LHR Test #2: From Gateside to Curbside

My first Gateside to Curbside test at London Heathrow took place at an unusually favorable time. The aircraft landed at 5:15 in the morning, Terminal 2 was quiet, the UK Border hall was almost empty, and I went from stepping off the aircraft to public arrivals with a checked suitcase in 21 minutes.

That was a useful data point, but clearly just one data point. The following month, I arrived at the same terminal under very different conditions. This time I was flying United from Newark, arriving in the evening rather than before dawn. I had flown economy, had two checked bags to collect, and walked into a UK Border hall that looked considerably busier than the one from my previous test.

So I did it again. As with the first Heathrow test, I kept recording the journey after reaching public arrivals to see how long it actually took to reach central London.

The methodology was unchanged from my earlier Gateside to Curbside tests. The clock starts when I step off the aircraft and stops when I reach the public arrivals area after immigration, baggage reclaim and customs. I walk at my normal pace, don’t overtake people simply to improve the result, and slow down to take photographs as I naturally would. I was traveling with checked luggage.

For Heathrow, I also continued recording the journey to the Elizabeth line and Paddington. Those times aren’t part of the Gateside to Curbside result, but they provide a more complete picture of how long the arrival actually took.

Gateside to Curbside: 24 minutes.

United flight UA122 from Newark touched down at Heathrow at 8:45 pm. That’s not when the Gateside to Curbside clock starts: landing at Heathrow and actually leaving the aircraft are two separate events, and on this arrival 17 minutes passed between the wheels touching the runway and me stepping off the aircraft.

At 9:02 pm, I entered the jet bridge and started the clock.

Terminal 2 can involve a substantial walk from an arriving aircraft to the UK Border, depending on where your flight parks. This one involved the familiar combination of corridors, escalators and moving walkways.

Unlike my early-morning Heathrow test, there were passengers around me for much of the walk. It wasn’t difficult to maintain a normal pace, but this certainly wasn’t an empty terminal.

Nine minutes after stepping off the aircraft, I reached the signs directing arriving passengers towards the appropriate immigration lanes. The UK Border hall came into view a minute later.

The contrast with my previous Heathrow arrival was immediately apparent. The immigration hall was busy, with large numbers of passengers concentrated around the various queues.

From the approach, it looked as though immigration might materially change the result of the test. But the overall crowd wasn’t representative of the queue I actually needed to use. At 9:13 pm, the eGate lanes ahead of me were considerably less congested than the wider hall suggested. I was soon at eGates 13–15 with only one passenger immediately ahead of me.

At 9:14 pm, I was through immigration. From the first photograph of the busy UK Border hall to being on the other side took two minutes. A crowded immigration hall doesn’t necessarily translate into a long immigration wait for every passenger. On this particular evening, the lanes relevant to me were moving quickly.

A minute after clearing immigration, I reached baggage reclaim. UA122 was assigned to Belt 4, where the display was already showing “Bags arriving.” Luggage began appearing shortly afterwards.

I had two checked bags this time. My first appeared at around 9:21 pm. The second took a little longer, although that wasn’t entirely a baggage-delivery issue.

Someone had apparently removed it from the carousel on the opposite side. I spent a few extra minutes waiting for a suitcase that had, in fact, already arrived. That probably added somewhere between one and three minutes compared with the natural course of the baggage collection. Once I’d found it, I headed for customs.

At 9:25 pm, I was passing through the green Nothing to Declare channel. There was no meaningful customs delay, and at 9:26 pm I was standing in Terminal 2’s public arrivals hall with both checked bags.

That stops the clock. Gateside to Curbside: 24 minutes.

The result was faster than the scene at immigration had suggested. This was a busy evening arrival, I’d flown economy and I had two checked bags, yet 24 minutes after stepping off the aircraft I was landside with my luggage.

From touchdown to public arrivals took 41 minutes. That’s useful additional context, although touchdown isn’t the starting point for the Gateside to Curbside measurement. For the formal test, the journey ends here. My journey home continued, and this was where the most significant delay of the evening occurred.

Just two minutes after reaching public arrivals, I was at the lifts for the Elizabeth line and Heathrow Express. Progress then slowed considerably. The escalators weren’t working, pushing more passengers towards elevators that couldn’t absorb the volume particularly quickly.

I waited through several lift cycles before finally getting downstairs and reaching the Elizabeth line turnstiles.

The comparison between the two parts of the journey is striking. It took 24 minutes to get from the aircraft door, through immigration, collect two checked bags, clear customs and reach public arrivals. It then took another 19 minutes to get from public arrivals to the rail platform.

I wouldn’t treat that as a normal Terminal 2-to-Elizabeth-line transfer time. The broken escalators and resulting elevator congestion were specific to the conditions that evening. But they happened, and the purpose of these tests is to record the journey as it occurred rather than construct an optimized version afterwards.

I finally reached the rail platform at 9:45 pm. There was a Heathrow Express train ready to depart at 9:46 pm, but I waited a few minutes for the Elizabeth line. At 9:50 pm, I was seated on an Elizabeth line train for Abbey Wood via Canary Wharf.

From public arrivals at 9:26 pm to boarding the Elizabeth line at 9:50 pm had taken 24 minutes. Most of that wasn’t waiting for a train; it was getting to the platform. Once aboard, the journey into London was much more predictable.

At 10:19 pm, I was at Paddington, making my way up from the deep Elizabeth line platforms. At 10:20 pm, I reached the main concourse.

That gives us two additional measurements. From stepping off the aircraft at 9:02 pm to Paddington’s main concourse took 1 hour 18 minutes. From the 8:45 pm touchdown to Paddington took 1 hour 35 minutes.

Those numbers aren’t part of the Gateside to Curbside measurement, but they show why the journey beyond public arrivals is worth recording. Heathrow itself processed this arrival quickly. Getting from the arrivals hall to the railway was much less efficient on this particular evening.

The airport arrival itself was remarkably quick.

There were two unusual circumstances worth preserving rather than adjusting away. My second suitcase had already been removed from the baggage carousel by another passenger, and waiting for it before realizing what had happened probably added one to three minutes.

The rail transfer went the other way. Out-of-service escalators and the resulting congestion at the elevators added a substantial delay getting from Terminal 2 down to the railway. Neither event should be stripped from the observed result. They are part of what happened on this particular arrival.

After looking at this arrival on its own, the comparison with my first Heathrow test becomes useful. Test #1 was an early-morning arrival. The aircraft touched down at 5:15 am and I stepped off at 5:33 am. Heathrow was exceptionally quiet, the UK Border hall was almost empty, I had one checked bag, and there was no meaningful congestion getting to the railway.

That Gateside to Curbside journey took 21 minutes. Test #2 took 24 minutes.

The most interesting comparison isn’t the 17-minute difference in the journey from the aircraft door to Paddington. It’s where those extra minutes occurred.

Despite arriving at a much busier Terminal 2, encountering a crowded UK Border hall and collecting two checked bags, the Gateside to Curbside process itself took only three minutes longer. The substantial difference came after I was already landside. On Test #1, public arrivals to an Elizabeth line seat took 11 minutes. On Test #2, it took 24 minutes, with the broken escalators and congested elevators accounting for much of the difference.

Two observations aren’t enough to establish a typical Heathrow arrival time, and that’s not what this series is trying to do. They do, however, give us two documented examples under very different conditions.

If I’d taken one photograph of this Heathrow arrival and stopped, the obvious choice would have been the crowded immigration hall. It would also have given a misleading impression of where the time went. The UK Border hall looked busy, but I was through it in two minutes.

Baggage reclaim took longer, with a small additional delay when somebody removed my second suitcase from the carousel. After the Gateside to Curbside test was already over, the broken escalators and elevator congestion produced the most significant delay of the evening.

That’s why these are observations rather than estimates of how long Heathrow will always take. LHR Test #1 produced a Gateside to Curbside time of 21 minutes. LHR Test #2, under very different conditions, took 24 minutes.

The results so far are surprisingly similar. The journey beyond public arrivals was anything but.

LHR: From Gateside to Curbside

SIN: From Gateside to Curbside

MEL: From Gateside to Curbside

NAN: From Gateside to Curbside