Heathrow Express to transfer to GWR (management contract)

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Depends on what information people have about the choices available and how they are promoted.  There must be lots of new visitors to London who get collared at the Heathrow Express sales booths that you reach long before you get to the Underground entrance. It must be extremely annoying to shell out for the Express fare to Paddington only to find yourself completing the journey by Underground and realising you could have used it all the way at much lower cost.

Totally agree - I have found the promotion of Heathrow Express to be not only the first thing you find, but also aggressive / intimidating on arrival at Heathrow. Only a sound knowledge of what I'm about, that there's an alternative a bit further on,  and prior planning has given me the confidence to walk through.  Pity the poor tourist / first time visitor / business person who visits dozens of cities every year and cannot be so informed as members here.

[Timmer]

This isn't surprising though as Heathrow Airport own the Heathrow Express so are going to give it prime billing in their airport.

But you know wherever you travel to in the world you need to do your homework before you leave home with regards to what onward transport connections are available and at what cost to where you want to go from the airport.

[ChrisB]

Richard Clinnick of Rail magazine tweeted yesterday that he checked & only the 387/1s are to be used on HEX

[eightf48544]

Intereting it's to at least 2028 what happens if First loses the franchise after the latest extension?

[stuving]

Intereting it's to at least 2028 what happens if First loses the franchise after the latest extension?

I imagine it would transfer to the new operator, and so do GlobalRailNews:

The management contract has effectively become part of the Great Western franchise and would transfer to any new operator to take over between now and 2028.

[paul7575]

Intereting it's to at least 2028 what happens if First loses the franchise after the latest extension?

I imagine it would transfer to the new operator, and so do GlobalRailNews:

The management contract has effectively become part of the Great Western franchise and would transfer to any new operator to take over between now and 2028.

Also stated in the ‘editors notes’ section of the original press release linked in the first post.  Possibly most people don’t read that far down...

Paul

[grahame]

So what are these dedicated fleet of trains going to be? And where will they be maintained?

Reading with the rest of the 387s?    Presumably the incoming 769s will also use Reading, re-using the space currently used by Turbos.

One of the quick wins with this is that the new Hex depot at Langley, approved by an HS1^▸ (High Speed line 1 - St Pancras to Channel Tunnel) additional proposals package in 2015, is no longer needed.

Paul

Silly question (not sure if this is the right place to ask) ... are the 769 plans for a long term deployment, or might they be a stop gap prior to a run on order for class 755 after the Greater Anglia build?   Direct award / next franchise question?

[eightf48544]

Silly question (not sure if this is the right place to ask) ... are the 769 plans for a long term deployment, or might they be a stop gap prior to a run on order for class 755 after the Greater Anglia build?   Direct award / next franchise question?

Good question I don't think anyone has thought that far ahead.

[didcotdean]

Silly question (not sure if this is the right place to ask) ... are the 769 plans for a long term deployment, or might they be a stop gap prior to a run on order for class 755 after the Greater Anglia build?   Direct award / next franchise question?

Does the class 755 have third rail capability?

[eXPassenger]

Silly question (not sure if this is the right place to ask) ... are the 769 plans for a long term deployment, or might they be a stop gap prior to a run on order for class 755 after the Greater Anglia build?   Direct award / next franchise question?

Does the class 755 have third rail capability?

In view of the investment that Porterbrook is making in the Class 769 I would have thought they would want a reasonably long lease.

The description of the Flirt is that it can run on a range of power sources (AC^▸ (Alternating Current, or can mean Air Conditioning, depending on context. The second meaning is often used in a railway context and more generally) and DC^▸ (Direct Current)) so the question is 'Can a bimode Flirt also be a bi voltage flirt?'

[didcotdean]

One other imponderable in the equation of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) requirements is how long the electrification to Oxford will be deferred. The current 165 Oxford-Didcot shuttle arrangement is undesirable for customers and operations.

Maybe the 769s could run an Oxford to Gatwick service