Luton Airport’s DART train to launch on 10th March

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• Mobo says:

  25 Feb25 February 07:37

  £4.90 for 1.5 mile journey is a complete rip-off.

  • Peter says:

    25 Feb25 February 09:15

    Exactly that! £2.40 bus also cancelled.

    • Lady London says:

      25 Feb25 February 11:06

      £2.40 was already a rip off for that cr4ppy travel arrangement.

      Emblematic of the cr4pness and low class experience at Luton really.

      • Andrew says:

        25 Feb25 February 11:32

        Don’t disagree that Luton airport seems to go out of it’s way to make the experience as miserable as possible (paying for the ‘luxury’ of using a luggage trolley!) but the DART is undoubtedly an improvement over the bus and someone had to pay to build it.

        • Chrisasaurus says:

          25 Feb25 February 16:18

          Someone had to build the airport…

• lumma says:

  25 Feb25 February 07:48

  You can use contactless to travel to Luton Airport Parkway but you need to pay for bus separately. Generally, unless you live at one of the Thameslink stations, this is still cheaper than the paper ticket when you take into account that you’ll need to pay for your tube connection on top of the paper ticket. £4.90 for the DART may make the paper tickets cheaper.

• John G says:

  25 Feb25 February 07:52

  If you have a railcard you can book an EMR advance ticket from St Pancras to Luton Airport for less than the cost of the Dart ticket. I booked last week for £4.25 which wasn’t the cheapest they had. Travelling at the start of April so hopefully we get to try out the Dart.

• Patrick says:

  25 Feb25 February 08:15

  £4.90 single! Just back from Singapore where airport to City centre (35min or so) by train costs £2! There are so many other examples. What is wrong with this country?

  • Patrick says:

    25 Feb25 February 08:43

    Make that £1.20 even!

  • PeteM says:

    25 Feb25 February 08:44

    For one, Luton Rising’s contractors who built this wouldn’t have used labourers living in near-indentured-labour conditions as is the case in Singapore…
    On a broader note, though, if I was a Luton council tax payer I’d like to see this pay for itself and make money for my council ASAP.

  • BuildBackBetter says:

    25 Feb25 February 08:44

    Singapore uses slaves from India and Bangladesh to build the infrastructure.

    • Patrick says:

      25 Feb25 February 09:28

      Ok labour laws is a whole different topic – take the new(ish) tram from Florence Airport to the city centre – it takes 20min and costs 2€. This is £4.90 to go up a hill! It’s a joke whichever way you slice it, as are drop off charges when the airport direct people to a free drop off zone at the car-park before the bridge, only to then stop running the bus from there up to the terminal. Walkable for some but not all – families etc.

      • PeteM says:

        25 Feb25 February 09:38

        Yup, most European countries subsidise their public transport way more than we do. Fairly certain the central Italian government + the EU will have contributed to the building of the tram line in Florence. What benefit does the council tax payer in Luton get from you getting to Luton Airport Parkway and going into London? They get a discount. This is a commercial enterprise!

      • Rob says:

        25 Feb25 February 09:48

        Who do you think should pay it? Luton’s residents own the airport and paid the £300m to build DART. Do you think they should subsidise you?

        • Patrick says:

          25 Feb25 February 10:15

          A family of 4 should not have to pay £40 return from the airport to the airport train station! That’s madness and will drive business away from the bigger money-spinner that is the airport. You can even get from LGW to Victoria for £9 off-peak. Clearly there should be central government investment at one of the main international airports of the U.K., along with perhaps a more realistic (longer) timescale for them to recoup the investment, resulting in lower fares in the meantime. By all means offer locals subsidised travel too.

        • dougzz99 says:

          25 Feb25 February 10:46

          Best not take that family of 4 to Stockholm then.

        • Londonsteve says:

          25 Feb25 February 11:34

          The point isn’t that imposing a charge is unreasonable, it’s that a fiver each way is a blind rip-off. They could have retained the existing fee which was accepted by the travelling public and integrated into the National Rail ticketing system. Considering the running costs of DART will be a lot lower than maintaining a fleet of buses and employing the people to drive them, the existing charge would have served to pay back the construction costs just fine, instead they’ve decided to charge whatever they think the market will bear. This is typical of the mentality in the UK and not acceptable for what is, essentially, a basic piece of public transport to connect the terminal with the railway station. Elsewhere such facilities are often free, CDG Val comes to mind.

        • Rob says:

          25 Feb25 February 11:39

          Even at £4.90, repaying £300 million plus interest plus operating costs isn’t a no-brainer. The risk is airline pushback given Wizz is the biggest airline at Luton.

        • PeteM says:

          25 Feb25 February 11:55

          If we are going to compare to CDG… Remind me how much the AirTrain at JFK charges? $8…

        • G says:

          25 Feb25 February 21:42

          It’s a pointless project to begin with. £4.90 one way per person for a 1.5 mile rail link is absurd. £1 per person is far more reasonable.

      • shuriccc says:

        25 Feb25 February 13:22

        another example tram in Nice, cost 1.5 euro single ride or 10 euro for 10 rides. Goes all the way from airport to the city centre and port of Nice. It does few stops along the promenade and then goes underground under the city centre before emerging at the port. With all the tunnels, modern trams and undegraund stations it would never be profitable at this price. City of Nice paid for building it and probably subsidise running cost now to cut traffic, reduce pollution, offer a pleasant experience for tourist, you name it

        • Nick says:

          25 Feb25 February 13:55

          All true, but this is in countries that care about public service and making life more pleasant for everyone rather than just the rich.

          I can strongly recommend Stuart Maconie’s book on the ‘nanny’ state, in which he discusses our current obsession with dismantling the state and the implications it’s had on everyday life. Of course we as UK voters could change this if we wanted.

        • PeteM says:

          25 Feb25 February 14:14

          Indeed, I would suggest people ensure they have valid ID in January 2025 and make their voices heard…

        • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

          25 Feb25 February 16:41

          Pete – 2025?

          I need it to vote for my local council this year.

  • Lady London says:

    25 Feb25 February 19:46

    @Nick Stuart Maconie has a new book coming out in April on Kindle

• Dan says:

  25 Feb25 February 08:22

  Anyone know the price of a taxi from the station to the airport? As a family, this option may be cheaper and no time restricted.

  • Nerock says:

    25 Feb25 February 08:49

    Taxis are a rip off too for such short ride due to the 5$ drop off fee they need to pay, I think you would get roughly the same price for a family of four

    • Londonsteve says:

      25 Feb25 February 13:26

      If it’s the same price I’d rather pay the money to a local taxi driver who, even after paying the drop-off charge (I’m not convinced Hackney carriages have to pay it as they’re officially public transport), will make a tidy profit for a few minutes work with virtually no fuel cost.

    • Londonsteve says:

      25 Feb25 February 13:34

      Uber just quoted me £16 for the journey with pick-up within a minute. I suspect a black cab driver will be glad to take £15 for such a short ride if waved in front of them, they wouldn’t get more dropping commuters home in nearby villages and the distance will be considerably longer. On the way back I’d be tempted to walk, it’s all downhill.

• Nerock says:

  25 Feb25 February 08:40

  What a rip off, will the frequency improve at least??? There is a local bus as well leaving from the other side of the station near the Hilton though not as frequent..

• NFH says:

  25 Feb25 February 09:21

  £4.90 is an absurd price. It should be free, just like the very similar train from Gatwick station to Gatwick’s north terminal.

  Before the pandemic, the bus didn’t even take cards, only cash. When I tried to use Apple Pay, the driver replied “This isn’t London“, so I asked him “Why is it called London Luton Airport then?“. He had no answer. At least the pandemic prompted the bus to start accepting cards, but not American Express.

  • LittleNick says:

    25 Feb25 February 10:05

    If it’s free, who’s going to pay for it? I suppose they could claw it back in airport fees on tickets but then people who arrive by other means are then subsidising those that arrive via DART. Someone has to pay for it in the end, you cant square the circle.

    • NFH says:

      25 Feb25 February 22:32

      Luton’s new DART train should be funded from airport income in order to encourage public transport. Are you suggesting that the similar train between Gatwick station and Gatwick north terminal should be chargeable so that passengers who take taxis etc to the north terminal should not have to subsidise the train?

  • dougzz99 says:

    25 Feb25 February 10:49

    What is absurd is the expectation someone else should subsidise parts of your trip. It can’t possibly be free without the investment and running cost coming from somewhere, where should that be?

    • Londonsteve says:

      25 Feb25 February 11:39

      It should be airport Capex justified under the heading of encouraging people to travel to the airport by public transport rather than by car. This is how it works in every European country except the UK. DART also conveniently saves a fortune in Opex due to no longer having to maintain a fleet of buses, fuel them and employ drivers with a PCV licence to drive them.

      • Save East Coast Rewards says:

        25 Feb25 February 13:09

        “This is how it works in every European country except the UK”

        Is Bologna is the UK? The awful shaky Marconi Express that connects Bologna airport with the main station is €11 one way, €20 return. It’s a 7 minute trip

        • Londonsteve says:

          25 Feb25 February 13:41

          You’ve managed to find an example of a particularly poor value option. I would also point out that in your case it’s the complete door-to-door cost to the city centre, rather than a mere shuttle. A counter example to yours is the direct bus from Budapest airport to the city centre for £3.50 using new Mercedes Citaros with AC for a 30-50 minute ride. It’s not the cost of the train service that’s the issue, it’s the highway robbery for the last mile to the airport.

        • Save East Coast Rewards says:

          25 Feb25 February 17:59

          It wasn’t a difficult example to find as I now live in Bologna! It does show that it’s not just the UK that can rip you off on your trip to the airport. The whole Marconi Express project is a joke. Tiny trains with very uncomfortable ride. It’s quite a new system too (opened late 2020) but when you’re onboard you get shaken about. What’s really weird is that despite the system being driverless it has a big drivers cab which takes up a lot of space when they should have done something like the DLR where there’s a small console should the train need driven manually.

          There’s some better examples in Italy though, the tram to Florence is good and cheap.

  • BlueThroughCrimp says:

    26 Feb26 February 23:23

    The bus driver personally named the airport London Luton, did he?

• Ryan C says:

  25 Feb25 February 09:36

  For those panicking over the £4.90 charge for the link, like anything else, if you book early enough you won’t be paying anything like that.

  EMR are currently selling single tickets from London STP to Luton Airport for as little as £5 including the DART.

  • PeteM says:

    25 Feb25 February 09:45

    People love getting offended by things that most likely won’t even affect them 🙂

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