Heathrow Express launches its new fleet of old trains

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• Richard Young says:

  22 Jan22 January 03:33

  “Despite their impeccable interiors…” I’d politely beg to differ, the quality of the old trains was horrible – the headrests were fast becoming more brown than yellow and purple!

  • Tim says:

    22 Jan22 January 20:58

    A lack of compatibility with the Crossrail signalling system is not the whole reason they are being withdrawn. Their Electrostar replacements will need new hardware installed to enable them to talk to the Crossrail signalling system. That hardware could just have easily be installed into the existing HEx trains. It just makes more sense to invest in this work on a fleet that still has 20+ years of life in it which the Siemens HEx trains certainly don’t They have serious corrosion-related structural issues below the floor which caused them to be temporality withdrawn about 5 years ago. The structural problems were never properly resolved, the fix was merely to try and slow down the rust and introduce a more frequent inspection regime. For this reason and the fact that they lack the TPWS safety system which they would need to run on any other part of the system (the route to Heathrow has ATP fitted and therefore a TPWS derogation) they are being cut up for scrap after barely more than 20 years service – so much for German engineering excellence!

• Rjn21 says:

  22 Jan22 January 04:18

  Does BA GGL still give a free upgrade to “first”? It was always a bit vague, although it does still show up on a google search on BA’s site but I could never find a link to it from within the site itself.

  • Mike P says:

    22 Jan22 January 06:39

    Yes it does, I’ve used this a great deal.

• Save East Coast Rewards says:

  22 Jan22 January 06:42

  No mention of the ironing board seats that are in standard class? You can see them on the HEX website if you look at the images on this page https://www.heathrowexpress.com/newfleet

  At least on the old trains you felt you were getting something premium for the expensive fare.

  Original HEX first class was 2-1, it was changed to 1-1 in a refurb about 10 years ago. Always seemed odd that probably the shortest first class train route in the UK was also the most spacious.

• Lumma says:

  22 Jan22 January 09:59

  Heathrow Express will be completely pointless when Crossrail finally opens. I guess it’ll remain like Gatwick Express, despite Southern going the same way with just one or two stops or Thameslink going to far more destinations, for far less money just to fleece those that don’t know better

  • ChrisBCN says:

    22 Jan22 January 12:17

    Completely pointless FOR YOU….

    Sure I would expect passengers to drop a fair whack, but there will still be some.

    • Martin Louis says:

      22 Jan22 January 13:03

      Yeah, those poor jet lagged fools that come off a flight and get harassed by “street sellers” and pay the full fare. And those that are cutting really fine and 15 minutes difference could be the difference between catching a flight or not.

      Anyone not time sensitive and plans will avoid the HEX.

• Nick says:

  22 Jan22 January 10:03

  Have they definitely got ‘continuous gangways’? No other 387 has them, including these ones before conversion to HEx… would surprise me massively if that had been part of the conversion works as it would have meant cutting off some of the carriage!

  • Rhys says:

    22 Jan22 January 10:05

    That’s what we were told!

    • Dave says:

      22 Jan22 January 10:41

      Assuming the inter unit gangway is open for public use that’ll be what they mean. On the old trains you were stuck in the unit you boarded. In the new trains you can walk right through to any part of the train.

  • The Urbanite says:

    22 Jan22 January 12:58

    Each carriage is separated by a set of doors, but you can walk though the length of the train. Not much fun with suitcases though!

• Max says:

  22 Jan22 January 10:27

  It will be interesting to see how many passengers Heathrow Express gets once Crossrail is fully operational.

• AndrewS says:

  22 Jan22 January 11:22

  Operated by GWR… The Godawful Worsening Railway… standby for a creeping decline in the quality of service for the Heathrow Express!!

  • Pete M says:

    22 Jan22 January 11:51

    It’s been operated by GWR for over a year now – don’t think anyone has noticed.

    • Peter K says:

      22 Jan22 January 13:26

      Has anyone been on it this it year to be able to notice??

      • Pete says:

        22 Jan22 January 20:56

        I have, about 30 times and can confirm no issues.

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