I was coming here to say the same  that HEX finishes currently in 2028. It must be costing Heathrow a large sum of money now for these paths & with the third runway in the offing, looking at alternatives? Flying taxi development?

 
A good question, Mark, but in a word: No.

The historic coal mining activity in and around Nailsea was on the more level ground.  There was, for example, a mine within yards of Nailsea & Backwell Station, nowhere near the nearest 'batch', at Bucklands Batch.  Cambridge Batch, at Flax Bourton, is actually the hilly outcrop which Brunel had to tunnel under for his Bristol to Exeter railway line.

CfN. 

 
By the way, are the 'Batch' names in Nailsea related to mining activity?

 
No problemo, perhaps it can have either meaning: that's a very, er, actively drained piece of land, and subtly slightly lower than its surroundings.

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17.0&lat=51.38715&lon=-2.82812&layers=178&b=GoogleSat&o=100

 
I have to disagree with you here, Mark.

In the local Somerset dialect, 'batch' means a hill, hillock or mound of earth.  See a Google search, at 'meaning of batch in somerset' .

We have many of them, in and around Nailsea: Bucklands Batch, Cambridge Batch, Stony Batch, etc.

Chris from Nailsea. 

 
Here's another example, for taking the precaution of keeping at least a reasonable stock of bottled water.  From the BBC:

 
A resident, after three suspicious vehicles were seen in the village in the early hours of Sunday morning:

“Evidently, they phoned the airbase police, who didn’t answer the phone,” he said of the person who reported the sighting. “It just rang out so she dialled 999.”

 
The old railway line conspicuous in the middle distance. The land proposed for housing there is named on old maps as 'The Batch', meaning "a brook, stream, or a valley through which a stream flows", so that's ok then**.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/sep/27/high-court-floodplains-development-safety-test-north-somerset-yatton

** Not ok.

 

Are you writing that from the bunker? Has the family sized jar of pickled eggs been deployed?

 

They could instead be used by other trains running fast, then switching to the slow / relief lines further out.    South Western has done this for decades with trains running fast to between Berrylands and Surbiton (beyond where the branches to Kingston and via Motspur Park branch off), then switching to slow tracks.  A similar thing happens at Woking with trains to Basingstoke and Alton etc.

The GWR layout of paired by use makes it harder, but there is no reason why high speed crossovers and a flyover (in the Iver / Langley area) wouldn't allow similar too.   There is the speed restricted Dolphin Junction (which doesn't seem to work on a warm summer day) which Network Rail are currently spending £27m upgrading.


Heathrow Express had its track access agreement extended in June 2024, with access granted to continue until June 2028.  Previously there were number of end dates eg 2018, 2021 etc based on estimated Crossrail opening dates.   
As far as I'm aware no further extension has yet been authorised.  Unless it is extended again HEx ends in 21 months time.   

 
Reports are coming in of a "major incident" at RAF Fairford.
Suspects have been detained, and several charged with offences under the explosives act.
A number of residents have been evacuated.

There seems no likelihood of direct consequences for food or fuel supplies, but it another example of the threats that we face, that could have wider consequences.

suggested viewing "The fourth protocol"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fourth_Protocol_(film)

 
It's not just train operators who have problems brought by infrastructure issues:

 



Ah yes - West Country expresses diverted via the single line, which then causes a jam if one of them later that timetabled.  A few minutes delay is not a problem (and neither are 2 and 3 carriage substations) provided that connections into sparse onward other services (trains or buses) are not missed.

 

I have received in the post the October issue of RailWatch - the magazine of RailFuture - which includes a whole page article on Pilning.  I have blurred the text here so that I'm bringing up the station again and helping keep it on the radar, but yet not crossing any Railfuture copyright lines.



Network Rail and (First) Great Western had a problem when electrifying the line.  But some of the things done (and not done) by them to this day remain, in my opinion, very poor practise, leaving a bad taste and getting away with things they should not.  At the same time, the local communities around the area were seeking outcomes which were unsustainable, and options which would have included a forward looking stations - bringing a much improved service and helping raise (for example) house values for current residents - were opposed in anticipation of potential negative side effects,  even where those could have been mitigated.

 

I've always thought that the arrival of the Elizabeth Line should have heralded the end of Heathrow Express.  Passenger numbers have dropped by a third from the figures for the last year before Covid, to an average of less than 100 passengers per train - approximately 85 if my maths is correct.  All on an 8-car 387 trains which are far less 'premium' than the previous Class 332s they replaced, taking up four departure and arrival paths an hour at Paddington.  

Not a good use of track capacity by any metric.

When the Old Oak Common station opens it will need to stop there, thus further diluting the speed advantage it has over the Elizabeth Line.  In my opinion the paths it could free up would be better allocated to longer distance services operated by either GBR or an open access operator, rather than more Elizabeth Line services.  My opinion on that could be swayed if a way of routing some of the  Elizabeth Line services from the east that currently terminate at Paddington onto the main lines to still give a comparable journey time could be found without crossing them over on the flat, but a grade separated junction would be very expensive.  When Old Oak Common opens the 90mph top speed of the 345s would be less of an issue on the main lines out to Airport Junction as their better acceleration would mean little difference in the sectional running times with that intermediate stop included.

However, in effect, the way the service is structured means it can continue to operate for as long as its owners want it to.

 
A simple division of number of trains run in revenue service versus passenger numbers suggests ~80 passengers per 460 seat capacity HEX train - in context, HEX is a 15 minute frequency service from ~04.30am to a bit before midnight.

 
HEX key stats from the ORR April 24-25.

https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/media/tlbajaix/heathrow-express-key-stats.pdf

 

Absolutely - a dedicated airport express rail service is a big selling point for premium and business travellers, for whom time, comfort and security are major concerns.

It may sound, and indeed be trivial, but rather like being able to reclaim VAT on your shopping, it is genuinely the sort of thing that pushes the wealthy (and thus high-spending) to say "sod that, I'll go to Stockholm/Paris/Amsterdam/Rome instead".

Paris did it the other way around, since 1981, CDG has been served by the RER. The result? Well heeled travellers tend not to bother with it and take taxis instead, so they are now building an express service into Gare de l'Est.

London is already suffering massively from perceptions of high crime, not being in the Schengen area, high cost of accommodation and restaurants - why hobble it further?

 
The symptoms, a year before the work began, were a bit peculiar - you'd see sections of road, in the wet, where, when heavy vehicles crossed them, a section of road surface would 'Rock' and produce a fountain of muddy liquid at the edges that could be a foot high. Another - the collapsed vault in St James's Parade that's been dealt with by making the road one way while they sort out the permissions - the slab of reinforcing beneath the road surface there was rocking and happily emitting a deep 'Boom' when a bus rolled over it. Ditto for a section of road in Lewins Mead, Bristol - really noisy but luckily no residential properties nearby.

An aspect of the Manvers Street work is that the pavements alongside, on the east especially, are poor to very poor and I don't think there are plans to address this. In particular the vehicle access to what was the police station, for people on foot, has a ludicrous transverse gradient - to the extent that it must at best feel perilous for anyone who uses a wheelchair. The works to the road have rather broken these up so let's see what's done.

 
I've never understood the apparent antipathy from some which seems to exist towards the Heathrow Express.

Seems to me it's a premium product largely for a specific demographic who are prepared to pay a bit more for speed, comfort and convenience - I have only used it once but was quite impressed.

There's the Piccadilly Line if you're feeling brave/not in a rush, buses and now the Elizabeth Line too - I don't see how the existence of another option impacts them?

Is there something I've missed?

 
As I understand it, the current track layout means that HEx paths can't just be used for more Lizzie trains instead, other than for (little needed) non-stop trains to Paddington only. HEx runs on the fast lines into Paddington main line station so taking them away wouldn't help access to the slow lines or the Lizzie core; trying to use the paths for a different purpose might well just add more conflicting moves and make things worse. It might I suppose give a bit more resilience for fast GWR trains. No doubt Heathrow's owners would have cried foul if a different layout had been proposed with an unspoken aim of eventually reducing/removing HEx.

 
An update from Bath - Manvers Street, 26 Sept 2026

 
For our Singapore trip next month we each paid £6.65 each way for railcard discounted, admittedly purchased in May, HEx journeys. The full price would have been £10.00 each way. The equivalent Elizabeth Line fare is £14.60 according to the TfL website. The apparent claim that a HEx journey always costs £26 seems to support the Grauniad's reputation for accuracy.

Extra paths for Elizabeth Line (EL) services? EL trains run on the Relief Lines. The 345's have a 90mph maximum speed. The HEx 387's can run at up to 110mph and stick to the Fast Lines. The stuff of timetabling nightmares?

 
An issue is going to be the number of train paths that it consumes and I'm not familiar with that... is it taking resources that could be used in a far better way perhaps?

 
Those quotes... Seven is just plain rude in the usual way. Ten I feel sorry for as they're frequent travellers but need a friend to help them evolve their packing routine. I bet on going through their luggage, you'd find a kitchen sink, induction cooker and goodness knows what else.

 
I've previously mention the reduced timings happens for evenings, weekends and bank holidays.
Unfortunately no increase in times for weekends or bank holiday; I found more passengers at those times, added to reduced schedule times (and reduced frequency), and drivers struggled (also failed) to keep to time.

 
Oh dear ... and thank for documenting the connection failures of normal service trains - so valuable to have them written up and becoming part of the weight of data that keeps reminding us here (and providing us to keep reminding operation and operation planning teams) that whilst a few minutes delay might not sound like very much, or indeed be very much if taking you to your endpoint, it's very important indeed if it results in a missed onward thin service.

Having identified an issue, we should be asking
* is it really an issue and if so
* what should be done to help reduce it?

Looking at the connection that failed for you close to my home
* Insufficient line capacity Swindon -> Thingley
* Insufficient frequency Westbury westwards
I was about to add "poor dispatch at Westbury" if one was truly pulling out as the other pulled in - however, I suspect you were hoping to connect with less than the 5 minutes needed for an official connection if I'm reading the timetables right.    I was also templed to add something about the insufficient frequency of the Swindon to Westbury service - however, whilst that's still pretty poor (far better than in was 15 years ago) it doesn't look like that was a contributory factor.   You MIGHT add that the Bristol express was the root cause of the failure and that needs to be like at too.  The Bristol train left Paddington on time but lost a lot of minutes before Reading - and there's a familiar story!

 

Yes, but we are informed specialists, Mark, and as time passes and we continue to observe we become further informed and educated on these matters whereas the press and news feeds much address the whole of their audience which includes those who are younger and do't have as much life experience, or who's expertise is in other fields and they take just a skim-interest in travel.

Back on topic.
* Buses getting busier - more passengers boarding and leaving the bus
* Passengers staying seated until the bus stops / driver waiting for passengers to be seated before restarting
* A higher proportion of passengers with mobility / other issues that slow their boarding / leaving the bus
* Road congestion
* Routes being obfuscated by the addition of loops / routes through new housing and past new businesses
* New 20 mph speed limits
* Single door double deckers that increase passenger transit time from seat to and from door
* Consolidation of local "town" and interurban routes into a single one-journey-for-all vehicle
* Eased timetables with more generous catch up allowances to help better timekeeping

I went into Bath yesterday - slowed down by many of these issues.   Joined bus at 11:51, got off at Grand Parade in Bath at 12:52.   So that took 61 minutes.  Busy - both on the bus and on the roads.  The time scheduled is 11:48 to 12:35 - 47 minutes - and of an evening an inbound bus can have a timetable as brisk as 40 minutes, with fewer inbound passengers and fewer other vehicles on the road, and that timetable can be met.

 


I follow a number of International passenger travel social media feeds, and (something of a co-incidence?) I had stored some elements of a discussion yesterday morning to come back to here on the Coffee Shop.   A member advised


Various interesting responses included










OP reply




Has the Heathrow Express had its day?

The 2026 Heathrow Express is a service and not a line that gives public transport links to places that would not be otherwise connected.   And perhaps it has been superceded by the Elizabeth Line for practical use and is hanging on, charging as much as it dares and not really providing the reach to central London's locations (hotels or homes in Town or in the suburbs) that people want.   Sure, there are places to stay around Paddington, but Paddington is not London.

Persoanally, I have caught it - as far as I can recall - once.    And like most Coffee Shop members live to the west of Heathrow, and would be doubling back in using it. Furthermore, I haven't flown in years - and to/from Heathrow that's for many years.  Can't think when I would use it expect "in extremis".  I suspect that as an element of a travel and transit system considering total journeys of the users, it could be replaced by something better using the paths.  As an income generator, it works but by carrying a significant proportion of people who know no better as well as the people (and there will be some) for whom it's ideal and its loss would be a worsening of their experience.

Looking forward?  I might advocate Heathrow Express paths being given over to an increased frequency of Elizabeth Line services running - on the core to Whitechapel at least - at a true metro frequency. Perhaps some skip-stopping (alternate trains only calling at Acton Main Line or West Ealing, for example) and ongoing services to Shenfield and to Woolwich, and how about to Stansted?     Direct from Heathrow also gives - via the Piccadilly line - a further slew of stations in Central London served, including St Pancras International, and Kings Cross.

Old Oak Common gives (or will give, looking way ahead when it opens) further connectional opportunities, and all of the above mentiones / discusses are to the east of the airport with - still - direct rail links north, south or west absent and not even under construction.   

 

You make a number of very good points there, eightonedee - thank you for posting.

Are we in danger of classing The Guardian - or indeed the Daily Mail - as "the quality press" in the UK?

Again, that's my personal opinion, not the official view from the Coffee Shop forum.

CfN.