Heathrow Express' managing director has insisted that the service into central London offers passengers “good value for money”.
Keith Greenfield said that the 15-minute Paddington to Heathrow service, which celebrated its 15th anniversary this week, is competing with taxis and that a £20 one-way adult fare is comparatively cheap.
In April, Hounslow Council chiefs wrote to London mayor Boris Johnson to ask Heathrow to cut the single fare to £5.50 to fall in line with Transport for London prices. The council argued that this would lead to more passengers using the service and less congestion and pollution on the roads.
Greenfield said: “The standard taxi fare from Heathrow is about £70, while ours is £20. That's the market we're competing in. We make no apologies for charging £20 and time-saving half-an-hour of what you'd achieve with a taxi.
“The National Passenger Survey figures have just come out for this spring and value for money-wise we've actually improved rather than gone backwards. So, obviously passengers feel that they are getting as good value for money, in fact higher value.”
However, Greenfield said the service is trying to attract more leisure travellers through increased offers, such as the new pricing structure launched last year.
Greenfield said: “We do recognise that there are other parts of the market, the leisure travellers, where we need to compete with other markets... [But] we now have some online offers to make ourselves more accessible to those travellers.”
heathrowexpress.com