Better rail connection to Heathrow.

[cactustwirly]

The relief line is not currently timetabled for maximum throughput though, capacity is expended on non standardised stopping patterns.
If 4 more trains were going to the airport, rejigging of the timetable would release the capacity necessary to achieve it.

Which is how it will be possible to expend every train to Old Oak Common.

The Freight trains a slotted in between the Elizabeth line. They have to skip stop to prevent the Freight being held up

Freight Traffic joins the line at Acton which is after Old Oak Common

 

[JonathanH]

The relief line is not currently timetabled for maximum throughput though, capacity is expended on non standardised stopping patterns.

If the 'longer distance' Maidenhead and Reading services ran all stops would there be room for passengers to board them?

 

[Bald Rick]

The relief line is not currently timetabled for maximum throughput though, capacity is expended on non standardised stopping patterns.

Unfortunately that is not correct. The ‘non-standard’ stopping patterns are there to accommodate the freight.

 

[DM352]

I just stick with the Piccadilly to save money and connect in London when I visit the UK.

I still curious at what it would take to increase the bore west of Hounslow for larger district line trains for capacity. After watching youtubes including the driver who was unfortunately forced to stop recording the obvious answer is not cheap to stretch a cut and cover!

Unrelated, know at one time around the millennium Feltham station reinvented itself with a rebuild served by very frequent buses to LHR but think that died off.

 

[Peter Wilde]

Have tried the coach connections to Heathrow from Woking or Guildford - but found them far from ideal. For anyone on the SWR network used to fast, frequent trains, the change to a slow and expensive coach for the last leg is off-putting. The worst part is the coaches run so infrequently. One an hour is insufficient to be attractive - just think how one feels arriving off a late flight and finding a coach has just gone, so another hour to wait (and in unappealing bits of the airport too). So most people opt to rely on pre-booked taxis instead.

 

[andreading]

As a someone who works south of Heathrow I think that extending the Elizabeth line to either Staines or Feltham combined with diverting the Waterloo-Weybridge via Staines to Woking would help. Then if all SWR trains called at Woking it would be a useful link. the timetable for the branch is very heavily padded at Virginia Water.

 

[Mgameing123]

Just stop everything everywhere. A look at the timetable shows that not stopping saves almost nothing in times: The stop-everywhere trains typically take 20 or 22 minutes Paddington to Hayes and Harlington. The fast Elizabeth line trains also take up to 22 minutes, though some of them manage it in 17 minutes. As far as I can see, almost all the skip-stopping achieves is make the service provision at most stations worse than it need be.

Well you could also make alternating stops at some stations. (So trains stopping at Hanwell don't stop at Acton Mainline & Vice versa)

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 4 Jan 2025 ==

If the 'longer distance' Maidenhead and Reading services ran all stops would there be room for passengers to board them?

Well in theory those passengers should just be taking the first train to Hayes & Harlington then change there. or alternatively take the Didcot Stopper GWR train from Paddington.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 4 Jan 2025 ==

Unfortunately that is not correct. The ‘non-standard’ stopping patterns are there to accommodate the freight.

And at peak time the Reading trains that run nonstop between Ealing Broadway & West Drayton run so slow anyways. The stopping train timetabled right behind isn't slower at all.

 

[Meole]

Freight should be removed to facilitate passenger traffic, road is the place for freight.

 

[The Planner]

Freight should be removed to facilitate passenger traffic, road is the place for freight.

That will catch a few.