Great Western Coffee Shop

Hi,

I'm looking on NationalRail for Heathrow T5  to Great Malvern on Saturday. The journey offered is via Heathrow Express and the 08:21 Paddington-Great Malvern (GMV). OK so far but...

There is a journey alert which says "Purchasing tickets at Heathrow Airport: Please note that only Heathrow Express and Heathrow Connect tickets can be purchased at this station"

Is this true?? Is it a temporary situation or long-term?

The through fare offered (if one could buy it at Heathrow) is ^50. This is the same as a Heathrow Express single (^20!!) and a super-off-peak PAD-GMV (^30). However the 17 minute connection margin at PAD may be a bit tight for buying  ticket for the second part of the journey. Would anyone like to confirm that the passenger would be within rights to board the GMV train if there's insufficient time to buy a ticket due to queues? Are there sufficient ticket machines?

It's possible to arrive the same time at GMV by changing at Hayes & Harlington. This may save money by using Heathrow Connect (^5.60 to H&H vs ^20 to PAD by Hex) but the Hayes&H to GMV fare is higher than from PAD!!

Welcome to UK, land of the farce.


Any ideas?

You could order the ticket on line and pick it up from the machine at Paddington

A good suggestion from Ellendune

Co-incidentally, I was discussing this very matter with a friend and other member here and apparently the only tickets that can be sold at Heathrow are to Heathrow Express / Heathrow Connect destinations, and that's because the stations are private ones and not Network Rail ones.   It's a permanent situation.

I would have thought that the very place a wide range of tickets, and a country-wide collection machine, should have been provided is at the airport where more than any other long distance passengers arrive in the country.

Advise if you feel you must pick up / buy tickets at the airport to your destination station is to fly in to Gatwick, Stanstead, Southampton, Birmingham or Manchester Airports.   But there's no ticket machine nor booking office at Teeside Airport station either.

As long as you pay by card, I reckon you might have enough time to buy the ticket. Paddington station has a few ticket machines that take cards only, and at quiet times of day there are often available machines, or at worst they are only 1 deep in the queue.

I don't understand why Heathrow Airport/BAA don't sell tickets for the rest of the UK network. A travel agent would be able to do it wouldn't they? Southend Airport station is privately owned too, and the staff work for the owner (Stobbart) as opposed to Greater Anglia, yet there it is possible to buy a ticket the usual way.

Not sure exactly of your timings, but there is a 78 bus (operated by First!) that leaves Heathrow Terminal 5 at 0732 that arrives at Slough at 0800. The super off peak fare seems to be only available from Paddington, but as you can break your journey anywhere it should still be valid starting short. You could pre-book the ticket and decide which way you go on the day I suppose.

That's an excellent point ... if I think more about what I / we have been told, it's sounding rather more like an excuse than a valid reason.

It is not that they can't, it is that they won't. They treat the Express / Connect as though it was an isolated shuttle service.

If there was any commercial business in it though, wouldn't someone operate a travel agency?

I use the RailAir Link to Reading when using Heathrow from the west and I'm sure that they have a conductor selling rail tickets to those boarding without.  If you wanted to avoid the expensive Heathrow trains and pick up your train at Reading, that might be an option.

Many thanks for the suggestions offered.
Surprisingly, the railair link turns out to be more expensive than the Heathrow Express option.
Also, using Heathrow Connect and changing at Hayes & Harlington isn't the money-saver one might expect, as the single from there to Great Malvern is ^12 more expensive than from Paddington, as there is no super-off-peak fare. I know that a PAD-GMV ticket would be valid from Hayes, this is getting a bit much to explain to a visitor...

Before the government thinks about HS2 it should make what it already has work properly.

The ticket office at Heathrow Airport always seems a little bit misleading at best to me. You'll have trouble obtaining a railcard discounted ticket there, and passengers don't ever seem to be given the choice of the cheaper Connect service, only being sold tickets for it if they ask. I wonder how many more people would use the Connect if it was explained that for a journey about 10 minutes longer you could get a single for roughly half the price.

Railair is generally more expensive for a single - via Hayes or Slough is in most cases much cheaper. From T5 it usually takes the same time to Reading as going via PAD - but it connects very poorly with the Worcester trains.

I often make the journey from LHR to the Cotswold Line (Charlbury). Since I usually start my trip from my Oxford office I use a return on the Oxford Airbus to LHR which runs every 20-30min calling at T5 and central rail station. The issue is the journey from Oxford to Charlbury. The Oxford bus station is a brisk 5min walk from the rail station and the last train along the Cotswold line is at 2247 or thereabouts.

Mention of the Oxford Airbus got me thinking:
National Express - 11:00 or 15:45 from Heathrow, into Great Malvern at 16:35 or 19:55.  One change on the way - Cheltenham or Birmingham.  Cost - 20.40 or 33.10 (adult)

What does FGW site offer at around the same time:
Heathrow Connect 10:57, Change Hayes and Harlington and Slough, arrive 14:00. Cost - 50.00
Heathrow Express 11:03, Change Paddington, Euston and New Street, arrive 15:44. Cost - 85.60

And I'll bet I can buy a National Express ticket at Heathrow all the way to Great Malvern.

The story would/will  be so different with a West-facing train service from Heathrow to an interchange for longer distance journeys (Reading!)