London to Heathrow Terminal 5

[Cbob]

I am thinking of travelling on the TfL Rail service from London to Heathrow, using an Oyster Card with Annual Gold Card discount. My flight is from Terminal 5. I believe I can use the Heathrow Express to get to Terminal 5 since this is not served by TfL Rail, but how can I make use of this and avoid getting charged the Heathrow Express rate when I touch out in Terminal 5?

 

[Cbob]

I meant use the 'free transfer' provision within Heathrow to get to Terminal 5

 

[paddington]

As long as you touch in at the TfL rail gateline at Paddington, rather than the Heathrow Express one, you will be charged the TfL rail fare.

 

[Cbob]

Great, thanks for the quick response!

 

[Kite159]

As long as you touch in at the TfL rail gateline at Paddington, rather than the Heathrow Express one, you will be charged the TfL rail fare.

Sorry for hijacking the thread, but a completely silly theoretical question. What fare would be charged if someone was to tap in at the HEX platforms at Paddington, board a HEX to Heathrow, remain within the station, and return to say Ealing Broadway on a TfL Rail service to touch out at Ealing Broadway?

(That is assuming the HEX services only have ticket checks in business class, and the card isn't checked in standard class)

 

[paddington]

Sorry for hijacking the thread, but a completely silly theoretical question. What fare would be charged if someone was to tap in at the HEX platforms at Paddington, board a HEX to Heathrow, remain within the station, and return to say Ealing Broadway on a TfL Rail service to touch out at Ealing Broadway?

(That is assuming the HEX services only have ticket checks in business class, and the card isn't checked in standard class)

My guess would be a Heathrow Express single fare depending on the time touched in plus a Z1-6 maximum fare / incomplete journey ending at Ealing Broadway

I can think of a way to find out that won't cost me anything (apart from some blacklisted cards...) but I don't really care to know the answer.

 

[MikeWh]

Sorry for hijacking the thread, but a completely silly theoretical question. What fare would be charged if someone was to tap in at the HEX platforms at Paddington, board a HEX to Heathrow, remain within the station, and return to say Ealing Broadway on a TfL Rail service to touch out at Ealing Broadway?

My guess would be a Heathrow Express single fare depending on the time touched in plus a Z1-6 maximum fare / incomplete journey ending at Ealing Broadway

I think that's unlikely to be honest, unless the maximum journey time between Paddington and Ealing Broadway has been exceeded. If the same scenario exists as per Gatwick Express gates at Victoria then it will charge the normal fare for Paddington to Ealing Broadway.

(That is assuming the HEX services only have ticket checks in business class, and the card isn't checked in standard class)

Just checking the card wouldn't make any difference, especially on the Hex. It would show as touched in (if Oyster) or valid to travel (if contactless).

 

[daveshah]

Just checking the card wouldn't make any difference, especially on the Hex. It would show as touched in (if Oyster) or valid to travel (if contactless).

In the case of contactless, it would also put an "inspection" marker on the card in the backend. But this would only be used to charge a maximum fare if not touched in; not to determine the route of travel for fare calculation.

 

[matt_world2004]

Sorry for hijacking the thread, but a completely silly theoretical question. What fare would be charged if someone was to tap in at the HEX platforms at Paddington, board a HEX to Heathrow, remain within the station, and return to say Ealing Broadway on a TfL Rail service to touch out at Ealing Broadway?

(That is assuming the HEX services only have ticket checks in business class, and the card isn't checked in standard class)

I don't think you can get to the TfL rail platforms from the hex platforms without touching out. But say hypothetically you just wanted to ride on the hex for the experiance. You could touch in with an oyster card at terminal 5 get on the train to Paddington and make a return journey from Paddington to Heathrow Central for £0 providing you touched out at Heathrow central

 

[James Wake]

I don't think you can get to the TfL rail platforms from the hex platforms without touching out. But say hypothetically you just wanted to ride on the hex for the experiance. You could touch in with an oyster card at terminal 5 get on the train to Paddington and make a return journey from Paddington to Heathrow Central for £0 providing you touched out at Heathrow central

Would that work with contactless too? I might have to give that a try one time if I get a chance

 

[Kite159]

I don't think you can get to the TfL rail platforms from the hex platforms without touching out. But say hypothetically you just wanted to ride on the hex for the experiance. You could touch in with an oyster card at terminal 5 get on the train to Paddington and make a return journey from Paddington to Heathrow Central for £0 providing you touched out at Heathrow central

It was a hypothetical journey, at Heathrow Central (Terminal 2 & 3) it is an island platform. There is probably something in the backend system as a "just in case" a stopper goes from P6 or P7 in times of service issues [i.e. a train has broken down blocking access to some of the other platforms]

Although Heathrow T5 - Paddington - Heathrow Central (- Heathrow T4) sounds like it would work, but who is willing to give it a try?

 

[matt_world2004]

Would that work with contactless too? I might have to give that a try one time if I get a chance

Should do. The only thing that I think could go wrong is that it exceeds the max journey times although it should take about 40 minutes on a round trip ,which I imagine might be less than doing an terminal 4-5 journey when the inter-terminal transfer service is down.

 

[Snow1964]

If you exceed max journey time would depend on how it is set, if you touched in, train was about to go, got to Heathrow Island platform, and a train back to Ealing was just about to go, then you might get there quicker than if you touched in having just missed a train, next direct train to Ealing was few minutes late departing etc.

In both cases could exit about 40 minutes later (maybe more if you stopped at station toilet etc) which makes setting the maximum journey time quite difficult.

There are actually quite a lot of places within the oyster network where getting a fast train beyond, then going back station or 2 is quicker than waiting for next direct stopping train which may leave later (but pay-as-you-go would never pick up the extra section if it is retraced before touching out). If this extra is moral is another debate, but is a a consequence of having zones that can be reached faster.

 

[MikeWh]

I don't think you can get to the TfL rail platforms from the hex platforms without touching out.

They are the same platforms at terminals 2/3.

There are actually quite a lot of places within the oyster network where getting a fast train beyond, then going back station or 2 is quicker than waiting for next direct stopping train which may leave later (but pay-as-you-go would never pick up the extra section if it is retraced before touching out). If this extra is moral is another debate, but is a a consequence of having zones that can be reached faster.

The Oyster conditions of carriage simply state that you must touch in at the beginning of your journey and out at the end. As long as you stay within the Oyster area you cannot be off-route. And the absolute minimum maximum journey time is 70 minutes.

 

[matt_world2004]

They are the same platforms at terminals 2/3.

But not at Paddington.

 

[MikeWh]

But not at Paddington.

Sorry for hijacking the thread, but a completely silly theoretical question. What fare would be charged if someone was to tap in at the HEX platforms at Paddington, board a HEX to Heathrow, remain within the station, and return to say Ealing Broadway on a TfL Rail service to touch out at Ealing Broadway?

Unless I've misread the OP for this discussion the change is happening at Heathrow.