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Sure. But for anyone who isn’t already in the city center it’s probably close to a wash, since getting from home into the city has to happen. And airport to cit

Sure. But for anyone who isn’t already in the city center it’s probably close to a wash, since getting from home into the city has to happen. And airport to city is likely to be pretty optimized. You can get a coach (bus) direct to Heathrow from almost any town in England. Getting to Waterloo [1] (London’s international) station from outside London could easily be more time consuming and tough with luggage. But of course UK is gonna be an outlier in European train value discussions. It’s an island on the periphery with a single rail connection. The mainland capitals are more competitive. [1] edit: now St. Pancras, which is closer to other London rail stations so likely better on balance. Thanks user sbuk.

iddan 5y ago
In most European capitals there are great public transportation options to get to the central train stations and they are almost always better than to get to the airport as it is more far from residential areas
- maigret 5y ago
  Exact, because the local residents drive to the local train station way more often than to the local airport. I think that’s a factor 10 difference approximately. Probably different figure for big airports hubs that serve mostly connections of course.
sbuk 5y ago
London’s international station is now St Pancras, which is much easier than Waterloo. It’s closer to Euston and Paddington, while Kings Cross is literally over the road.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
laurencerowe 5y ago
> But of course UK is gonna be an outlier in European train value discussions. It’s an island on the periphery with a single rail connection. The mainland capitals are more competitive. While UK train prices are an outlier, London and the South East are very much part of the high density economic core of Europe. A box drawn around London/Paris/Amsterdam/Cologne contains roughly a quarter of the pre-Brexit EU population (and a substantially higher proportion of economic activity.) Rail is already very competitive between these cities - it's only 2 hours on the train from London to Paris or Brussels and since the tunnel was built Eurostar has captured the vast bulk of travel between the cities it connects. The bigger challenge would seem to be making rail competitive to more dispersed cities like Berlin/Vienna/Barcelona/Madrid.
randomswede 5y ago
From where I used to live in Greater London, to Heathrow, by cab, was about 1h 30m. Same route, using only TfL, was probably 2h. Same route, using HEX between Paddington and LHR, was about 1h15m. I have no idea what the ull opening of LizPurp will do to the transit times, but chances are it would bring them down to maybe 50 minutes. Getting to LHR from where I was, it was always quicker to get to any of the major rail stations in central London than to either LHR or LGW, but LCY was relatively good (only really works that way if you're east of the centre though).

iddan 5y ago

In most European capitals there are great public transportation options to get to the central train stations and they are almost always better than to get to the airport as it is more far from residential areas

maigret 5y ago
Exact, because the local residents drive to the local train station way more often than to the local airport. I think that’s a factor 10 difference approximately. Probably different figure for big airports hubs that serve mostly connections of course.

sbuk 5y ago

London’s international station is now St Pancras, which is much easier than Waterloo. It’s closer to Euston and Paddington, while Kings Cross is literally over the road.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

laurencerowe 5y ago

> But of course UK is gonna be an outlier in European train value discussions. It’s an island on the periphery with a single rail connection. The mainland capitals are more competitive. While UK train prices are an outlier, London and the South East are very much part of the high density economic core of Europe. A box drawn around London/Paris/Amsterdam/Cologne contains roughly a quarter of the pre-Brexit EU population (and a substantially higher proportion of economic activity.) Rail is already very competitive between these cities - it's only 2 hours on the train from London to Paris or Brussels and since the tunnel was built Eurostar has captured the vast bulk of travel between the cities it connects. The bigger challenge would seem to be making rail competitive to more dispersed cities like Berlin/Vienna/Barcelona/Madrid.

randomswede 5y ago

From where I used to live in Greater London, to Heathrow, by cab, was about 1h 30m. Same route, using only TfL, was probably 2h. Same route, using HEX between Paddington and LHR, was about 1h15m. I have no idea what the ull opening of LizPurp will do to the transit times, but chances are it would bring them down to maybe 50 minutes. Getting to LHR from where I was, it was always quicker to get to any of the major rail stations in central London than to either LHR or LGW, but LCY was relatively good (only really works that way if you're east of the centre though).