Heathrow Terminal 5 is a shared railway and

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent ceremonial counties of England, counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and He ...

station serving

Heathrow Terminal 5 Heathrow Terminal 5 is an airport terminal at Heathrow Airport, the main airport serving London. Opened in 2008, the main building in the complex is the largest free-standing structure in the United Kingdom. Terminal 5 is currently used exclusi ...

. It serves as a terminus for Heathrow Express services to

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Paddi ...

, and for Elizabeth line and London Underground

Piccadilly line The Piccadilly line is a deep-level London Underground line running from the north to the west of London. It has two branches, which split at Acton Town, and serves 53 stations. The line serves Heathrow Airport, and some of its stations are n ...

services to central London. It is managed and staffed by Heathrow Express. The London Underground section of the station is situated in Travelcard Zone 6; it is the westernmost below-ground station on the network. It is also the westernmost National Rail station in London.

History

Following the longest public inquiry ever undertaken in the UK, construction of the station was granted in November 2001 by transport minister Stephen Byers as part of the approval of the

project. Funded by British Airport Authority (BAA), construction of the extension as part of the T5 construction took 6 years. As part of the construction, Heathrow Terminal 4 tube station was closed for 20 months between January 2005 and September 2006 to allow the connecting junctions to be constructed. Train testing started when the extension was handed over to London Underground on 18 July 2007. The station opened on 27 March 2008 coinciding with that of

. It was designed by architects HOK in conjunction with

Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners RSHP is a British architecture firm, architectural firm, founded in 1977 and previously known as the Richard Rogers Partnership which became Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners. in 2007. The firm rebranded from Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners to si ...

. Although situated underground, parts of the station's roofing are made of

translucent In the field of optics, transparency (also called pellucidity or diaphaneity) is the physical property of allowing light to pass through the material without appreciable scattering of light. On a macroscopic scale (one in which the dimensions a ...

ETFE Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) is a fluorine-based plastic. It was designed to have high corrosion resistance and strength over a wide temperature range. ETFE is a polymer and its source-based name is poly(ethene-co-tetrafluoroethene). It i ...

laminate Lamination is the technique/process of manufacturing a material in multiple layers, so that the composite material achieves improved strength, stability, sound insulation, appearance, or other properties from the use of the differing materials ...

panels, allowing natural daylight to flood down both ends of all six platforms. It is the only station at Heathrow Airport where both the Heathrow Express and

services share the same station.

Services

Terminal 5 station is served by the following rail services: *

from platforms 1 and 2: half the trains on the Heathrow branch terminate here, via

Hatton Cross Hatton including Hatton Cross is a small settlement and locality in the London boroughs of Hillingdon and Hounslow, on the south-eastern edge of London Heathrow Airport and straddling the A30 road. Priot to 1965 it was in the county of Middlese ...

and Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3. The other half do not serve Heathrow Terminal 5, running instead via the loop to service Heathrow Terminal 4 and Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3, before returning eastbound. * Heathrow Express terminus to and from Paddington station from platforms 3 and 4. * Elizabeth Line terminus to and from Abbey Wood station from platforms 3 and 4.

Free intra-terminal transfers

Until 2012, free transfer was not possible between terminals via the Underground, unlike on the Heathrow Express. In January 2012, free travel was introduced for

Oyster card The Oyster card is a payment method for public transport in London (and certain areas around it) in England, United Kingdom. A standard Oyster card is a blue credit-card-sized stored-value contactless smart card. It is promoted by Transport ...

and contactless payment card holders between the Heathrow stations on the Piccadilly line. Journeys from Heathrow Terminal 5 to Terminal 4 via the Piccadilly line require a change at Hatton Cross; this journey is free, despite Hatton Cross not being part of the free travel zone.

Future links

From 2022, Heathrow Terminal 5 will be served by services running through the core section of the Elizabeth line, as part of the Crossrail project.The service opened on 24th May 2022, and currently runs along the Elizabeth line route, terminating at Paddington.

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

has put forward a proposal for a

Western Rail Approach to Heathrow The Western Rail Approach to Heathrow is a proposed bi-directional link westward from London's Heathrow Airport to the Great Western Main Line. It would thus run, in council areas, from Greater London under Iver, South Bucks, Buckinghamshire to ...

, a short spur of track in tunnel which would run from a junction east of to Terminal 5 station. This would permit

Great Western Main Line The Great Western Main Line (GWML) is a main line railway in England that runs westwards from London Paddington to . It connects to other main lines such as those from Reading to Penzance and Swindon to Swansea. Opened in 1841, it was the or ...

trains to run directly from and into Heathrow, without the need to change at Paddington. The proposal is currently at consultation stage and remains unconfirmed. In addition to the above rail links, Terminal 5 station also has two safeguarded "heavy rail" platforms for use by a west-facing connection to the National Rail network. The south-leaning proposal would spur off the

Waterloo to Reading Line Waterloo most commonly refers to: * Battle of Waterloo, a battle on 18 June 1815 in which Napoleon met his final defeat * Waterloo, Belgium, where the battle took place. Waterloo may also refer to: Other places Antarctica *King George Island (S ...

west of

Staines railway station Staines railway station is on the Waterloo to Reading line and is the junction station for the diverging Windsor line, in southern England to the west of London. It is down the line from . History The station was opened on 22 August 1848 ...

(originally dubbed

Heathrow Airtrack Heathrow Airtrack was a proposed railway link in the United Kingdom which would link Heathrow Airport in west London to London Waterloo railway station in Central London. The line, as proposed by BAA, would run from across the suburbs of ...

, with a newer proposal named

Heathrow Southern Railway Heathrow Southern Railway is a proposed new railway in the United Kingdom which would link Heathrow Airport to railway lines south of London. The scheme, announced in August 2017, is promoted by Heathrow Southern Railway Limited and would be fin ...

). It proposes direct rail services to

London Waterloo Waterloo station (), also known as London Waterloo, is a central London terminus on the National Rail network in the United Kingdom, in the Waterloo area of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is connected to a London Underground station of ...

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

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 ...

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...

and

Gatwick Airport Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after H ...

. Due to the cost of replacing three level crossings, one in a very urban part of Egham, the proposals are currently unfunded.

Connections

London Buses London Buses is the subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL) that manages most bus services in London, England. It was formed following the Greater London Authority Act 1999 that transferred control of London Regional Transport (LRT) bus se ...

routes

350 __NOTOC__ Year 350 (Roman numerals, CCCL) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sergius and Nigrinianus (or, less frequentl ...

423 __NOTOC__ Year 423 (Roman numerals, CDXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Marinianus and Asclepiodotus (or, less fr ...

482 Year 482 (Roman numerals, CDLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severinus and Illus (or, less frequently, year 123 ...

490 Year 490 ( CDXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Faustus and Longinus (or, less frequently, year 1243 ''Ab urbe condit ...

and night route N9 serve the station.Heathrow Airport Terminal 5
Transport for London

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 Berks B ...

, National Express and Oxford Bus Company also operate connecting bus and coach services.

References

External links

*
Proposed AirTrack Rail Link
{{authority control Piccadilly line stations London Underground Night Tube stations Tube stations in the London Borough of Hillingdon Railway stations in the London Borough of Hillingdon Railway stations opened by Network Rail Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 2008 Railway stations served by Heathrow Express Airport railway stations in the United Kingdom London Underground stations located underground 5 tube station Railway stations located underground in the United Kingdom 2008 establishments in England Railway stations served by the Elizabeth line