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The airport and access roads are owned by BAA (a private company) so I guess they can charge whatever they like.
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Surely if they are going to charge £20 per car drop off, they won't need to expand the airport, because far fewer people will be using it.
It is extremely difficult to get to/from Heathrow by public transport for the early flights/late arrivals. Unless of course you are an MP with a subsidised second home in Central London.
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If I'm getting the "red eye" to Amsterdam (6:30 take off), I can't get there on public transport which means the car is the only option (or an overnight stay near the airport).
It really wouldn't take much (far less than this actually) for me to ditch Heathrow altogether.
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...Unless of course you are an MP with a subsidised second home in Central London.
IIRC BAA give MPs a free pass for all its short stay car parks, so they have no need to worry about parking charges or airport parking shuttles either ;-)
Peter
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Well T5 does already have a new proper size railway station in the basement.
We await the link to the main railway network ( at Staines? )
I wonder what the routing will be for Heathrow coach services
I guess T5, T4, T1/2/3 will be the norm but that will at least give an even faster link from the M25 to the peri track.
Remember that the Heatrow Express railway is FREE within the airport.
e.g It may be easier for someone to be dropped of at T4 and then train to T1/2/3 thus avoiding the tunnel.
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I think us motorists have to face the inevitable truth. We are a cash cow for the government or local government when it needs to raise money. Not content with raiding the lottery good causes when it runs low on cash, they get their hands into our increasingly empty pockets. I wouldn't mind if public transport was fit for purpose and reasonably priced.........as well as free from anti social nose picking, make up plastering, loud iPod'ing, video watching, mobile phoning, feet on seating, smelly eating zoo inhabitants.
Before you think about using your car, see an ENT surgeon to have your nostrils drilled as you will continue to pay through the nose.
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So you don't like buses then ??
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even though I only live in N London, the last time i travelled abroad, via Heathrow, i looked at all the options, i.e.
- drive there, park in long stay,
- stay in hotel nearby overnight on first night, leaving my car there,
- executive car to do a minicab run there and back (didn't want the average mini-cab, their
driving habits frighten me and personal hygiene habits often nauseate me, so a long
journey is a no-no).
- 31 stops on the tube at 0500 hours (was never an option for the reasons 'tack' has just
stated)
There wasn't much in it really and by a small amount the long stay car park won. If this route charge becomes reality, de-stress even more and factor in an overnighter before your flight at the local hotel, using their shuttle bus and leave your car with them.
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Hmmm...
Unless the day has really got started it's under half an hour to Heathrow from here unless the traffic lights are very recalcitrant. Even in traffic it shouldn't be over an hour or so.
The minicab office down the road at all except busy times will produce an instant Merc or something, not bad smelling or anything, price quoted in advance and no flimflam.
Come to think of it Westpig I bet I sometimes smelt worse than one of these modern professionals when I was a minicabber. Those twelve-hour shifts in warm weather, with car trouble and so on... Went a bit quicker though, and the conversation kept the punters on their toes too. What was more I didn't top up - neither do the chaps down the road I hasten to add, not with me anyway - and was basically courteous, as well as legal, rapid and safe.
Used to be a tenner. About twice that now, dirt cheap if you ask me.
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somehow i knew there'd be a Lud response.........:-)
obviously common sense tells me the vast majority are perfectly normal human beings
...but it's the same principle as the very odd occasion i get on a bus, (i always sit next to the nutter).
if i took a long journey i'd end up with armpit odour man, who gained his driver's licence from his 'cousin' for a fee...... and i'm not a very good passenger
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Hmmm... What was more I didn't top up - neither do the chaps down the road
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Forgive the ignorance what's "topping up"?
Most local minicab or taxi firms operate an executive car service which should give a better class of car (driver?).
I operate an executive airport car service which I find gives me a reasonable return and my customers - some of whom I have been driving for sixteen years - an acceptable level of quality and comfort.
Depending how far the passenger has to travel an overnight stay in a hotel may make economic sense. www.airport-hotel-shop.co.uk lists hotels which provide good prices and parking for the car.
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I have only flown out of Heathrow three times, once I arrived on the hotel courtesy bus, the second time by hire car which was left with Hertz and the third time by car which was left in the long stay.
The best answer - avoid Heathrow and use other airports, when BAA see lots of empty terminals they will start to do something about it. Continue as we are now and they will continue to charge.
Don't winge - do what the French do and vote with your feet!
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Drop them off at Hatton Cross Station ,it's a couple of minutes into T1,2,3 or 4..don't know if T5 is connected to rail system yet.
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Drop them off at Hatton Cross Station it's a couple of minutes into T1 2 3
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Thats fine if you are Hatton Cross side of LHR
Not that easy to safely stop with double red lines etc. but Heh! there is a drive through bank across the road.
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>>don't know if T5 is connected to rail system yet.
It is but not open to the public til 27 Mar when T5 opens for flights.
It depends which direction you are approaching Heathrow as to what good options you have.
There is probably a new one when T5 opens.
Use the direct very short link from the M25 to the front door of T5 then get the tube / Heathrow Express.
Not sure of the exact detailsre T5 but worth exploring.
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Did I read that the charge is proposed for introduction in 2015? The news doesn't worry me unduly, as by this time, most of my pension will be taken up with council tax - there won't be enough cash left to run a car, let alone fly to foreign parts :-(
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The way things are going, and I'm being deadly serious, I have very real doubts that we will still be living here in 2015.
The next election and the couple of years that follow are the most important in recent memory as far as I am concerned.
Cheers
DP
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