Easement 300444 question

[DJ737]

G'day
What exactly does this easement mean?

"300444 Customers travelling from and to Heathrow Terminals 1, 2 and 3 Heathrow Terminal 4 and Heathrow Terminal 5 may doubleback between Southall and London Paddington. This easement applies in both directions."

Can I get a ticket from Heathrow123 to Hayes & Harlington and travel via Paddington on the Heathrow Express?

Cheers
DJ737
Melbourne, Australia

 

[Goatboy]

I suspect it means if you have a ticket to Heathrow from, say, I dunno, Bristol Temple Meads you can double back given that the Temple Meads train will go non stop from Reading to Paddington and you'll effectively then be doubling back if you use Heathrow Connect.

 

[bb21]

Can I get a ticket from Heathrow123 to Hayes & Harlington and travel via Paddington on the Heathrow Express?

No, because you are doubling back between Southall and Hayes and Harlington, which is not permitted by the easement.

 

[RJ]

G'day
What exactly does this easement mean?

"300444 Customers travelling from and to Heathrow Terminals 1, 2 and 3 Heathrow Terminal 4 and Heathrow Terminal 5 may doubleback between Southall and London Paddington. This easement applies in both directions."

Can I get a ticket from Heathrow123 to Hayes & Harlington and travel via Paddington on the Heathrow Express?

Cheers
DJ737
Melbourne, Australia

It means that if you have a ticket routed Any Permitted, you can travel from Heathrow to Paddington, then back west again.

My theory is that these easements are linked into the journey planners, which are linked to the train schedules. The schedules for the Heathrow Express services only have selected timing points. After the trains leave the airport, the schedules show Heathrow Tunnel Junction --> Heathrow Airport Junction --> Southall --> Acton West --> Ladbroke Grove Junction --> Paddington.

The easement exists because the journey planner reads this schedule and assumes that Southall is the first station the train passes after Heathrow T123, hence why this easement says Southall rather than Hayes and Harlington.

The same trick does not work if you buy a ticket routed Not Via London, because the Heathrow Connect services stop at Hayes and Harlington, which is included as a calling point in their schedules in the database.

Quite a few easements exist solely to patch over issues caused by the way the schedules read for trains that don't stop at every station, especially stations after junctions where two lines converge.

 

[wintonian]

I always though it was to allow 2 thing; 1, to allow passengers from the Greenford branch to use the Heathrow services from Paddington, 2, to allow those boarding at stations between Southall and Acton Main Line to use the Heathrow services from Paddington. Doing either without an easement requires double backing.

 

[kieron]

It means that easement 700272 is entirely redundant. That reads:

Customers travelling from Heathrow Terminal 1-3, Heathrow Terminal 4 and Heathrow Terminal 5 via Slough in possession of tickets routed "Any Permitted" may double back between Southall and London Paddington. This easement applies in both directions.

A Southall-Heathrow ticket would work with the easement you mention, if it wasn't for the fact that tickets to Heathrow from there are all routed NOT VIA LONDON.

A ticket which actually allows travel on Heathrow Express is likely to cost a bit more.

 

[DJ737]

G'day

Thanks for your replies, just a bit baffled by some of these easements.

Cheers
DJ737
Melbourne, Australia

 

[yorkie]

I always though it was to allow 2 thing; 1, to allow passengers from the Greenford branch to use the Heathrow services from Paddington, 2, to allow those boarding at stations between Southall and Acton Main Line to use the Heathrow services from Paddington. Doing either without an easement requires double backing.

It would not make sense to allow passengers from the Greenford branch to do this while not allowing passengers from further afield though.

A Southall-Heathrow ticket would work with the easement you mention, if it wasn't for the fact that tickets to Heathrow from there are all routed NOT VIA LONDON..

The easement is not restricted to any particular routeing, therefore it applies to all routeings.

Or, in other words, a route restriction cannot 'trump' an easement. After all, that's the whole purpose of easements - to trump everything else.

G'day

Thanks for your replies, just a bit baffled by some of these easements.

Cheers
DJ737
Melbourne, Australia

Most easements appear to be 'fixes' or 'hacks' because the computer software is inadequate. Any software made by Atos Origin is particularly prone to error, so many of these 'fixes' are needed.

In fact, Atos Origin in particular apply unofficial negative easements to their WebTIS product, that of course have no effect on validity, but mean that their booking engines do not offer some itineraries that are, in fact, valid.

 

[wintonian]

It would not make sense to allow passengers from the Greenford branch to do this while not allowing passengers from further afield though.

I did consider that but then I thought about the fact that very little makes sense on our network!