Where does the slack come from?

[whole diary]

[willc]

I would bet that the half-hourly Oxford-Paddington stoppers will only run as far as Reading

Which was exactly what they were doing today! But with the added benefit that they mostly seemed to be calling all stations, rather than skipping odd stops which they normally do.

Culham and Appleford always seem to see their most frequent service when an emergency timetable is in place!

And not forgetting Ascott-under-Wychwood, which enjoyed an excellent Saturday service when the Hanborough-Oxford section was shut last month during the relaying of the loops at Oxford.

Don't build the Heathrow Hub. The HX and Crossrail will be enough!

No they won't and they will be of no use whatever to anyone travelling to or from the airport from further afield, ie most of the Great Western network area. Successful airport stations elsewhere offer both local shuttles and long-distance services, eg Birmingham International, Stansted, Manchester Airport and many more across Europe.

I'm amazed anyone at all uses Heathrow Express, or maybe they're all on expense accounts so don't mind paying ^16.50 one-way, or ^32 return (and you can stick on ^3 more on both if you buy on board). First class is ^26 single and ^50 return.

Connect only takes about 10 minutes longer and costs ^6.90 single or ^13.80 return.

[Btline]

I would say that the Tube and Crossrail will be enough to serve Londerners.

People for the BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) network can take the coach to Reading or Watford.

And hopefully they'll build spur lines facing towards Reading.

[willc]

People for the BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) network can take the coach to Reading or Watford.

Have you tried taking the coach to or from Reading in the peaks? It has an extended journey time and the M4 is a bumper to bumper crawl.

If you are going to do the job, then do it properly. In this case, that means providing a station offering long-distance services (which Birmingham International has done for more than 30 years) - there are already lots of ways for Londoners to get to Heathrow and that won't change. How about doing something for everyone else for once? Like all the people living in FGW^▸ (First Great Western) land.

[Btline]

Fine, build the spur, and enlarge/rebuild Heathrow Central.

Then extend XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) services which terminate at Reading in, and selected FGW^▸ (First Great Western) services.