I recently had to take a flight from Terminal 4 at Heathrow and took the premium priced Heathrow Express. Well, express it is not. They claim a 15 minute journey time from Central London. Their own web site admits that you now need to change trains at T123 and that "the frequency of the shuttle services between Terminal 4 and Terminals 1, 2, 3 is every 10-20 minutes".
My 15 minute journey actually took 45 minutes. The reason given is that because BA haven't moved their flights from T4 over to T5 there are more people wanting to go to T4. I am sure that the airlines scheduled to move to T4 will bve thrilled to know that their customers will have a slower journey. BAA want to move more flights to T4 and T5 so that they can refurbish the oldest terminals at Heathrow.
Heathrow Express have decided to go to T123, then to T5. Previously they went to T4 directly, so there is no reason that they couldn't today. But they decided not to. Instead they ask you to change to their competitor, Heathrow Connect.
All of this could have been avoided if the route had been planned properly and a nice circular route created between the terminals. But for whatever reason, this was not done.
The right answer is to recommend that anyone going to T4 should use Heathrow Connect from the start. You don't have to change, and the journey time is slower, but less hassle for people carrying baggage. Why isn't that advice given impartially to travellers? Also why haven't they increased frequency of service to reflect the increased need?
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