Heathrow Express slashes prices – kids go free (permanently), adults pay just £10 over Easter

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• Tariq says:

  26 Mar26 March 06:33

  Wasn’t it around £10 originally when launched? Can’t believe the price went up to £21! This is the service that takes 9 minutes or so?

  • Brian says:

    26 Mar26 March 07:43

    It takes 15 minutes to Heathrow Central, longer to Terminal 5. Given that the Heathrow Connect takes about 30 minutes to Heathrow Central, I have never understood why anybody would bother paying more than twice the amount to save 15 minutes. Going to Terminal 5 is a different matter, of course, since you’d have to change if using Connect.

    • JQ says:

      26 Mar26 March 10:39

      Because the hex has a max 15 min wait, and if I’m taking it then it’s the only option that will get me to the airport in time anyway

    • Aeronaut says:

      26 Mar26 March 15:55

      Basically, if you’re unlucky with your timings (and if everything is running as it should), with Heathrow Express it would be a maximum of half an hour from arriving at T1,2 & 3 station platform to getting to Paddington (15 min wait + 15 min journey time), compared to a maximum of an hour with Heathrow Connect (half an hour wait + half an hour journey time).

• Will says:

  26 Mar26 March 07:41

  Still almost double the price of the Hong Kong airport express, and you can check your bags in at the town centre station in Hong Kong and not see them again until you reach your destination.
  Monopoly rip off service with dodgy accounts filed to make it look like it’s just making “normal” profit while repatriating the real profit back to the airport. All that’s wrong with the UK right there.

• Mark says:

  26 Mar26 March 07:47

  Think this is a complete rip off, used it once.

  I can vallet park the car cheaper. What visitors to rhis country must think when they get ripped off within an hour of arriving!

• Alex says:

  26 Mar26 March 08:28

  I made a booking recently on the website, and for the first time, I was able to add my railcard online. Finally!

• Smid says:

  26 Mar26 March 09:00

  I guess its a welcome to london, pull your trousers down…

  When you consider you can get from JFK to centre of manhatten for $15, or the cheap way $7.50, puts it into context… And that’s because its miles out…

  If they keep it at 10 quid, I’d use it. I actively avoided using it Good Friday anyway, and this discount is too little too late, going in via Reading (so I can visit Sweenies pie shop the night before…)

  • Mike says:

    26 Mar26 March 09:10

    That’s not quite fair – JFK and Heathrow are both around 15 miles from the centre of town, and if you use the tube it’s just £5.10.

• MDM says:

  26 Mar26 March 09:39

  We are staying at the Sofitel and popping in to town for a meal and a show before we fly out the next day. At £50 return 9and that is the reduced Duo rate) for 2 adults it is a rip-off. The tube will be cheaper and considering transfers from the West End to Paddington, the journey wil be 5 mins shorter overall. On the day we are there the frequency is only half-hourly to boot. So a non-starter.

  I expect toursits who are jet-lagged and unfamiliar with exchange rates will jusy pay (and regret later?).

  Why business users will pay the extra for a 15 minute journey baffles me (though of course likely someone else is paying!).

• LondonFoodie says:

  26 Mar26 March 09:40

  As quite heavy user of HEX, here is my analysis:
  – Tube: cheapest way to get to London, takes about 50-60 minutes depending on where you are going to, but if you go somewhere on the Piccadilly line it is really unbeatable.
  – Heathrow Express: 21 minutes to T5, with or without traffic. That is the main attraction for me. The alternative is a £30-35 Uber/Airport Express minicab from where I live – so we break even when going with my plus one. More convenient when we have loads of bags, but for a weekend break, which usually starts on a Friday evening – taking a car presents a real risk of missing a flight!
  – Heathrow Connect: I should probably use it more often. Cheap and you are in London in 30 minutes. But it doesn’t leave as frequently, so I only end up using it when I am in no hurry whatsoever.

  Why is Hex slashing prices? a few guesses:
  – Cross Rail is coming – you will be in Paddington in 25 minutes (I think) from Heathrow. That will more or less kill the Hex
  – Uber is become ever more popular and with 2 people you easily break even, even on the carnet price of £16 O/W. That is why Hex has running promotions for groups of people.
  – With prices becoming so ridiculously expensive (£21!), fewer people opt to use the service.

  All that said – Gatwick Express is the real rip-off, given the frequent trains to Victoria, and don’t get me started on the Stansted Express which is the main reason I haven’t flown from STN in more than four years.

  • will says:

    26 Mar26 March 09:54

    When a train is more expensive that a 2 person taxi you know your living in a place which is tangential to reality! Tarmac over the rails and just let Taxi’s run along it (that’s kind of a joke btw, although there’s something to be said for thinking about it to put the current status quo into context)

    • Rob says:

      26 Mar26 March 11:22

      To be fair to Heathrow, the Express was fully privately financed. The airport paid for the spur from the mainline and the tunnelling which was hugely expensive. It also paid for the trains. Covering the costs of all that is not easy.

      • Tim says:

        26 Mar26 March 13:34

        I imagine that the tunnel was expensive. It collapsed whilst being dug

        • aristeides says:

          26 Mar26 March 14:34

          I would bet that the costs of trains and tunnelling have easily been covered now. HEx/Stansted Express are both crying out for competition inquiries. Gatwick Express too, probably, although that does at least have some genuine competition. The rip-off fares are bad for tourism, business, in fact just about everyone except the companies involved. HEx’s cost per mile was famously greater than Concorde… now it’s even more! You can fly to Warsaw, Bucharest or Rabat once you get to Stansted for the same fare as the train.

  • Aeronaut says:

    26 Mar26 March 16:09

    Re the Stansted Express – they introduced some Advance fares a short while back that offer significant savings.

    A single between Liverpool Street and Stansted is £12 if booked seven days or more in advance, or £8 if booked thirty days or more in advance, (The same is available between Tottenham Hale and Stansted for £11 or 7.50.)

    Unlike normal Advance tickets on the railways, these Stansted Express tickets allow you to travel on any train on the specified day (i.e. you are not limited to travelling on one specific service on that day). You can only book them via the Stansted Express website, and the tickets are issued as ‘e-tickets’ (for printing yourself) or ‘m-tickets’ for mobiles.

    These fares are competitive with the coach fares between London and Stansted.

    • Tim says:

      26 Mar26 March 16:30

      Stansted express is simply a brand of a franchised train operator. Their fares are therefore partly regulated and fully integrated into the national fares system. H EX is an anomaly because it is basically HAL’s private railway on which it can do what it likes. Of course it did have to pay for the tunnel to Heathrow, but much of the journey is on the public line for which it takes up paths that could be used more efficiently if integrated into Crossrail, but of course that won’t happen because it is a private railway. My hope is that the H Ex will be driven out of business by Crossrail who then takes over the paths. Then we get cheaper fares and the slightly longer journey time is compensated for by more frequent departures and a choice of stations in LOndon

• Jeremy I says:

  26 Mar26 March 09:48

  Stansted Express has some relatively (it’s all relative!) good value advance fares of £8 each way if you book 30 days in advance, IIRC.

  • Aeronaut says:

    26 Mar26 March 16:19

    Sorry Jeremy, I didn’t notice your post before I added my contribution above.

    To get to or from Stansted for cheaper than £8 you’re looking into catching a time specified National Express coach service (£5 fare bought in advance), or securing one of the few really cheap easyBus fares for their minibus service. Not sure the latter is really HfP readers’ territory!

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