Leicester to Heathrow

I need to get from Leicester to Heathrow (I want to use the Heathrow Express) and a couple of days later to return, but I’m landing at London City airport. Advance tickets don’t seem useful, as I can’t guarantee the landing time of the return flight. My travel times are off peak. My current solution is to buy an off peak return from Leicester to Heathrow, and for the return journey to use contactless to get from London City to St Pancras, and then use the return portion to get back to Leicester.

Questions: is my proposed solution valid? Is there a better solution? The use of the Heathrow Express in non negotiable for various reasons.

Surely you purchase a Leicester to London terminals off-peak return.

Then use contactless on TfL services.

Simon11 said:

Surely you purchase a Leicester to London terminals off-peak return.

Then use contactless on TfL services.

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HEx isn’t contactless yet. (Or TfL.)

I wouldn’t use the Heathrow Express.

Travelling from Leicester you’ll arrive at St Pancras. Youbthen need to walk to the farthest end of the station to take the Hammersmith & City Line to the airport (official interchange time is 45 minutes although you might manage it in 30 if you’re nimble footed). Then the Heathrow Express runs every 15 minutes taking 15 minutes. You might be lucky and arrive at Paddington just as a train is about to leave, on the other hand you might need to wait up to 14 minutes. Overall journey time is likely to be around 50 minutes for which you will pay a very high fare for the distance travelled.

Alternatively you can take a Piccadilly Line train direct from Kings Cross St Pancras to the airport. The walk from the EMT platforms is shorter than to the H&C Line and the train’s run every few minutes. Trains take just under an hour but the cost is far, far cheaper.

You can take TfL Rail from Paddington (the old Heathrow Connect service) which will probably be the way to go once it’s absorbed by the Elizabeth Line but until then it’s a bit like a halfway house, takes 20 minutes but cheaper than the Heathrow Express but onlybruns every 30 minutes.

You need to decide whether a 10 minute time saving (but an extra change) is worth the additional fare. Note that when a friend of mine travelled to the airport on the express he paid £25 each way. It’s not cheap....

Hadders said:

I wouldn’t use the Heathrow Express.

[...]

You need to decide whether a 10 minute time saving (but an extra change) is worth the additional fare. Note that when a friend of mine travelled to the airport on the express he paid £25 each way. It’s not cheap....

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Agreed. When I landed into T5 from Berlin a few weeks ago, I got a bus to a GWML station (I think I went to West Drayton, but Hayes & Harlington would also be an option); the bus did not take long and the overall fare paid was very low. The fares from those stations through to Kings Cross St Pancras are entirely on the TfL fare scale (no mixed mode 'tax'!).

jthjth said:

I need to get from Leicester to Heathrow (I want to use the Heathrow Express) and a couple of days later to return, but I’m landing at London City airport. Advance tickets don’t seem useful, as I can’t guarantee the landing time of the return flight.

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If Advance fares are cheap, there are plenty of pubs in the King's Cross area where you can wait for your train, to allow plenty of time for delays.

jthjth said:

My travel times are off peak. My current solution is to buy an off peak return from Leicester to Heathrow, and for the return journey to use contactless to get from London City to St Pancras, and then use the return portion to get back to Leicester.

Questions: is my proposed solution valid? Is there a better solution? The use of the Heathrow Express in non negotiable for various reasons.

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If you want flexibility then a return is better, but an Off Peak Return (SVR) from Leicester to Heathrow Rail isn't cheap at £137 (£94 to London Terminals).

Without knowing the dates and times it is difficult to give meaningful advice; for example Heathrow Express do sell cheap Advance fares that are valid on any train on the selected date, which are based on how far ahead you book.

If you can be persuaded to use the Piccadilly Line, then an Off Peak Return from Leicester to Zone U12456 might be cheaper than Leicester to London Terminals, for example if you held a Railcard and if your travel within London was at times that would be considered 'peak' on Oyster/Contactless, then that would definitely be cheaper, but there just isn't enough information to be able to give comprehensive advice.

But if you insist on using HEX, I can't really see anything cheaper than an Off Peak Return to London Terminals, Oyster to Paddington, an expensive ticket to Heathrow, and Oyster/Contactless on the return between City Airport and St Pancras.

Are you definitely travelling at times that require an Off Peak Return, and not Super Off Peak?

Hadders said:

You need to decide whether a 10 minute time saving (but an extra change) is worth the additional fare. Note that when a friend of mine travelled to the airport on the express he paid £25 each way. It’s not cheap....

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Did you actually READ the last sentence the OP wrote??

yorkie said:

But if you insist on using HEX

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I think that's what 'non negotiable' usually means...

I've done similar several times albeit from Nottingham or Derby and Super off peak return to London St Pancras, contactless to Paddington, then HEX - contactless DLR/tube back to St Pancras and then the return portion of the super off peak usually works out cheapest if HEX is only being used one way.

Skymonster said:

Did you actually READ the last sentence the OP wrote??

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I did indeed.

However many people think that the express is much quicker than any other route to the airport. Given the huge price of the express I felt it was right to point out that it actually isn’t significantly quicker given the OP’s journey. In my opinion certainly not enough to justify the massive differential in fares, and the general advice is useful for others who might read the thread or reference it in the future.

Thank you to all who have replied. Out of curiosity I did compare the price and time difference between the hex and tube options. According to the official journey planners, the tube only route takes 20 minutes longer (58 vs 38 minutes), but the hex is £19.50 more. For me the extra price is worth it, not for the time saving, but for the fact that the journey is more interesting and varied.

jthjth said:

Thank you to all who have replied. Out of curiosity I did compare the price and time difference between the hex and tube options. According to the official journey planners, the tube only route takes 20 minutes longer (58 vs 38 minutes), but the hex is £19.50 more. For me the extra price is worth it, not for the time saving, but for the fact that the journey is more interesting and varied.

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If time is your not your primary consideration, but the route is, the TfL Rail service from Paddington to Heathrow follows exactly the same route as the Heathrow Express, and yet it is a fraction of the cost!

The time difference between the Piccadilly line and Heathrow Express also varies depending on which terminal at Heathrow you're going to. For Terminal 5, the Heathrow Express has a reasonable time-wise advantage - provided you make good connections throughout (if you just miss a Heathrow Express, you have 14 minutes to wait - vs the Piccadilly line, which has a 5-minute frequency to Heathrow). For Terminal 4, it has a much more limited advantage.

ForTheLoveOf said:

If time is your not your primary consideration, but the route is, the TfL Rail service from Paddington to Heathrow follows exactly the same route as the Heathrow Express, and yet it is a fraction of the cost!

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The only difference is that Heathrow Connect (or whatever it's called now) uses the relief lines and HEX the mains. Slightly different ramps/connections at Airport Junction, but once you're in the tunnel, you're on the same tracks in the dark.

ForTheLoveOf said:

If time is your not your primary consideration, but the route is, the TfL Rail service from Paddington to Heathrow follows exactly the same route as the Heathrow Express, and yet it is a fraction of the cost!

The time difference between the Piccadilly line and Heathrow Express also varies depending on which terminal at Heathrow you're going to. For Terminal 5, the Heathrow Express has a reasonable time-wise advantage - provided you make good connections throughout (if you just miss a Heathrow Express, you have 14 minutes to wait - vs the Piccadilly line, which has a 5-minute frequency to Heathrow). For Terminal 4, it has a much more limited advantage.

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However TfL rail only has 2tph, and is very full with local passengers going to Hayes & Ealing.