RailAir describes a number of

airport bus An airport bus, or airport shuttle bus or airport shuttle is a bus used to transport people to and from, or within airports. These vehicles will usually be equipped with larger luggage space, and incorporate special branding. They are also com ...

and coach services designed to connect the

National Rail National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the ...

network to airports in the United Kingdom. Services are currently concentrated on

Heathrow Airport Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others be ...

, with one other from

Luton Airport London Luton Airport is an international airport located in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, situated east of the town centre, and north of Central London. The airport is owned by London Luton Airport Ltd (LLAL), a company wholly owned by L ...

. 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, although journeys can be made using the bus only. As such, many are operated where the train and bus operator are owned by the same company.

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 British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four (British ra ...

, under the Railair Link brand name. In

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable an ...

National Bus Company subsidiary Luton & District, operated a Railair Link branded shuttle bus between

Luton railway station Luton railway station is located in the town centre of Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The station is about three minutes' walk from The Mall Shopping Centre. It is situated on the Midland Main Line and is operated by Thameslink. History Luto ...

and

, as the Luton Flyer.

Luton Airport Parkway railway station Luton Airport Parkway railway station is on the Midland Main Line in England, serving south Luton and Luton Airport in Bedfordshire. It is situated in Park Town, Luton, and is down the line from London St Pancras between to the south and to ...

has since been built closer to the airport. From 1967, Thames Valley Traction,History of Reading Railair
/ref> (later

Alder Valley Alder Valley was a bus operator in South East England. National Bus Company era Alder Valley was formed when National Bus Company (NBC) subsidiaries Aldershot & District Traction (A&D) and Thames Valley Traction (TV) merged on 1 January ...

), operated a Railair Link coach between Heathrow and

Reading station Reading railway station is a major transport hub in Reading, Berkshire, England. It is on the northern edge of the town centre, near the main retail and commercial areas and the River Thames, from . Reading is the ninth-busiest station in ...

in a yellow striped livery as route X25, and later in National Bus Company coach livery. A Railair Link service was also operated by coach operator Rickards from Heathrow to

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...

Post deregulation

After bus deregulation, the existing Reading and Woking to Heathrow Railair services passed to private companies. Privatised

, 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 with marketing for the onward rail links to South Wales and the West of England. When Beeline passed to

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.First Berkshire, which in 2003 relaunched the service with

Irizar Century The Irizar Century is a coach body manufactured by Irizar on Iveco, MAN, Mercedes-Benz, Scania and Volvo chassis. It has many different bodystyles and are usually identified via the OBRA number on information plate next to the door. The Centur ...

bodied

Scania K114IB The Scania 4-series low floor city bus and coach range was introduced by Scania in 1997 as a successor to the 3-series bus range. The 4-series bus range was first presented in September 1996, when the integral low-floor city bus OmniCity wa ...

coaches. The serviced operates as the FirstGroup branded service Rail Air.com. The Woking to Heathrow service was operated by Speedlink Airport Services in a blue livery. Speedlink was later sold to

National Express National Express Group is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Birmingham, England. It operates bus, coach, train and tram services in the United Kingdom, Ireland (National Express operates Eurolines in conjunction ...

, which operated it in a light blue version of their 2003 livery, in conjunction with

Stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are dra ...

's South West Trains subsidiary, also with branding promoting rail connections to the South West. In 2006

Virgin Trains West Coast Virgin Trains (legal name West Coast Trains Limited) was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Virgin Rail Group, a joint venture between Virgin Group and Stagecoach, which operated the InterCity West Coast franchise fro ...

, which is 49% owned by Stagecoach, introduced Virgin Trains liveried coaches for Railair links to Virgin trains services from Luton and Heathrow airports, as the

Virgin Trains ExpressCoach Virgin Trains ExpressCoach (formerly Virgin CoachLink) was a coach brand in England owned by the Virgin Rail Group. History As part of Virgin Rail Group's winning bid for the InterCity West Coast franchise, it committed to introducing coach ...

services, operated by

Stagecoach East Stagecoach East is the divisional name for the bus operations of the Stagecoach Group in eastern England. History Under the control of the National Bus Company, ''Cambus Ltd.'' was set up when the Eastern Counties Omnibus Company was split in ...

. From 1 June 2008, the Virgin service to Heathrow was withdrawn, with passengers directed to Green Line route 724 as a replacement.

Current services

RailAir is used as a generic term for these services by the public and airline operators, such as

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and passengers ...

at Heathrow,British Airways
Terminal 5 Railair services summary page and as a specific brand name of some of the services. The Reading to Heathrow RailAir bus allows connection from cities such as

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city, Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Glouces ...

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to ...

and

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

to Heathrow Airport without having to change at

London Paddington Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a Central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services provided by the Great We ...

. However, it is possible to change trains at Hayes & Harlington and go by train instead, a change at Reading being also required for this service. With the exception of

London Buses route 285 This is a list of Transport for London (TfL) contracted bus routes in London, England, as well as commercial services that enter the Greater London area (except coaches). Bus services in London are operated by Abellio London, Arriva London, ...

, Railair services are direct express coach services, longer and in contrast to local airport buses from nearby stations and offer through ticketing, as opposed to bus-only ticketed airport hub connected coach networks, such as

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. In July 2019

First Berkshire & The Thames Valley First Beeline Buses, trading as First Berkshire & The Thames Valley, is a bus operator providing services in and around Slough. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup. History In January 1986 Alder Valley North Limited, later renamed, The Berk ...

commenced operating route RA2 from

to Guildford station. In January 2020, this service was diverted to serve Woking station as well as Guildford. First Group
RailAir 2 Extension to Woking

References

{{authority control Coach operators in England Transport in Surrey British Rail Buses serving Heathrow Airport Transport in Berkshire Airport rail links in the United Kingdom 1967 establishments in the United Kingdom Airport bus services

History

National Bus Company era

Post deregulation

Current services

See also

References