years ago the concession ended and as all the loans etc had been paid off the infrastructure was handed over to TFL as per the agreement

        https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/tfl-to-take-full-ownership-of-the-dlrs-lewisham-extension-42208/

        • Roy says:

          19 Sep19 September 12:47

          Do you have ansource for this? I didn’t think the Heathrow branch was a concession. I thought it was simply a privately owned railway.

          London Reconnections’ article on the future of Heathrow Express makes no mention of an imminent transfer of infrastructure ownership, and their writers are normally incredibly knowledgeable.

          https://www.londonreconnections.com/2023/the-slow-death-of-heathrow-express/

      • Track says:

        20 Sep20 September 09:30

        The same way your ‘privately owned’ leasehold apartments reverts to the freeholder!

        If you make no steps to extend it..

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    19 Sep19 September 12:06

    The “supplement” (over what fare level you think it’s additional to I’m not sure) helps pay back the loans that paid for the constriction of the Lizzie line.

    TFL pays HAL a sum for each train that uses HALs infrastructure not per passenger,

    HAL pays Network Rail on a per train basis for using the national rail infrastructure. Just as TFL does for Lizzie and Overground trains do to.

    • Roy says:

      19 Sep19 September 12:39

      There is, in effect, a supplement over the normal zonal fare.

• David says:

  19 Sep19 September 08:29

  “No doubt the offer has been driven by the launch of Elizabeth Line services two years ago”

  Ahhhh I love me some competition. No more abusing power and/or taking the Mickey.

  • The Original David says:

    19 Sep19 September 09:09

    Except before the Elizabeth line opened, they always sold advance HEX tickets for £5.50, which was actually great value.

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    19 Sep19 September 12:20

    There had been competition for years with the Heathrow Connect service which morphed into Lizzie line when she opened.

• John says:

  19 Sep19 September 10:20

  Given the capacity constraints and peak overcrowding at DUB it would be a stroke of genius for Arora to provide bag drop, checkin and airside access for premium hotel guests. The potential market would also include T1 departures as both terminals are joined airside.

• John says:

  19 Sep19 September 10:25

  I always thought LHR / HEX should have been bought out of its concessions on that track and platforms, in the same way tolling concessions have been bought out on some motorway segments. The infrastructure could be more efficiently used if pooled with TfL…. in my humble opinion.

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