[Intheair]

I live in Sunningdale (Berkshire) but also have an apartment in West London.

When in Berkshire, the only choice really for LHR is by far driving – I find the short stay car park good value at £15 per day if booked in advance. Public transport is poor.

If in Lomdon, and without too much luggage, I find the Piccadilly Line excellent – it seems slow but is often quicker than the car. Heathrow Express is a rip off and for T5, a little long anyway.

To answer the initial question, if I was driving and parking I would pay the toll. If picking someone up, I would fine it annoying.

[IanFromHKG]

I have been thinking about this in comparison with my home airport, where there is ample parking (short-term and long-term) with walking access to the airport building, a superb train service to the main business areas and the two most important population centres, similarly excellent road access and a variety of other public transport options (buses, minibuses, taxis). Here is how it works for us:

If we are dropping off or collecting the Offspring we will generally drive, as it takes only 45 minutes each way, short-term parking is easy (and we get free charging for our Tesla!), and we either want to greet the little darlings on arrival or send them off properly. Fuel cost is minimal because of the free charging, we use the least congested tunnel (13 pounds round trip) and parking costs 2.40 per hour sterling. Having said that, we sometimes park in Central and take the Airport Express (11 pounds per person) for late night departures to cut down on driving, and because it has the advantage of in-town check-in which saves dealing with bags.

If we are going away en famille for more than a long weekend, or we are doing long-haul and arriving home late at night, we will generally order a limo at a cost of about 60 pounds each way (not much more than paying for the Airport Express). We have once done “long-term parking” at the airport for a long weekend since it worked out cheaper than getting the limo both ways.

If we are departing as individuals (nearly always long-haul) we will generally take the Airport Express.

Timing on each of these options doesn’t vary much, and is reliable. We don’t have to worry particularly about traffic delays or trains not working.

In many respects, therefore, we have the luxury of choosing options to suit the circumstances. Heathrow doesn’t have those. What Heathrow does have, according to our perspective, is:

(1) Good coach connections at reasonable prices for medium-haul trips. I use these a bit, but don’t find them very comfortable. Generally not too much walking involved, and no stairs
(2) The tube. Ugh. I do use it occasionally, but it’s slow, not particularly comfortable, and a pain with luggage given the numerous stairs. No phone access or wifi
(3) Heathrow Express. Expensive for the distance, but comfortable and reliable. Depending on terminal, change of train may be required. Often quite a lot of walking. Inevitably, transfer required at the other end – often by the tube (and lots of stairs) if changing to another rail station (for me, usually Paddington to King’s Cross)
(4) Heathrow Connect and other train services (latter not usually relevant for us given our destinations). Cheaper, but not usually chosen since advance tickets on Hex are fairly reasonable and/or longer-distance tickets include Hex anyway
(5) Car transfers – we do use these sometimes but unless we are going to Central London (for which prices are very reasonable when one compares with train-and-taxi) they tend to be quite expensive. Going TO Heathrow we only do this if we are in West London anyway and have luggage, but are always wary of traffic congestion
(6) Rental cars – often required for us during longer trips. Why this isn’t as easy as it is at Gatwick is beyond me.

Now, what happens if the congestion charge is introduced? Option (4) goes out of the window. Option (6) may work if the zone doesn’t include the car rental stations which are, in any case, freaking miles from the airport. Other options – well, no impact really.

But what would happen if Heathrow was my home airport? Well, Gatwick would become a lot more attractive, for starters. For short-term trips, I guess I would at first glance be less likely to drive – but then again those would probably be business trips for which I could claim the expense and/or use public transport from my office anyway. For longer-term trips where the cost is effectively spread over more days, probably no difference. So I can’t see a huge difference in my behaviour.

So what WOULD change my behaviour? Here are some random thoughts (more may occur to me, and almost certainly to others!)

(1) For people whose home airport is Heathrow – an effective, reasonable and reliable park-and-ride service. Reliable, in this context, means highly predictable timing. I need to know that I can get there, park, walk a minimal distance (preferably with weather protection) and get a ride directly to my terminal and know that I can do this in time to catch my flight.
(2) For most people – remote check-in. Remove my need to lug my baggage to the airport if I use public transport and I will leap at it. Hong Kong has this. You can even use it in Hong Kong it you don’t use public transport, provided you don’t mind paying the Airport Express charge. You can do it hours before the flight – even the day before! Your bags are taken, and you get your boarding pass, seat allocation, lounge invitation, everything (except, generally, details of the gate!). Queues are minimal compared to the airport, particularly for economy passengers. There is everything to love about this idea. And London used to have it….
(3) Well, you know, I did have some other ideas, but I am so taken with number (2) I am going to go no further!

[LuganoPirate]

Ian, your post reminds me of a similar service in Switzerland which I use to use.

For a fee Swiss Raill will collect your bags from home, bring your boarding passes and you collect your bags at your destination airport.

Or you can check your bag in at certain main line stations for a fee but free for Senators (Gold) and I think First Class pax.

On the inbound to Switzerland flight at check-in you can check your bag to any Swiss Rail station, though it is often only available for collection the following day. However great for bulky luggage such as Golf Clubs etc.

[MartynSinclair]

Ian, perhaps the answer for outside airport bag drop would be for passenger hubs to be created at sensible points to the north, south, east and west of the London, with fast connections to all terminals (by coach or a new train line). I am more than happy to use public transport and often use the tube, (a 1 hour and 20 minute journey for me, with 1 change).. however, with anything more than hand luggage, this does not work for me.

For north London there would be plenty of space around the A1, M1 and M25 connections to capture and encourage passengers travelling from the north to Heathrow to “check in bags” and arrive at the airport by public transport.

However, if airlines are currently unable or unwilling to transfer bags between the main London airports for passengers, I do not hold out much hope.

As for a city centre bag drop and make your own way to the airport… no thank you…. even though I use bag trackers in all my checked luggage.

[CathayLoyalist2]

….the best city check in /bag drop is HKG at the Airport Express Check in downtown for Chek Lap Kok. There maybe others I haven’t used and it works well. When people say you can’t use HKG or SIN for comparison because they are smaller the point is they have planners who can think not bureaucrats that can’t. The new T4 at Changi which will be operating by year end is a another case in point

[capetonianm]

I was going to mention Switzerland but I see LP has beaten me to it. Only the Swiss could make that work, although admittedly it’s a small country with a superb rail infrastructure.

[K1ngston]

There is one in KL Sentral in Kuala Lumpur which used to be good when MH was good, dont know if its gone the same way as the airline ??

You’re absolutely right CathayLoyalist2, SIN and HKG are great points of note, Term 4 as you say is going through testing now for end of year opening and they are already clearing for Term 5 and the same thought will go into that also.

I cant enter the debate about the £15 at Heathrow as dont live in the UK anymore but as someone who flew regularly from there and used a taxi to pick me up I would be well p***ed off to be charged that amount …

[MartynSinclair]

@Kingston – the charge and debate belongs to overseas visitors as well. We all need to get to airports, the only difference is “from where”…. which city/town location does the initial airport journey commence from….

[K1ngston]

Martyn I get the point, but does not apply, as you know I rent a car when I get to the UK, so depending from which terminal I am flying I just drive to the Rental Station and dump the car.

As to the point of having to pay to drive to an airport in the UK which due to years of mismanagement by subsequent Governments does not have sufficient public transport links, I certainly would not be in favour of having what is best described as a stealth tax levied on me for going to the airport.

As mentioned there are airports all over the world that have sufficient areas for drop off and pick up which should be championed and not penalised ….

[lostantipod]

@k1ngston – baggage checkin at KL Sentral worked just fine when i was there in February.

As for the tax – more opportunist BS from lazy thinkers. Slugging captive motorists further without investing in infrastructure is not the answer. For those of us that live outside of London, public transport options to LHR are poor, time-consuming, and often more expensive than driving if you plan ahead, speaking from living in Surrey and Oxfordshire. Not to mention that the railway along which LHR is served from London is run by GWR, one of the least customer-focused franchises in the UK, with frequent delays and in the middle of a poorly planned electrification. Paddington station was shut for many hours on two midweek peak-hour evenings in July due to issues with signalling equipment i believe … so, slugging captive motorists wont make up for operational incompetence and a lack of investment foresight….

[Andrew]

Heathrow Airport is expected to contribute to the cost of additional rail infrastructure serving it.
Apart from the Elizabeth Line (Crossrail – only to/through Central London), the one closest to completion is Western Access (mid-late 2018?). This will connect T5 directly to Slough, Reading and probably Oxford.
Next in line is Southern Access, from T5 to the Weybridge/Woking area – no date, but much discussed.
And we can only dream about an HS2 connection – apparently ‘passive provision’ is to be built in, so that if it ever does come, there’ll be less disruption to HS2 traffic.

[briancarr]

It seems that the bureaucrats who make these decisions always take the easy option, and as all bureaucrats singly lack any imagination, I suppose that is why they do the jobs that they do, requires no thought.
City centre pollution, tax the motorist. Too much air travel , APD. Parking in central london, higher parking meter charges, develop an airport , add a tax., have a diesel car, tax it more.
Lets decide what we want, an integrated system, oh it’s too much trouble, but in the end is the only lasting sustainable answer.
Other airports in Europe do have an easier environment in which to operate ie.not such space restrictions, but they had a 5yr or 10 year plan, not in the UK, we want an easy solution, and until we get a government that does the long term planning we will never get it. What has happened to our great city planners , does no one have a grand vision, the basic problem is that we are ruled by ‘jobs worth civil servants and a moronic government.
Any hope for the future ? Nope.

[Chutzpahflyer]

It all depends where you live (or otherwise are departing from). By car, it takes me 20 minutes to/from Central area, 25 to T5, about 18 to T4 (outside rush hour). By train I have to go to go in to Waterloo, cross to Paddington for HE or get to the Piccadilly line, so at least 2 hours, probably 2.5. Alternatively, I have a 7 minute walk to the bus stop for the 111 direct to LHR (sometimes, others end in Hounslow), which takes about an hour (in good traffic) to Central area, from where I have to get to my terminal on those long moving walkways. With a large suitcase? No thank you!
So why should I be penalised for going to LHR by car when the public transport alternatives are not really an option?

[Author]

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