Terminal 5 signage & passenger trials

The trial runs, running from T123 to T5, have already been done by us (HEx staff) back in December. The general public then did a few scenarios in the station.

I see that the platform dot-matrix at Earl's Court have been reprogrammed to show:

HEATHROW Terminal 4
HEATHROW Terminals 1,2,3 & 5

as separate destinations.

Have others been so amended?
Barons Court and Acton WB still just show the one- HEATHROW.

No! We have enough announcements shoved down our throat anyway!

Showing just 'Heathrow' isn't a huge issue as the trains' onboard announcements will make everything clear. Passengers would probably be advised to take the first train and change closer to Heathrow so that they have more chance of getting a train and don't clog up central area platforms.

I believe that passengers are advised to change at Hounslow West.

How long do forum members think it will be until one train has to serve all three Heathrow stations!?

I reckon 3 April !

Do you meant Hatton X-T4-T123-T5-T123-HattonX. Whilst technically possible (I think depending on new track layout), it would require the train to be double ended, or driver stepping back at H123, which would require extra staff. It would also require more trains than the planned operations. Passengers boarding at T4 would have to change at T123.

It be interesting to see what happens operationally in the future with the current (and very odd) track layout at Heathrow.

But if you got off at Hatton Cross you could travel on the free bus services to Terminal 4, rather than waiting sometimes 20, 30 mins or more for a train!.

Stephen I was indeed talking about HX-T4-T123-T5-T123-HX can see it happening when there hasnt been a T4 train for a long time and one must go to T5!

I take this route into work maybe four days out of five (edit: heading for T123), and always check on the indicator at Hatton Cross how far behind the next train is before getting off to change. If it's more than four minutes, I'll stay on and go via T4 (experience of trying the various combinations of staying on and getting off at various times suggests this is the point beyond which there's no gain from changing, despite the longer journey time).

When the new arrangements came in I found the announcements weren't plentiful (ended up at T4 more often than I planned!), but the info is very good now - the train this morning had a separate sign saying "123 direct" in the window. Defeats the point of digital displays a little perhaps, but at least we know what's going on!

Those cards will be redundant on the 27th as the DVA and train indicators will be programmed accordingly.