- RailAir
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RailAir, Railair or Rail Air describes a number of airport bus and coach services designed to connect the National Rail network to airports in the United Kingdom. Services are currently concentrated on London Heathrow Airport, with one other from London Luton Airport. Railair services are operated as public transport services by or on behalf of train operators, where the whole journey is paid for as a through ticket which combines the railway and bus journey[1][2], although journeys can be made using the bus only[1]. As such, many are operated where the train and bus operator are owned by the same company.
Contents
History
National Bus Company era
Railair services originated as a partnership between the nationalised bus operator, the National Bus Company, and the nationalised rail operator, British Rail, under the Railair Link brand name.
In Luton, the NBC subsidiary Luton and District operated a Railair Link branded shuttle bus between Luton railway station and Luton Airport, as the Luton Flyer[3]. Luton Airport Parkway railway station has since been built closer to the airport.
From 1967, Thames Valley Traction[4], (later Alder Valley[5]), operated a Railair Link coach between Heathrow and Reading[6] in a yellow striped livery as the X25[7], and later in the NBC coach livery[4]. A Railair Link service was also operated by coach operator Rickards from Heathrow to Woking[8].
Post deregulation
A model of a coach on the Woking RailAir service. After deregulation, the service passed to Speedlink.
After bus deregulation, the existing Reading and Woking to Heathrow Railair services passed to private companies.
Privatised Alder Valley, as the Bee Line bus company, owned by Q-drive, operated the Heathrow to Reading Railair service in bottle green liveried coaches as the Rail Air service[9][10] with marketing for the onward rail links to South Wales and the West of England. When Beeline passed to First Group, the Railair service was operated ultimately by First Berkshire, which in 2003 relaunched the service with Scania Irizar coaches[11]. The serviced operates as the First Group branded service Rail Air.com[12].
The Woking to Heathrow service was operated by Speedlink Airport Services in a blue livery[13]. This later passed to National Express, which operated it in a light blue version of their 2003 ‘smile’ livery[14][15], in conjunction with Stagecoach group’s South West Trains subsidiary[16], also with branding promoting rail connections to the South West[17].
In 2006[18] privatised rail operator Virgin Trains, which is 49% owned by Stagecoach Group, introduced Virgin Trains liveried coaches for Railair links to Virgin trains services from Luton and Heathrow airports,[19] as the Virgin ExpressCoach services, operated by Stagecoach bus subsidiary Stagecoach East. From June 1 2008, the Virgin service to Heathrow was withdrawn, with passengers directed to Green Line route 724 as a replacement.[20][21]
Current Services
Railair is used as a generic term for these services by the public and airline operators, such as British Airways at Heathrow[1], and as a specific brand name of some of the services. Typically, these allow connection from London airports to the north and west of the UK via the rail network, without transferring to central London rail terminals.
With the exception of London Buses route 285, Railair services are direct express coach services, longer and in contrast to local airport buses from nearby stations, and offering through ticketing as opposed to bus only ticketed airport hub connected coach networks, such as National Express Airport branded services.
In 2008 National Express dropped the smile livery for a group wide re-branding, thus more normally National Express are running the route.
Brand Number Airport Train Station Rail operator Bus operator Feltham Railair 285 Heathrow Feltham South West Trains Transdev for London Buses Rail Air.com X25 Heathrow Reading First Great Western First Berkshire & The Thames Valley train2plane Luton Luton Airport Parkway First Capital Connect First Capital Connect, a ftr route Virgin ExpressCoach VT99/VT98 Luton Milton Keynes Central Virgin Trains Stagecoach East Woking Railair 701 Heathrow Woking South West Trains National Express Coaches 80 Dyce Airlink 80 Aberdeen Dyce First ScotRail First Aberdeen See also
External links
References
- ^ a b c British Airways Terminal 5 Railair services summary page
- ^ South West Trains Airport links page giving details of through ticketing
- ^ Image of a Luton and District Railair Link bus
- ^ a b History of Readin Railair
- ^ Image of a nationalised Heathrow to Reading Alder Valley Railair Link coach
- ^ Image of a nationalised Heathrow to Reading Railair Link coach
- ^ Image of the Alder Valley X25
- ^ Image of a Reading and Woking Railair Link coaches
- ^ Image of Bee Line Rail Air coach
- ^ Images of Bee Line Rail Air coaches
- ^ First Railair About Us page
- ^ Image of the RailAir.com First branding on a coach
- ^ Image of the Speedlink Woking Railair coach livery
- ^ Image of a National Express ‘smile’ liveried Woking to Heathrow Railair coach, service 701
- ^ Image of 701 Railair service
- ^ Railair Woking service timetable with South West Trains and National Express branding
- ^ Image of a ‘smile’ liveried National Express Woking Railair coach with south west rail promotion
- ^ Rail Britain News Virgin ExpressCoach launch
- ^ Virgin Trains liveried Stagecoach coach
- ^ Oxford Chiltern bus page - Friday 20th June 2008 Accessed 18 August 2008.
- ^ Virgin ExpressCoach hompeage
Bus transport in the United Kingdom General Articulated buses · Buses in London · Coach services · History · Guided buses and Bus Rapid Transit · Open top buses · Park and ride · Preservation · RoutemasterBy country Private operators Major groupsArriva · ComfortDelGro · FirstGroup · Go-Ahead Group · National Express · RATP · Stagecoach · Transdev · VeoliaBy countryEngland (East England · East Midlands · Greater London · North East · North West · South East · South West · West Midlands · Yorkshire) · Scotland · WalesPublic operators Public authorities Manufacturers Categories:- Coach operators in England
- Transport in Surrey
- British Rail
- London Heathrow Airport
- Companies established in 1967
- Transport in Berkshire
- Airport rail links in the United Kingdom
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