Wheely launches its ‘New First Class’ chauffeur service in London

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

• AL says:

  19 Oct19 October 04:55

  A particularly special VS cock-up there… 👏

• Arnie Lord says:

  19 Oct19 October 05:38

  Interestingly despite making several US flights and South Africa – I am yet to fly on a Virgin Aircraft with the new ( how new ) seat and have always ended up in the flying coffin. When Virgin are good they are very good but when it goes wrong they are extremely adept at making it worse. But frankly so are BA. Ive started to whittle my Virgin points down by using KLM and Air France which in KLM’s case are a bit more sterile but I have to say have been excellent on the long haul for which I have used them in more recent times. And I’m a lifetime gold member. Even their Gold Line for booking more difficult itineraries is not what it was. Cest la Vie we are in a different world.

• Bent b says:

  19 Oct19 October 05:43

  Wheely is so overlooked IMO. By far the best service and standards even on the “business” level.

• BJ says:

  19 Oct19 October 05:53

  LHR is a basket case already and a third runway will only make it worse at huge cost and inconvenience. A second runway at LGW makes much more sense and would increase competition. Political interference needed to encourage further expansion at Manchester, and perhaps even the second runway at Edinburgh. Better to plan for the future now instead of continually pushing LHR. If regional airport expansion was encouraged the need for domestic flights from regions to LHR could be reduced substantially avoiding the need for a third runway.

  • Blenz101 says:

    19 Oct19 October 06:10

    Perhaps high speed domestic rail could have had an impact … oh wait

    • BJ says:

      19 Oct19 October 06:16

      LHR 3rd runway probably = 3(HS1 + HS2)

      • Bagoly says:

        19 Oct19 October 06:30

        Yes, but politically HS shows as government spending, while LHR cost “just” results in much higher costs for passengers.

    • Andrew. says:

      19 Oct19 October 09:44

      Now there’s an idea. Extend HS2 to the Isle of Wight via Gatwick & Portsmouth.

      • Lady London says:

        19 Oct19 October 10:16

        Don’t give them ideas

  • Bagoly says:

    19 Oct19 October 06:39

    HS2 to Euston was always a struggle to make sense given the cost of digging in a dense city.
    And it makes sense to connect HS together.
    So I suggest where HS2 gets down to the M25, it should go via Heathrow and Gatwick to Ashford, with an standard speed line adjacent for local services, starting from Reading.

    • BJ says:

      19 Oct19 October 07:06

      I thought HS2 was going nowhere now?

      • Can2 says:

        19 Oct19 October 07:50

        True. B’ham is nowhere

        • BJ says:

          19 Oct19 October 13:34

          I thought that was HS1 but I’ve just educated myself!

    • yorkieflyer says:

      19 Oct19 October 07:38

      The French kept the cost down by using existing lines into Gare du Nord and not building new grandiose stations. Here of course we gold plate every project so they end up being cancelled or curtailed.

      • Rhys says:

        19 Oct19 October 07:50

        Not sure rebuilding Euston is gold plating…it’s a horrendous station!

        • MT says:

          19 Oct19 October 11:12

          Horrendous is being polite about it. I reckon they should make all the MP’s commute to different cities on the WCML twice a week for a month and then see if they still can keep a straight face and say we don’t need Euston expanding massively and extra capacity. Even better make them do it on standard flexible tickets without seat assignment that they had to buy last minute and watch them run to try and get a seat! That I would pay to see!

      • Paul says:

        19 Oct19 October 10:08

        The French, Germans and others keep the costs down because the build or replace around 200-300 miles of rail every year with the result the firms who build have a consistent supply of trained staff and there are many other economies of scale. There are other factors such as the German having a diverse economy spread over different areas of the country from North Rhein Westphalia to Bavaria etc.
        Here, we stagger between capital investments and focus on London. When the Channel Tunnel was built it should have been connected to the whole of the UK not one station in central London. Heathrow similarly is connect to a single central London station and one that does not provide a single train route north!
        I would struggle to think of a single, even 2nd tier airport in much of mainland Europe that is not directly connected to a train station and which cannot be accessed with just one change at a major interchange ( Munich perhaps)

        • Steve J says:

          19 Oct19 October 14:40

          Rotterdam? Train then bus

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

      19 Oct19 October 07:44

      HS2 was designed to massively expand capacity on the West Coast Mainline (which is basically full) so ending in Central London was always the plan and did make sense.

      There were also early plans to link HS1 and 2 at St Pancras but again the cost benefit analysis wasn’t good.

      Your fast and slow lines proposals would be hugely expensive as it would also require extensive tunnelling.

      There were plans to connect LGW and LHR via an overhead monorail type system using the median on the M25 to build the supporting columns but they never got anywhere because the cost benefits didn’t work out and it would have created years of disruption on the M25.

      • Mike says:

        19 Oct19 October 15:35

        Personally, I like the HS4Air plan, giving a line than branched off before London, went to Heathrow and then Gatwick before carrying on to meet the HS1 line. This would have given 15 minutes transfer between LHR and Gatwick as well as direct access to both airports from the north (plus sensible access to European travel from the north).

  • yorkieflyer says:

    19 Oct19 October 07:35

    I wish LBA would resubmit their new terminal plans

    • planeconcorde says:

      19 Oct19 October 07:52

      Er, they have sort of. Leeds Bradford has recently announced plans for a £100 million regeneration of its terminal facilities between now and 2026.

    • SammyJ says:

      19 Oct19 October 09:30

      I wish LBA would just relocate to DSA!

• david says:

  19 Oct19 October 06:37

  I was shocked to hear Wheely was upmarket. IMO its an incredibly poor name selection. Chavvy-esque.

  • Peter K says:

    19 Oct19 October 08:57

    It just makes me think of bins!

  • Dubious says:

    19 Oct19 October 16:01

    That is not a wheely nice thing to say.

• Can2 says:

  19 Oct19 October 07:49

  The new S class has turning back wheels to shrink the diameter of its turning circle — or whatever motorists call it.

• Mike Hokkenbaals says:

  19 Oct19 October 08:15

  The Mercedes S Class was Princess Diana’s favourite car. She would never have been seen dead in a Nissan!

• Mike Hunt says:

  19 Oct19 October 08:19

  Bring back Doncaster airport – lots of capacity there

  • SammyJ says:

    19 Oct19 October 09:32

    In the final stages of agreeing a lease, allegedly. The big worry is how they’re going to get enough qualified staff to re-open it.

  • Novice says:

    19 Oct19 October 09:33

    I heard the council are proposing an Airport city. But Peel obviously want to hold out until the council is so desperate that they are willing to get bankrupted buying the airport from them. I have personally used the airport once but do think that if they open again then they really should be making sure to model themselves more like MAN.

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