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What are the TfL Rail (ex Heathrow Connect) fares to Heathrow airport?

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Here are details of the new fares on the old Heathrow Connect stopping service from Paddington to Heathrow which passes to the control of TfL Rail from 20th May.  Once the central section of Crossrail opens this service will be discontinued entirely.

Fares will be slightly cheaper than at present for most people.

From Paddington they drop 10p to £10.20 (by 20p off-peak) with a bigger fall of 70p (peak) and £2 (off-peak) from Acton, West Ealing, Ealing Broadway and Greenford.

The real innovation is the inclusion of Heathrow Connect / TfL Rail in the £12.50 daily Oyster cap for Zones 1-6.

If you are only in London for the day, £12.50 will get you a return trip from Heathrow to Paddington on TfL Rail / Heathrow Connect (not Heathrow Express) plus all of your tube and bus travel for the day.

You may even make a saving if you are only travelling one-way to Heathrow, as the £12.50 daily cap may be cheaper than a tube ticket from home or office to Paddington plus the £10.20 TfL Rail fee.

Anyone with a Zone 1-6 season ticket will now also be able to travel to Heathrow free of charge on Heathrow Connect / TfL Rail, instead of having to take the tube.

All of these changes begin on 20th May.  They are NOT in place today.

It was also announced yesterday that similar fares will be in place for Crossrail / Elizabeth Line once it is fully operational to Heathrow.  Whilst Crossrail will follow standard zonal pricing – so fares will be identical whether you take the tube or Elizabeth Line – this will not include Heathrow.

Fares to the airport will be similar to those I listed above, albeit with a peak time premium, due to a surcharge paid to the airport for the use of the track and signalling which it controls.  We will cover this in more detail nearer the time.  The Heathrow Express will continue to operate and will be around 10 minutes quicker to Paddington than a Crossrail train.

Category

General

Comments (102)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • AJR says:
    17 Mar17 March 07:58

    I’d probably guess a good majority of current Heathrow Connect users are staff based at Heathrow (like myself) who get a 75% discount off the ticket price, making commuting much more affordable than a Z1-6 travelcard. Will be interesting if HAL manage to do a deal with TfL for airport workers especially given their need to push people on to public transport to get runway 3 signed off, although I struggle to see how practically this could work with the control TfL will now have over the route.

    • Joe says:
      17 Mar17 March 08:14

      “given their need to push people on to public transport to get runway 3 signed off” – this is what annoys me about HAL being allowed to charge so much for the rail services into Heathrow. I know they paid for the tunnels but they also profit from causing noise pollution over central London and benefit from being the only hub airport – not a status they got through their own hard work but through the restrictions on growth of airports in the SE generally. They’re not operating in a free market and set prices accordingly!

      That said I’ve often used the Heathrow Connect over HEX because I have a Z1-3 annual travel card so only have to pay for the journey beyond Z3 and get 1/3rd off that too as the annual travel card acts as a railcard in the southeast (not that the train companies make it easy to buy boundary zone tickets either – accepting Oyster all the way will mean it gets charged that way automatically though). This made it much cheaper than HEX for a walk up fare. Every time I’ve got it it’s also gone to T5 too even though it wasn’t advertised as stopping there.

      • Dev says:
        17 Mar17 March 10:05

        Having risen the Piccadilly line rattler to kings cross yesterday, I am convinced the journey is being slowed down to psychologically frustrate us into using one of the 3 other (but more expensive) options to LHR in the near future. I can’t think of any other capital city airport that has a myriad of train options to its main airport. Even Tokyo I’m Japan, the one place where everything is commercialised has less complex train options to Narita.

        • flyforfun says:
          17 Mar17 March 14:53

          No, the Piccadilly line has been crap for ages. I used to connect at Green Park in the mornings for it from the Jubilee line, but for the past couple of years it’s had long gaps between trains in the morning rush hour. I get off at Waterloo now and take the Bakerloo instead as the trains seem more reliable and frequent. Timing to Piccadilly Circus is around the same.

        • Callum says:
          17 Mar17 March 20:08

          What are you talking about? There are at least 4 different train options from Narita airport, all of which charge different prices…

        • paul says:
          18 Mar18 March 00:29

          Yes but the Japanese trains work punctually, are comfortable and the choices available on price all provide a decent service. For visitors they are also good value via rail passes.
          The tube is hardly a quality product.
          Rail needs to be nationalised, the track and train run by a single entity offering a range of fares based on distance/ class travelled. I rarely use trains in the UK and my last two attempts have resulted in complaints and compensation.
          By contrast my recent experience of DB when I missed my connection was simply text book. rerouted at no cost, seats pre assigned and I made my flight…just.
          UK rail transport is like much the rest of the UK a basket case seemingly on the verge of collapse.

    • Nick says:
      17 Mar17 March 10:44

      This is covered in the TfL announcement if you fancy an interesting read.
      “TfL is not compelled to offer any staff discounts, however we’re trying to agree a funded equivalent with HAL to allow this to continue”

  • James says:
    17 Mar17 March 10:15

    Is the toilet door sturdy enough to use as an anchor point for a crew chair??

  • Mark says:
    17 Mar17 March 10:39

    OT. I land at Gatwick airport 7pm tomorrow night and fly out of Heathrow Terminal 2 10am Monday morning. Any suggestions on an easy to get too then easy to head to airport from mid value hotel?

    • Nick says:
      17 Mar17 March 10:47

      Search for cheap hotels anywhere in westish London. I’d start with the Hounslow area, there’s an ibis and travelodge next to tube stations, which would be an easy ride on both days.

    • roberto says:
      17 Mar17 March 13:52

      Premier Inn at T4? Direct link from the airport and close enough to T2 and £80.

      Stayed there a couple of times. Good cheapish bar and reasonable burger. If you like ale try the punk IPA.

      • roberto says:
        17 Mar17 March 13:53

        Plus : Get the National express coach from Gatwick straight to T4. Simples.

    • Lady London says:
      18 Mar18 March 09:13

      Ibis Styles Heathrow is OK.

  • JamesB says:
    17 Mar17 March 10:52

    OT: When uggrading PRG to platinum are supps upgraded too?

    • Harpo says:
      17 Mar17 March 11:10

      Yes. You may wish to consider cancelling the supplementary before the upgrade, to get the plat supp bonus.

      • JamesB says:
        17 Mar17 March 11:47

        Thanks, that’s what I was thinking.

        • James says:
          18 Mar18 March 08:40

          My wife was added to my Gold card,I’d had the 3K points for adding her long ago; I recently upgraded to Platinum and almost immediately got another 5K.

  • Harpo says:
    17 Mar17 March 11:13

    OT (bits).
    Has anybody claimed IB avios for aParador stay in Spain. If so, do you just give your number at the hotel?

  • Doug M says:
    17 Mar17 March 11:56

    OT. Do Virgin do Miles Booster offers reasonably often? I know there was a recent 35% one, which I believe was targeted. Come around regularly?

    • Avidsaver says:
      17 Mar17 March 12:46

      Yes they do. You also have six months after you have flown the first segment of your booking to apply Miles Booster.

  • Doug M says:
    17 Mar17 March 11:59

    OT. MBNA paid card, the black one. I’ve just got the two PE upgrade vouchers in my FC account. Don’t really want to pay another £140 for a card that is seemingly not around for much longer. Any reason not to cancel? 2 miles £ is nice, but I’ve got to put a decent sum through it to work the fee, and who knows what it might be in a few months.

    • KevMc says:
      17 Mar17 March 12:27

      As long as you’ve not used the card since the anniversary date, you should be able to get the second year fee refunded. However, if you are likely to want more virgin points in future, it might be worth holding on to it a little longer BECAUSE it is no longer available.

      If you wait until the new Virgin money card is launched, you can see what it offers. Eg if the new card is only offering £1 per point and no voucher, then you may be better to keep using the MBNA card until they pull it completely.

      • Avidsaver says:
        17 Mar17 March 12:51

        My MBNA black cards were due to expire in July this year. I’ve just received their replacements four months early. They now have an expirey date of July 2020!

        • Doug M says:
          17 Mar17 March 13:09

          I think card expiry dates and how long a product is planned to be around are completely disconnected.

        • Lumma says:
          17 Mar17 March 13:11

          Surely you just get a refund of the fee if MBNA make any changes to the terms and conditions during the year you’ve paid for? And they’re more likely to cancel the card benefits at the end of the year so they won’t have to refund you

      • Doug M says:
        17 Mar17 March 13:08

        I hear you, but at £140 I’d need a minimum 14000 points to pay for that. If the new Virgin Money card was only 1 point I’d need to put £14K through the card to make it pay. I think I’d sooner see that as 21K Avios through the BA card. Decisions decisions. First world problems I know.

        • TGLoyalty says:
          17 Mar17 March 16:08

          Id ring to cancel you may get a sweetener to stay. Otherwise drop it and spend the fee money on your next AMEX churn.

          Virgin money will offer a card so you’ll have a way of collecting the points in the future.

          • Rob says:
            17 Mar17 March 18:32

            I very much doubt MBNA will be daft enough to offer a sweetener at this point ….

  • Tilly says:
    17 Mar17 March 12:20

    What’s the journey time difference between connect and express? Was planning to just tube it to T5 on the 25th May after work from my office in Borough. Trying to work out if Connect is worth it from Borough via Paddington as Express only works out around 15 mins faster but way more expensive so not worth the additional cost for me. Use contactless for my daily commute from zone 6 so will benefit from price capping.

    • Lumma says:
      17 Mar17 March 13:16

      11 minutes more by Heathrow connect.

      If I was trying to get to Heathrow from Borough, I think I’d favour the tube (Northern to Monument, district to Baron’s Court, then Piccadilly to Heathrow) over trying to get to Paddington (change at elephant and castle for barkerloo or change at king’s cross for met/circle/h&c perhaps?), especially with it being an across platform interchange from the district to Piccadilly at Baron’s Court or Hammersmith

      • Tilly says:
        17 Mar17 March 13:25

        Cheers. That’s what I was suspected about the time. Was thinking to do northern to elephant then pick up Bakerloo to Piccadilly then Piccadilly line to T5. Hate district and circle as it’s just so slow. Walk from Bank to Monument underground also takes forever, would be less grief for me to walk across the bridge and just pick up district from there if i went that way.

        • Lumma says:
          17 Mar17 March 16:37

          Northern line to district at bank/monument is a couple of minutes tops. Just exit at the southern end of the platform and up the escalator and down a corridor.

          Even switching from district to the central isn’t that bad if you ignore the signposts and cut along the northern line platforms

        • Tilly says:
          17 Mar17 March 17:49

          I do the northern/central line change every day I’m in my main office and hate it.

        • Nick says:
          17 Mar17 March 18:31

          Tilly there’s another option-go over to Waterloo and catch the train to Feltham, there’s a (fairly quick) 490 bus from there to T5. Much easier. Make sure you aim for a Reading-bound train from Waterloo as they’re semi-fast to Feltham.

        • Tilly says:
          17 Mar17 March 18:39

          Thanks Nick. I’ll look into it.

        • Jamie says:
          17 Mar17 March 20:40

          I’ve had the 490 bus not turn up for a number of slots and when it did show, it decided to Terminate at Hatton Cross. So I recommend 490 to T5 or the one to Hatton Cross and then change (whichever comes first) to give you more flexibility in the event of poor service..

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:
      17 Mar17 March 18:36

      I work between London Bridge and Borough station (London Bridge is closer but only by a few minutes) if I’m going from work to King’s Cross I normally get the tube from Borough as I’m more likely to get a seat. For the Heathrow Express I normally take a Boris Bike to Elephant and Castle as that takes me to Paddington and as it’s the start point more likely to get a seat. It’s actually quicker though to get the Jubilee from London Bridge and change at Baker Street for the Bakerloo which is what I did on Wednesday as time was tight.

      • Tilly says:
        17 Mar17 March 18:47

        Can’t see me on a Boris bike with a weekend case and my handbag! I don’t travel light.

        Do prefer borough station as it’s small and less busy. Good job it’s spitting distance from my office.

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