 Poster: A snowHead
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After trying the train to/from Gatwick a few years back, I swore never again, however......
has anyone tried London Transport buses to Heathrow? Or the Heathrow Express? Reliable? Convenient with ski-bag & luggage?
I know the tube service is currently down due to T5 engineering works. I am heading there from the Middlesex area, early afternoon. Any experiences good or bad, I want to hear!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Heathrow Express is good but expensive (I've only travelled on it between terminals, which is free  )
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| the ice perv wrote: |
| I know the tube service is currently down due to T5 engineering works. I am heading there from the Middlesex area, early afternoon. Any experiences good or bad, I want to hear! |
The Tube is running as normal to T1,2 & 3, and there is a very efficient bus link from Hatton Cross tube station to T4.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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the ice perv, I've used http://www.nationalexpress.com/ as the link for most of my transfers and rarely had to wait more than a hour for a connection and it's always been the cheapest option. It depends on where you're coming from. You just have to work the timetables.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Heathrow Express (Paddington - Heathrow) is fantastically expensive. It's quick and OK if you want terminal 1, 2 or 4 but not so good for 3, IIRC. It's as convneient as any public transport with luggage; the carriages do acknowledge that passengers may be carrying a bit more than a briefcase, but no tmuch (and most aren't, in fairness).
There is disruption to the tube at Heathrow at the moment, but I thought that T1, 2, and 3 was OK.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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The tube is good and cheap - but check there is no engineering work! Coming back from Canada last Sunday, got on the tube, only to find no Piccadilly (or District) line from Acton Town into town. Had to change tubes three times just to get to Marble Arch from where we decided to get a taxi home to Crystal Palace - only to get very stuck in roadworks round Victoria. Taxi ended up costing us £45 & the tube £8 - if we'd booked a local taxi in advance from Heathrow it would have been £50. The only 'good' thing was our skis hadn't been loaded onto the internal flight in Canada due to lack of space - we had looked out of the window at our skis being sadly wheeled away from the plane. So we didn't have them to lug round the tube system as well. And the skis were delivered to our house the next evening by courier.
We will have to sort out something better for Heathrow next time!
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Probably not relevant to most here but I had a nightmare getting back from Heathrow to High Wycombe using the local bus servive (Arriva). We'd just done a transatlantic flight and was certainly in no mood for d!cking around. We had to wait in the pi$$ing rain for an hour and thirty mins at 6:00m minus sleep and when said driver arrived he claimed he had seen buses passing him en route. Completely untrue. Lying tw@t. Not impressed, no, not at all 
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I got someone to drop me off and pick me up when I flew from there to Canada at New Year, just my 10 year old and me. Pleased I did as it was bad enough hauling luggage + ski Bag + boot bag around the airport. God knows how bad it would have been on the train/underground. I also would never drive myself to Heathrow for a transantlantic flight. After a 9 hours+ flight with no sleep driving would be plain dangerous.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Thanks everyone: my main concern is whether I would be allowed to take skis onto a London Transport bus? Is there any official policy one way or the other? Or does it come down to what kind of mood the driver is in that day??
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the ice perv, it'll be down to the driver. I doubt that you would (or could) on an ordinary central London bus during the day, but on an airport bus, you'd like to think that they'd make provision for luggage.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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the ice perv, I've taken skis on the bus from my place (Camden) to Snow and Rock Covent Garden to get them serviced etc. Not a problem if the bus isn't too full. You do have to put up with smart alec comments from passers-by about there not being much snow around here etc etc. Cracks me up every time
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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I've done it by bus to/from Kingston a few times and sworn never ever again. The buses take forever to get round Heathrow itself (you get to see every metre of the perimeter road, some of it more than once), and if you are at all susceptible you will get travel sick. Very cheap, however. There are a few 'express' bus routes which are fine if you can get them, but the one I've used is once an hour and never runs anything like to timetable.
The Heathrow express is good but viciously expensive.
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i have used public tranport once to get to n airport for a ski trip.. luton,
left in plenty of time no delays reported missed flight due to train managing an average speed of about 15 mph..
always driven or taken cabs since then.. would never use public tranport to get to an airport if i was going with the family..
these is something nice about getting in your car after spending all that time in q's n crowds and on a plane with strangers..
its your own space, even if you do spend 4 hours stationary in it on a motorway on the way home!
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