Elizabeth Line vs Heathrow Express 

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"There is not a lot you can watch in 15 minutes" says Jago in a video clocking in at 12:28. :)

Another reason that the Elizabeth line has made the Heathrow Express a bit pointless is that its target market of business travellers are most likely going to be heading to the City or Canary Wharf, which are better served by the Elizabeth line.

“Today, I’m going to do something different from my usual fare.” Opening line deserves a standing ovation.

There’s one thing this video misses. Before the Elizabeth Line (and TfL Rail), there used to be two services. Heathrow Express (unchanged), and the Heathrow Connect. The Heathrow Connect was a service run by FGW (and Heathrow too I think), which did the same stopping routes (Hayes/Southall/Hanwell/WestEaling/Ealing). TfL bought this line and branded it into the Elizabeth Line. So since the Heathrow tunnel existed, we’ve always had a fast & expensive and slow & cheaper option along the GWR tracks.

Nothing beats the £2.10 on the Piccadilly line from Zone 2 though, as anyone living on the Overground/District line stretch in SW and North London can attest; even the discomfort and an up to 15 minutes’ longer ride don’t justify the price difference. Also, the advance fare on Heathrow Express excludes the rest of TfL services, so unless someone’s staying at Paddington, the grand total is higher still

You forgot about the 4th option which is the N9 bus. At £1.50 for a 70 min nap and possibly a warm beer with a weird chap from Hounslow it's an absolute win!

A slight correction: the HEX quietly eliminated £5.50 fares for 90-day advance bookings late last year, making it a _significantly_ less compelling option for long-term planners. I would have expected them to reduce their fares somewhat given the competition from the Elizabeth Line; instead their business strategy now seems to be: appealing to elites for which £10 or £20 or £30 makes absolutely no difference at all. Another nice HEX side business is preying on ignorant or befuddled tourists coming from Heathrow that mistakenly board a "purple train" thinking it was the Elizabeth Line.

I’d love to see a gatwick express / Thameslink comparison please! Seems like the logical next episode following this one.

Since the introduction of the Lizzy line, I've seen the Heathrow Express as almost something of a tourist trap - for the people arriving from elsewhere to London Heathrow, the Heathrow Express is the most advertised option (understandably), so they'll probably end up booking a £25 per person ticket at the station itself, vs getting a similar experience for half the price, and probably getting you closer to where you want to go or interchange (particularly if you get a single day travelcard). I've recommended the Elizabeth Line to people who are coming into London from overseas to save some money and potentially travel time as it's not as immediately obvious that can also take you to Paddington in a fairly short length of time. I didn't know about the cost savings booking for the Heathrow Express that far in advance though, that's useful info!

When we were in London last August the Elizabeth line was having issues and the train we were on was having to wait longer and longer at each station. We were getting anxious as our time cushion was rapidly evaporating. Finally at Paddington they said "This train ends here, everybody off" .....ugh. We sprinted upstairs and paid top dollar for a Heathrow Express ticket. We made our flight with time to spare. Heathrow Express 1 : Elizabeth Line 0

At 11:20 I totally expected the ding-ding of not just bikes. :-)

When I arrived at Heathrow T3 in January, intending to take the Heathrow Express into Paddington. I was surprised not to find the expected HEx ticket sellers at the bottom of the escalator down to baggage reclaim. On arriving landside, I noticed a Heathrow Express desk, and asked the member of staff there for a ticket. They directed me to the Elizabeth Line, not even giving me the option! Fair play...

Would like to see a Gatwick video with Gatwick Express, Southern and Thameslink!

It's about market segment - HEx was originally pitched at people who would not naturally think to use public transport, such as business types on expense accounts - it helped wean them off using a taxi down the M4, thus reducing their carbon footprint and keeping them out of everyone else's way - all-round win! \m/

I'm all for future comparison videos. Thanks Jago.

"...hopefully they don't die mysteriously..." Oof! 😂

I was going to say that both Lizzy and HEX benefit from going out of the only London station to have a Millie's Cookies, but I double-checked and there's now one at Victoria, so the nearby coach station is back in the game. 24-hour running and generally cheaper tickets help too, mind.

In other cities it would seem like an insane luxury to have three frequent rail options to choose from when going to the airport.

Another point in the Elizabeth line’s favor: it’s new and cool and has platform screen doors!

One other benefit of the Heathrow Express, is that for visitors to London who would have got a black cab from Heathrow, they can save a fortune and vast amount of time by getting the Express to Paddington and then getting a black cab.

Great vid jaggoi have 3 vid suggestions 1. Comparing London's 2 crosrails - Thameslink vs eliz line 2. Help a local learn more about the St Albans signal box (at SAC not SAA) 3. Talk about the abandoned Hatfield to St Albans railway that's now been turned into the Alban way

@7.01 Blink and you would miss them, 46100 Royal Scot and D3905 (08737) Class 08. Good capture Jago!

A major problem with modern rail is that trains are designed for commuters, not travellers, and have little luggage space. The peak of comfortable long distance rail was the HST, with luggage space between the seats, overhead luggage racks cabpable of taking my student rucksack, and a guards van for those days I couldn't face a 150 mile trip on my Norton 650SS, so let the guard look after it. My memories of trying to get to Heathrow in the early '80s are that it was hell with luggage.

Travelled to London this past September. Used the Purple Train from Heathrow to Tottenham Court Road, where our hotel was located. This was very convenient. My only complaint was the very long walk to the station at the airport, and the cramped platform at the airport. There were quite a few of us waiting for the train, and we were jammed in behind the yellow lines by the station staff. I don't think they took into consideration luggage when planning the station. :) But overall it was quick, clean, and convenient. Bravo!

The Elizabeth Line is a 'stopping' service, whereas the Heathrow Express is 'non-stop'. In other words it does not stop at any stations between London Paddington and Heathrow. The clue's in the name - 'Express'! So there is still a point to having the Heathrow Express. And while many (including me) find it too expensive.... there will always be plenty of people who will gladly pay the fare ....for the privilege of having a 'non-stop' service. Oh, and the seating is more spacious on the HE.....plus it's not orientated alongside the windows (like the Underground and Overground). It's more like those found in medium/regional distance trains.

That was useful information about the advance puchase prices.

Wasn't the Elizabeth Line Heathrow service just a replacement for Heathrow Connect that had been there previously?

I love the Elisabeth line. Easy convenient and goes straight through the city. The connectivity, price and frequency makes it great. Especially when you want to be flexible.

Las October, I rode the Elizabeth line in to Canary wharf from Heathrow and we passed the Heathrow express which I thought was quite funny. However, a week later on the return trip, it was pouring rain and the Elizabeth line was flooded and I had to change to the Victoria line coming back from Canary wharf. So in theory, I love the concept of the Elisabeth line, but in practice least at that time it still had a few kinks that needed to be worked out

i guess you should complete the set and discuss Gatwick Express vs Southern/Thameslink, I've heard GX is especially useless (but it might be better if you're going to Brighton maybe??)

Lovley bit of Hanwell Footage

We used the Elizabeth Line to go from the Airport to Paddington Station on our last visit to London. We had Oyster cards so it was easy. The seats were fine - the isles are very wide so we sat on the isle seats with our bags in front of us and there was still plenty of room. It was during the morning rush hour, but the train was not overcrowded. On our return journey, we used the Heathrow Express. We booked early via Trainline and as we had done a number of other rail journeys, we had a "2 together" Railcard which gave us a 30% discount. This meant that the fares were very comparable. If we had been able to get our Railcard at Heathrow, we may have used the Express both ways to save time, but we were happy with the Elizabeth Line as it was a new experience.

9:01 sorry to be a pedant but they are technically on different tracks, the Elizabeth line uses the relief lines against the Heathrow Express on the fast lines.

Nice to see old Jago featured Trellick Tower at 9:40 in the clip. On the Heathrow side, how close is the Elizabeth Line/Heathrow Express to the Piccadilly platforms? Planning on picking up, I.E. photograph, the Piccadilly Heathrow labyrinths for the tube collecting endeavour on my next visit to London. My guess for today's chatchphrase: "You are the luggage racks for my airport travel." EDIT: Wow, so close this time.

The minimum is £15 for Heathrow express now. Even in advance. They don't offer the £5 one anymore

I wonder how the Elizabeth line has affected the usage of the Heathrow Express.

HEx allows more trains from London to reach the UK's (2011) 4th biggest functional city 'Slough and Heathrow'. There's not enough space on the Reliefs for 10tph to Heathrow unless you don't serve Slough with the Liz. There's not enough space on the Mains to run enough trains to replace those you have transferred from the Reliefs to make way for more Heathrow trains (not only because there's 6tph, but also because they take 2 paths with their cross over onto the other pair of tracks - something the 2tph that do this now can only do because it takes a path vacated by HEx). In terms of track capacity, it's an efficient use of the infrastructure that is there. Commercially it might be suffering, but operationally it's useful. If you want to fix the commercial thing, then SRA to Woking, and so services to Guildford and Basingstoke, would help boost high-value ridership.

There is a difference in journey time for T4 and T5 Liz line trains, T5 trains omit 3 stations between Paddington and Heathrow, so are the express-ish option. Another interesting comparison would be the Gatwick "Express" and the very slightly slower GTR options (Thameslink and Southern), these are very much cheaper for a few minutes of extra journey time (and Thameslink offers other connections as mentioned).

As someone who frequently flew into Heathrow for business in the before times, I would have loved the Liz line because I could easily get to where I was going (the city, usually). I used to use the express regularly, but connections at Paddington are annoying especially when you're completely knackered after a red eye from North America. I actually switched to staying in Kensington and taking the pickled Willy to earls court. It was slower, but it had no connection, I could flop down for 45 minutes and catch my breath, and hopefully rock up to my hotel in Kensington at 10 am and be able to check in (something you can very rarely do at the big hotels in the city). Travel to the customer was meh, but IMO it was mostly a wash- it was rare I would get a hotel next to the customer anyway so I was always going to have to tube it. So why not stay somewhere a smidge nicer and have an extra 10 minutes on the tube?

Main purpose of the Heathrow Express, as I remember, was that at inception you could check in, and possibly even clear security, at Paddington, before boarding the train, which then, obviously went direct. As this was scrapped after a year or two, does seem a bit pointless, now, other than shaving that quarter of an hour off journey time

Simple choice for old codgers like me - Freedom Pass not valid on Heathrow Express but can party all day on the Lizzie Line without charge. 😀 Mind you, the Superloop 9 bus is probably handiest for me anyway - as long as I travel light.

Also worth noting that if you travel on special train tickets like interrail tickets (popular with tourists wanting to explore the UK by train but can also used by British tourists going abroad as the first and last day of travel you can use it to travel in your country of residence), you can take the Elizabeth line to the airport, but you can't take the Heathrow Express (or tube).

Heathrow Express is the reason there can't be step free access on the outer stations of the Elizabeth Line. The new 345 trains, and therefore the core EL stations, were built to match the height of the Heathrow platforms, which aren't a standard height. On the outer stations, that need to be shared with other trains and freight wagons (with different loading gauge), the platforms cannot be raised further. So now we have inaccessibility permanently stuck in the Elizabeth Line, unless the entire core is rebuilt at a different platform height. All because Heathrow Express wouldn't rebuild a few platforms...

I've not been to Heathrow for years, living in West Yorkshire. I usually prefer Leeds-Bradford or Manchester airports, because they're more convenient for me. But in the past, I have used the Piccadilly line to be on a Leeds train departing from Kings Cross only just over an hour after getting on the Underground at Heathrow (using a flexible rail ticket, naturally). For some real journeys, the Piccadilly line is not as slow as you might think. Frequency often trumps pure speed for end-to-end timings.

The thing that amuses me is that, when taking GWR West of England services out of Paddington, an announcement is made approaching the first stop at Reading that you can change there to take the RailAir coach from Reading to Heathrow. I can only assume that it is intended for people who got on the wrong train.

I'm pretty sure they've quietly scrapped the £5.50 advanced fare. The cheapest I can find is £15. Source: I've just this week filmed my own video about the Heathrow Express(!)

1:30 the other purpose of the Piccadilly line was to allow airport workers a commuting route and avoid additional car traffic/parking requirement

I've been visiting the UK since 1992 and first rode the Heathrow Express when it opened in 1998. Back then you could check in for your flight and leave your luggage at Paddington, a great feature that is gone forever. As a traveler from the USA I always know my plans well in advance and have never paid more than £5.50. Even when I was only carrying a gym bag, the Picadilly Line is not made for transporting you and your bags. Incidentally, if you don't have a lot of luggage get off at Earls Court (Zones 1 & 2) and then back on to continue to Central London. It's only £4.80 that way (£2.10 + £2.70). If you have luggage and book in advance the Heathrow Express is a great deal although it's not worth £25. And who would pay extra for business class on a 15-minute trip?

One way for £25 is a great train robbery. P.S. I seem to remember the 'user pays' arguments for privatizing electricity, phones, trains, and gas etc. They told us that market competition would make for lower prices. Yeah right. Pull the other one.

The only time I've used the Express is when it came bundled with my flight. It was nice, but normally I'm a lazy planner and just take the tube. Next time I will have Lizzy line option, I might take it for variety.

11:41 You forgot to add that since Eluzabeth counts against daily cap on Oyster and as a tourist you ate in fact quite likely to hit the cap sightseing anyway, even the cheapest HE ticket is not worth it in pure financial terms

I can't believe a grateful HM Government does not provide Jago with a gold Oyster Card.

I believe the eliminated the 5.50 GBP fares. When I booked my HEX ticket for July 7th way back on January 14th, the cheapest tickets for standard class were 15 GBP each. I confirmed that just now making a dummy booking for December 13th (also 15 GBP for the early bird saver fare).

That was incredibly useful. Thank you!

7:17 The Heathrow Express does accept Pay As You Go using Oyster and Contactless cards like most non-TfL rail services in London. Yiu may be confused with Stansted Airport which is the one where you're *required* to buy a separate ticket

I’ve never stayed close to Paddington on any of my trips to London. It’s so specific an area and I’m sure there’s a lot to do there and lots of businesses based there. But just this means that it doesn’t make much sense to take this service. I’m hoping there is a follow up video where Jago figures out what can you actually do at Paddington.

In February I returned to London throw Heathrow and got a Terminal-Link ticket for Heathrow express, I took the advantage and went all the way to Paddington with it and back to Heathrow for the tube just for the fun of it

I was involved in wiring up the BR lines for the Heathrow Express..... from working the Millers foundation trains through to sitting on class 09's (006 & 007 in Mainline Freight blue) putting up the overheads..... terribly cold things to sit on in winter, they made class 37s seem warm!

Once made the journey from my home in southeast London to Heathrow for £1.30 using complicated overground malarkey, and taking advantage of the Hatton Cross trick I picked up from Geoff. Can't say it was a luxury journey, though 😂

The Heathrow Express 90 day advance ticket is now £15 and not £5.50.

I had a five-hour stopover at LHR and wanted to see friends in London for a few quick pints near Paddington, so I chose the Heathrow Express option as I got 30 extra minutes (for a roundtrip) of friends time which made it worth it. (I was not organized enough to book ahead.)

I lived in London for 13 years, used the tube and the trains every day during that time. I consider myself a seasoned rail and tube user. Was looking forward to riding the Elizabeth line from Heathrow, got a ticket, sat down - and when the train started to move the tannoy said to check the ticket if you don't have a Heathrow Express ticket, in which case, change at the next stop. Looked at my ticket - it had the Heathrow Express logo on both sides, it said Heathrow Express at the bottom - I panicked, stepped off the train and took the Heathrow Express into Paddington. Upon arrival I wanted to go through the gates and the ticket didn't work - the lady said I had an Elizabeth line ticket! Option was to either travel back to Heathrow (couldn't because I had an appointment) or pay the full Heathrow Express fare! I was so mad.

The 724 bus is hands down the best way to travel to Heathrow

I flew into Heathrow from NZ October 2022, arriving at rush-hour on a Friday and getting off a Paddington, so I can confirm that A) the Elizabeth line trains have hard seats, B) there was plenty of space for my large suitcase and small carry-on and C) it's a much quicker and nicer journey compared to the Piccadilly line. Also, after 28 hours in there air across two flight, don't arrive anywhere at rush-hour 😂

Sounds to me I would use the Piccadilly Line! May take a little longer but its cheap and I would have to use connecting tube lines in any case.!

The Jacobite steam train or the scheduled service from Fort William to Mallaig. Go on, treat yourself. You know you want to!

I don't see any £5 90 day fare, so not sure where you saw that. All I can see is the early bird £15 fare, which at £3 more than the EL is still competitive if going to/from Paddington. I'd say that the HEX (at the £15 price, not the £25 on the day price) is worth it if you need to make the trip at rush hour. The EL will be busy, and so with baggage it'll be quite unpleasant at those times, so paying £3 more for a much emptier train with more baggage space is well worth it. The HEX has become less useful for many given that most people aren't goint to/from paddington, so you'll have to take another train, so the Lizzie will be quickest to get from A to B for a lot of people.

There's no longer 5.50 tickets on heathrow express. Now the cheapest is 15 quid (9.90 with a railcard)

I tend to use Gatwick if given a choice of airports. If not, Piccadilly line as I'm more likely to be staying near Gloucester Road or King's Cross and it's cheaper.

As an American, I suspect that if I'm going from Heathrow to London (or vice versa), I'm probably going to want the greater luggage space on the Heathrow Express... unless the airline sends my luggage to Edinburgh or something, in which case I'm likely to be in a pretty foul mood - and prefer the shorter journey time on the Express.

Obviously if you live in east london then the Elizabeth line is perfect. However, when I travelled from Liverpool street it broke down and we all had to rush to Paddington as there was no way the Picadilly would be quick enough.

I'm in Kensington & Hammersmith area, which makes the journey choices a lot more annoying (getting to Paddington and then Heathrow vs going straight to Heathrow on the Picc). If I was on the north side of the park or even Notting Hill then Elizabeth/Heathrow express might have some comparison, but given that I can just walk to the Piccadilly and not have to do any messy transfers, it ends up being the best (and cheapest option). I think anyone who lives west of Earl's Court or even Gloucester Road on the Piccadilly will agree with me. Or else they'll just drive since it's only 20-30 minutes depending on where in West London you live...

By planning ahead and booking online, I only paid five pounds fifty for the Heathrow express from Paddington which is half the price of the Elizabeth train from Paddington. 15 minute trip for half the price. I know which one I would use again.

As a frequent tourist to London I have a huge soft spot for the PIC, but after a 9 hour flight from the west coast US the crowded sardine nature of the ride is trying. The Elizabeth is an absolute gamechanger. Far more comfort with excellent connections to tube/overground network which makes hotel selections so much easier. The future new PIC trains will certainly favor the ride comfort. The Heathrow Express was never a choice simply because it dumped you into Paddington which is a more intolerable exchange compared to the more simple transfer stations that dont involve National Rail stations

The differences between the Elizabeth line and the Heathrow express are cost and travelling time, simple. However, for those of us who live south of the river, the Piccadilly line is better than both. The last time I flew into Heathrow, I took the Piccadilly line to South Ken and then changed over to the Circle/District lines for Cannon Street.

Another point wrt the price is that 15yos and under travel free on the Heathrow Express even if they don't live in London. Which makes it worth the price even when buying on the day with just 1:1 child/adult ratio.

A prominent selling point when HEX opened was the check in facility at Paddington. Did everything that check in at LHR did. Luggage was conveyed under the platforms and carried in the front of the train - really useful if you came into ‘town’ for a day before flying somewhere. Long since demised unfortunately.

It depends on where at Heathrow you want to go/depart from. I don't know if this changed, but in late July 2022 me and my friend landed at Heathrow T4. On their site, HX advertise (or used to, at least at that time) that you would take a shuttle train to Heathrow T2-3 which would be timed to connect to a HX train from T5. This wasn't the case, we waited close to 10 minutes at T4 and when we got to T2-3 we also had to wait for the next HX train as the previous one had just departed. The "shuttle" train was actually an Elizabeth line train. It arrived at Paddington only 9 minutes after the HX train we got on and it would have been twice as cheap and wouldn't have required a change and some wait time at T2-3. And this was before through running was a thing, so as we had to get to Farringdon, I wouldn't make the same choice today, Lizzy all the way.

If you hold a valid Interrail ticket for the UK, you could use Heathrow Express without any additional charge. I did that two years ago and was even able to try it's first class this way. I would never ever have paid full price for that. It was a nice ride, but not worth to pay a premium.

I think you're wrong about the 5.50 tickets. From my quick googling, I believe those tickets have been discontinued, but even when they were a thing they only applied to select low demand days (such as tues-thurs).

I don’t think the £5.50 tickets exist anymore. It’s around £15 now I think.

You can use Oyster or contactless for the Heathrow Express. That's how I've done it the few times I've used the HE.

Jago, it cheers me so greatly that you always use the correct phrase ‘raises the question’

Perhaps this is a detail you didn't want to get into in the video, but you can pay oyster/contactless for the Heathrow Express. It's the same £25 as a same-day paper ticket.

I work as an international courier. A few years ago, I flew to Heathrow to deliver something to an address near St. James's Park tube station. Upon arrival in Heathrow, my customer told me I can take the taxi for the final part of the delivery. I looked up the travel time on Google Maps. Taking the Piccadilly & District line took only slightly longer than the projected travel time by car. And it was still well within the promised delivery time. Being a huge fan of the London Underground, I asked and received permission to take this option. Not to mention it was a lot cheaper with contactless payment. It never even occurred to me to take the Heathrow Express or TfL Rail (as the Elizabeth Line was called at the time).

Piccadilly line still has a great use of being cheap and a good delay of getting to your hotel too early before you can checkin

As someone that just made this journey a day ago on the Elizabeth line with baggage, Paddington had step-free access, 30 minutes is amazingly fast, and the 345 trains were nice and wide when travelling with luggage. The biggest faff was getting from platform level to terminal at the airport. The wait for the lifts took forever with huge crowds waiting, and the walk from station to terminal was really long (and had yet another lift to wait for/crowd onto at the end). None of this is avoided with the Heathrow Express.

If going to T4, some of the time gained by using the Express service is going to be lost, by having to change trains (to Elizabeth Line) at Heathrow Central.

Slightly off topic, but this video reminded me: I don't know what the arrangement at Terminal 5 is now, but prior to the Purple Train the Tube station and Heathrow Express stations had no connection between them on the same level; you had to go up to the main concourse and down again. I was once asked by a couple of tourists on the Tube platform how to get to the Heathrow Express, and before I could think about it I found myself saying: "You can't get there from here."

Sadly how true this is. Now it’s all about squeezing as many bums as possible onto a service, passenger comfort a long forgotten concept 😢😢😢

First time commenting. Great video as always Jago! I note Heathow Connect (mentioed by others). It accepted normal train tickets until Hayes and Harlington, then you were charged to go.into the tunnel. The tfl operation I belive was not vary straightforward. You asked for a comparison video - I suggest Brighton to London by Gatwick and Thameslink. Big differences there, d the price structure is interesting... please do take a look. :-)

You can use your National Railcard on the Heathrow Express, too.

Looks to me like those planning to go on holiday can book the Heathrow express more cheaply and get there quicker. However, if you are just meeting someone at Heathrow then the Elizabeth line with it's turn up and go more frequently option may suit perhaps. 🤷‍♂️

Took the HEx to Heathrow back in 1999 for a flight to Chicago and checked in for my fight at Paddington which included my luggage drop-off - very convenient. On arrival at Chicago in baggage reclaim I heard my name called out on the tanoy, which is never a good sign. Went to the baggage desk to be told, "sorry Sir, your luggage has not arrived". I asked how that was so as I had checked it in at Paddington 3 hours before the flight. "You haven't heard about the train smash Sir?". I hadn't. Ladbrook Grove 5th October 1999. My HEx was one train ahead of the crash; my luggage was on the one train behind it. Quite sobering.

From my point of view, I prefer HEX. I normally travel for work and they stump up as a precursor. I arrived into Heathrow at 10am this week and the Lizzy Line was absolutely rammed. The HEX was sparsely populated. I changed at Paddington to ironically the Lizzy Line to Farringdon, as I boarded at Paddington it was absolutely uncomfortably rammed. So I waited for the next one, equally rammed. On return, I got a Lizzy line to Paddington and again, uncomfortably hot and rammed, I was relieved to get off at Paddington. HEX was comfortable, loads of leg room and worth the extra costing. I’m not from a big city and find the Liz line an awful experience

For us coming from Norfolk the Elizabeth line is sooooo much better than the heathrow express as we would still have to get to Paddington on underground so would add up with the oyster card and then the tickets price for the heathrow express. Coming into Stratford on a coach or Liverpool Street Station and straight onto the Elizabeth line with the Oyster card and rest. We used to hate traveling down to Heathrow but ever since the Elizabeth line we love it. 😅

Having tried the Express, Elizabeth and Piccadilly in different size groups and with varying amount of luggage then they all have a purpose. Nothing beats the Express if you have a large group or a lot of luggage.

I really like "fewest changes" as an option in transit, and "fewest turns" in driving too. If CrossRail can save you a transfer, then it wins hands-down.

Hi Jago! Did you take a terminal 5 train or a terminal 4 train on the Elizabeth line, to my recollection the terminal 4 services are stopping services. The terminal 5 trains only stop at Ealing Broadway and Hayes and Harlington.