Your favourite Airport dedicated Rail service

[387star]

and reasons why...

 

[AlterEgo]

Heathrow Express, because I use it only on expenses. It also goes to Heathrow, which is better than Gatwick or Stansted.

 

[DarloRich]

The only one i have used is Gatwick. It got me to the airport in time for my flight.

My "airport express" is Virgin trains to Birmingham International or the bus to Luton.

 

[matt_world2004]

Deleted

 

[swt_passenger]

If 'dedicated' is taken in its normal context, there is only one choice available surely?

 

[cjmillsnun]

None of them. They're all a rip off.

 

[Lrd]

South West Trains and CrossCountry to Southampton Airport Parkway

 

[Requeststop]

Having done all three during my last trip back to the UK.

Gatwick Express by far the worst. Travelled from Airport to Victoria. Extremely overcrowded. Ticketing at the airport abysmal. Ride uncomfortable and appalling. Baggage space - dreadful. An embarrassment. Cost - decent.

Next would be Stansted. Travelled from Liverpool street to the Airport. Ticketing easy, train carriages good and not over-crowded, ride so-so. Baggage space - satisfactory. Cost - good.

Heathrow Express. Travelled both ways to and from Paddington. Quite spacious, decent and modern seating. Speedy journey both ways. Plenty of ticketing at airport and at Paddington. Ride good, comfortable. Bad side having to cross to another platform for terminal 4, and hauling your bags through those restrictive barriers. Baggage space on train: excellent. Cost: Over-expensive but much better designed rolling stock, seating and baggage space make it worth while and so much better to get to London than the Tube.

My experience of airports overseas in recent years:

Singapore: Regular trains from the airport, but having to change after the first station is a huge bore and there is no express into the centre of the city.

Kuala Lumpur. Very good service fast, though a little expensive but cost can be lowered by booking on-line. Baggage space a little on the short side.

Bangkok: Modern, fast, empty. It goes nowhere where passengers want to get to. Taxi's so much easier, even during the cities traffic jams, even if you take the train to a city centre station, and jump into a taxi to complete your journey.

Port Moresby: No trains in the entire nation. such a sadness.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

It doesn't run anymore, but the old dedicated Manchester Airport service was the best simply because it used 309s!

 

[Merseysider]

Stansted Express - the staff are a world apart from that GatEx horde and the trains are a lot more comfortable imo. Haven't flown from Heathrow so never used HEX.

Best airport transfer overall has to be Manchester, as it's frequent, fast and cheap. Worst has to be "Frankfurt" Hahn...

Edit: The S-Bahn from Stuttgart Airport is pretty nifty too. My only gripe was that large notes weren't accepted at the TVMs.

 

[Llanigraham]

None of the ones listed, as they would not be applicable to me.

I nominate the ATW service from the Cambrian to Birmingham International

 

[TheDavibob]

Having been on the "Gatwick Express" to Brighton and the (definitely not) "Stansted Express" to Cambridge (or, at least, the same rolling stock), I much prefer the latter, especially as I view crawling through Croydon at single-digit speeds to be the vaguest approximation of "non-stop" I've come across. It's nice to have air conditioning and space on the not-Stansted train.

Never used either to get to an airport, though.

 

[Ianno87]

It doesn't run anymore, but the old dedicated Manchester Airport service was the best simply because it used 309s!

Class 305s were used; with the 4th car re-inserted whilst on the Airport stopping shuttles. These half-hourly stopping services were never 'dedicated' in the truest sense; they have always been complemented by faster services (originally 1tph Scarborough, 1tph Blackpool - the latter calling at Heald Green)

A Class 309 was painted in a special Manchester Airport livery in about 1996 for a time; don't think it saw an awful lot of use on Airport services; other than the weird overnight Airport-Birmingham service that used to run.

 

[notlob.divad]

Best Rail based Airport Transfer has to be either Zurich (1 stop, 10min every 8 ) or Schipol - Amsterdam (6 mins every 7) but not particularly central to downtown.

Nothing in the UK, dedicated service or not, can compare to that.

 

[plannerman]

I've never used any UK ones. The best foreign dedicated link I've used is the Arlanda Express in Stockholm - fast, spotlessly clean, easy to buy tickets and frequent enough that there's no need to consult a timetable. It's ruinously expensive of course, but I'm always over there on expenses so who cares? For a solo traveller it's cheaper than a taxi, for two or more travelling together taxi is more cost effective (usually).

 

[gordonthemoron]

Hong Kong is really good if rather expensive. Plus you can check in at stations in downtown Hong Kong and Kowloon

 

[bradford758]

Stansted Express - the staff are a world apart from that GatEx horde and the trains are a lot more comfortable imo. Haven't flown from Heathrow so never used HEX.

Best airport transfer overall has to be Manchester, as it's frequent, fast and cheap. Worst has to be "Frankfurt" Hahn...

Edit: The S-Bahn from Stuttgart Airport is pretty nifty too. My only gripe was that large notes weren't accepted at the TVMs.

The S-bahn to Stuttgart (and to Hamburg) is an extension of the existing network and doesn't run in a direct line to Stuttgart Hbf (but is useful for the city centre).
There is a proposal for direct inter city services as part of the controversial Stuttgart21 project.

Sent from my 4009X using Tapatalk

 

[sheff1]

As already mentioned, only one of the listed choices is a dedicated service, so the poll is redundant. If I am travelling from Heathrow it is more convenient to use the direct, if slow, Piccadilly line from Kings X rather than changing at Paddington, so I never use HEX.

The best dedicated service I have used is the one at Arlanda Stockholm, for the reasons again already mentioned.

 

[47271]

It's a shame about Gatwick because it used to be great when it was run as a separate service, I used it a lot in the mid 2000s. If you sat at the rear of the train inbound, or the front heading out of London, you generally only had a handful of people in the carriage with you regardless of the time of day. I wouldn't go near it now.

Stansted Express, or its mismanagement, caused me to miss a flight a few years ago so I'm not a fan of that.

Heathrow Express is far too expensive for what it is.

I doesn't have a dedicated link but London City has got to be the least annoying London airport to travel to.

Or, better still, come and go from London by train.

 

[HowardGWR]

Best Rail based Airport Transfer has to be either Zurich (1 stop, 10min every 8 ) or Schipol - Amsterdam (6 mins every 7) but not particularly central to downtown.

Nothing in the UK, dedicated service or not, can compare to that.

It's Schiphol. Many here spell it without the second h. My checker picks that up. I just tried it your way and got a red line underneath.

I don't understand your comment. If you mean the link from Schiphol to Amsterdam, I cannot imagine any stations more central. Schiphol is practically almost in the departure lounge /outside the arrivals hall, and Centraal is about 200 yards from the Stock Exchange, the window prostitutes and the main shopping street, to name but a few 'downtown' destinations. Nearly all trams and underground centre on it.

 

[stut]

If you mean the link from Schiphol to Amsterdam, I cannot imagine any stations more central.

If it's the 6-minute service, then it's probably Amsterdam Zuid they're talking about - which used to be my preferred way into the city (as I tended to stay in the Oud Zuid - never liked the area towards the Stationseiland...)

 

[sheff1]

If it's the 6-minute service, then it's probably Amsterdam Zuid they're talking about ..

Not sure why anyone would need to say that a station named Zuid is not central to 'downtown'. Especially when there is a very frequent service from the airport to a station named Centraal.

 

[stut]

Not sure why anyone would need to say that a station named Zuid is not central to 'downtown'. Especially when there is a very frequent service from the airport to a station named Centraal.

Indeed so. That said, you can get to a lot of central Amsterdam more quickly via Zuid (particularly if connecting to tram/metro/bike) than Centraal. But that's not the point. Unless they meant RAI, but that's just getting weird. (IIRC, you can do Schiphol-Zuid in 4 minutes...)

 

[notlob.divad]

It's Schiphol. Many here spell it without the second h. My checker picks that up. I just tried it your way and got a red line underneath.

I don't understand your comment. If you mean the link from Schiphol to Amsterdam, I cannot imagine any stations more central. Schiphol is practically almost in the departure lounge /outside the arrivals hall, and Centraal is about 200 yards from the Stock Exchange, the window prostitutes and the main shopping street, to name but a few 'downtown' destinations. Nearly all trams and underground centre on it.

If it's the 6-minute service, then it's probably Amsterdam Zuid they're talking about - which used to be my preferred way into the city (as I tended to stay in the Oud Zuid - never liked the area towards the Stationseiland...)

Not sure why anyone would need to say that a station named Zuid is not central to 'downtown'. Especially when there is a very frequent service from the airport to a station named Centraal.

Yes, sorry I was referring to Zuid because of the shorter time and higher frequency of service. Going to Central is obviously right in the downtown, but takes longer and is less frequent (although still significantly better than anything we have in the UK).

Either way I think i would consider Zurich to be the best.

 

[WesternS]

Hong Kong is really good if rather expensive. Plus you can check in at stations in downtown Hong Kong and Kowloon

HK is good, especially as you can effectively use the Central check-in as a left-luggage (or could). It's such a pity though that the bit on the train when it goes across the Tsing Mai bridge is enclosed - probably would be worth the ride for that alone.

KL I like, even though Brickfields (aka KL Central) isn't all that central. Goes a long way (try driving from KL to Sepang) quickly for a reasonable price. Not too keen when it diverts via Putrajaya though.

Narita is ok - a bit long (1 hour), but takes you to the very centre(s) of Tokyo. Good introduction to the Japan beyond the craziness of Tokyo.

Sydney - expensive. And a real pain to have to lug bags up and down the stairs at Central if changing for the North Shore lines.

Brisbane - nice ride. Especially waiting on the platform early on a beautiful Queensland morning or as the sun goes down. Good range of stops in the centre.

Athens - quick and cheap, although the metro is best for downtown. If you're lucky you can get a seat next to a window where the condensation water has filled up the space between the two panes and thus you see the gradients and fun to watch when it begins to brake. Physics/fluid dynamics in action.....

Surprised no one has mentioned the Shanghai Pudong maglev link (is it still running ?). Cracking along at 425km/h (or so the indicators in each carriage said) with not a heap of sway (about as much as a TGV at top whack). Almost seemed as if the cars on the expressway next to it were going backwards. Love to have seen it go by from the road side and bet James Bond would have struggled to stay on the top of it. Shanghai end just more than a little far from the centre...

And the one I use by far the most - every 20 minutes on Virgin from New St to International for £3.00. And £2.60 on anything in evenings. 10 minute journey time. With a view of Birmingham too.... What's not to like ?

 

[swt class 450]

This is a very good question. Unfortunately the UK does not have the best Airport train services.

Out of interest why is Heathrow Connect not on the poll list? Isnt Heathrow Connect also a dedicated Airport service?

Here is what i think of the services.

----------------

Gatwick Express

Gatwick Express is awful. Rude incompetent "red gestapo" staff at London Victoria who cause all sorts of problems (such as lying / overcharging / ripping up valid tickets / telling people their tickets are not valid when they are / etc). Also the stopping trains (that call at East Croydon and Clapham Junction) are often a few minutes quicker than the non stop Gatwick Express.

The class 387/2 trains that are currently used are exactly identical to the 377/6 377/7 387/1 trains that are used on the companies other brands (Great Northern / Southern / Thameslink) so are not really suited for airport services. They have very little luggage room. The 442s however were even more unsuitable for airport services. 1ST class on the 387/2s is 100% identical to STD class so is only really there to rip off tourists even more.

When Gatwick Express was run by National Express is was much better. The 460s were some of the best trains in the UK. Perfectly designed for airport services. Very comfortable seats. Lots of luggage room. Unfortunately Govia made a very silly choice and decided to withdraw them. The staff were also much better and much more competent. All trains had ticket inspectors and refreshment trolleys on board (but the trains were still DOO). Ever since Govia took over the service has gone from one of the best in the UK to one of the worst in the UK.

----------------

Heathrow Connect

This is probably one of the better airport services in the UK. It is still very overpriced but it is much cheaper than the Heathrow Express. It also only takes between around 8 to 12 minutes longer than the Heathrow Express.

The 360s are very nice trains. Well designed and comfortable and give a very smooth ride. Also despite having a 3+2 seating layout throughout most of the trains they still have a nice spacious feel.

Unfortunately Heathrow Connect is very hidden and poorly publicised so many tourists and foreign visitors are not aware of it. They hide the fact that many trains go to and from T4 or T5 as well as T123. There is so much publicity for the Heathrow Express yet Heathrow Connect has very little publicity. They almost try to discourage passengers from using the Heathrow Connect.

----------------

Heathrow Express

Heathrow Express is awful. Extremely overpriced. Perhaps the biggest rip off out of any rail service in the world. It is shocking that they think it is acceptable to charge such high fares.

The 332s are very poorly designed. I personally dont find that the layout is very good. They also have TV screens with audio playing out loud.

The staff are often very rude and tell lies. They will never tell passengers about the cheaper Heathrow Connect. They always act like Heathrow Express is the only public transport the serves Heathrow Airport. So a lot of people get scammed in to paying huge amounts to travel on the Heathrow Express.

----------------

Stansted Express

Stansted Express is quite good. Unfortunately they try to hide the fact that you can get much cheaper tickets by buying tickets to and from Elsenham instead of Stansted Airport (which are still fully valid for travel to and from Stansted Airport). So most tourists and foreign visitors are not aware of this.

The staff are generally more competent and better trained than the other airport train services in the UK.

The 379s are quite well designed with comfortable seats in both 1ST (2+1) and STD (2+2). They also have fairly good luggage room. I would say that these are probably the best Bombardier Electrostar trains in the UK.

----------------

I have always been surprised that there is no Luton Express train. I wonder if there will be one day (if there ever is i hope that Govia dont run it).

 

[HowardGWR]

Roma (Fiumicino which is nowhere near Rome) is an appallingly depressing station and the rail service was very grubby when we took it to Termini. It was at least a cheaper fare but perhaps it wasn't the Leonardo. It said Leonardo on the side of it. I've looked at the website here.
https://www.rometoolkit.com/airport/fiumicino_airport_train.htm

Perhaps it was the regional train we caught. That one on that web page looks a bit smarter.

Why is it that London insists on providing such a rip-off welcome to tourists. Outside of the present local difficulties, I would never take other than the SN service from Gatwick.

 

[Polarbear]

Heathrow express is nice, but so it should be for what they charge for the distance travelled!

 

[bradford758]

Roma (Fiumicino which is nowhere near Rome) is an appallingly depressing station and the rail service was very grubby when we took it to Termini. It was at least a cheaper fare but perhaps it wasn't the Leonardo. It said Leonardo on the side of it. I've looked at the website here.
https://www.rometoolkit.com/airport/fiumicino_airport_train.htm

Perhaps it was the regional train we caught. That one on that web page looks a bit smarter.

Why is it that London insists on providing such a rip-off welcome to tourists. Outside of the present local difficulties, I would never take other than the SN service from Gatwick.

The regional Fiumicino-Roma train doesn't serve Termini, but is convenient for other parts of Rome.

 

[R4_GRN]

Gatwick express is the best because it takes me out of Gatwick! I hate using Gatwick airport, avoid taking holidays from Scotland which route through b........ Gatwick never been a good experience, delays, poor service, poor food and who wants to stay overnight in Gatwick before going overseas?