@ stuving

Fully agree T5 - Staines is a stand alone project, with no road level crossings along its route. Also it does not require a dedicated fleet of trains with a special maintenance depot at Feltham, which accounted for much of the cost. My own opinion is BAA threw the baby out with the bath water, when they cancelled the whole Airtrack project.

The NR^» (Network Rail - home page) crossing closure program has mainly been isolated crossings in rural areas; the problem with Airtrack was the level crossings are in heavily trafficked urban areas.

The July 2012 L&SE RUS^▸ (Route Utilisation Strategy) (Option J3) proposed as an interim measure extending the existing HEx line from T5 to a re-built Staines station , allowing time for a measured review of the level crossing problem. Also it is questionable if Reading needs a semi-fast Airtrack service via Staines to T5, when WRAP (WRAtH^▸ (Western Rail Access to Heathrow)) will provide a similar service via the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line).

Looks like a Heathwick type proposal but would have the advantage of not requiring Paddington platforms; the problem is it would miss out Twyford, Maidenhead & Slough which are part of the WRAtH^▸ (Western Rail Access to Heathrow) proposal for linking Reading to Heathrow.


The Airports Commission have suggested a Heathrow southern route be investigated again, taking over from where the Airtrack proposal left off. One of the Airtrack routes was a semi-fast service from T5 to Guildford; this could be extended over an improved North Downs line to Gatwick.

@ John R

Fully agree; think it unlikely passengers from East of Paddington will want to change trains to HEx, particularly if the NR^» (Network Rail - home page) skip / stop station proposal is adopted for Crossrail trains West of Paddington.

Already some Gatwick Express trains have been extended to Brighton, the days of half empty airport trains being allowed valuable track space when mainline passengers have to stand - appears to be over. No doubt the competitors for the new GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) franchise will be viewing the 4tph HEx fast slots with envy.

The 4 tph Crossrail service Paddington to Maidenhead from December 2019 was only an indicative proposal i.e. subject to review.

Crossrail trains are due to take over the Heathrow Connect service when its contract expires in May 2018, though this may initially be from Paddington mainline station before moving later to the new underground Crossrail station.

Network Rail's WRAP (Western Rail Access Programme) is costed at ^500M though we don't yet know what Heathrow's contribution will be ... if any !  Recently Heathrow had it's contribution to Crossrail reduced from a proposed ^230M to just ^70M on the grounds that LHR is almost full and will not be able to accept more passengers.

Heathrow Express is the most expensive rail journey in the world; even more expensive per mile than travelling on the Orient Express. Network Rail in their July 2011 L&SE RUS^▸ (Route Utilisation Strategy) proposed Crossrail takes over the Paddington / Heathrow route when the HEx contract expires in 2023; this would free up platforms 6 & 7 at Paddington and 4 tph fast line slots for additional services to the West of Reading.

There are no plans at present to stop at Taplow. Slough's WRAtH^▸ (Western Rail Access to Heathrow) proposal on which WRAP is based, is proposing a 4 tph service from T5 with 4 tph at Slough, 2 tph at Maidenhead, 2 tph at Twyford and 4 tph at Reading; this is how the projected time of 27 minutes from T5 to Reading has been calculated.

The 400m rule was a requirement for the Channel tunnel and related to distances between emergency exits.

I assume (perhaps wrongly?) that the refurbished Class 373's will be fitted with ERTMS^▸ (European Rail Traffic Management System.) for use somewhere on the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) network; would the WCML^▸ (West Coast Main Line) or ECML^▸ (East Coast Main Line) really be superior to Brunel's masterful GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) ??

Thank you all for your welcome and consideration of my comments; please may I toss 2 other balls in the air ?

1. OK so EU^» (European Union - about) guage trains impratical, but what about refurbished Eurostars (Class 373) on the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) after Valero D & e320's introduced on HS1^▸ (High Speed line 1 - St Pancras to Channel Tunnel) ?

2.  London Underground is already introducing platform edge protection to prevent "incidents"; is there now a similar role for 125+mph lines ?

What is the top speed of the IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) after ERTMS^▸ (European Rail Traffic Management System.) is complete ? I've read sections of the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) are capable of 150mph - 170mph.

As Brunel's design was for a 7' broad guage railway, could it accomodate european guage trains ?