[hakfoo]

And tourists with rail passes that cover it. When I visited the UK in 2019, I splashed out over $300 for an 8-day pass, because I wanted to be able to treat the entire national system as my personal hop-on-hop-off service. I will definitely recommend that aspect.

The Heathrow Express was one of the worst legs of the system; having just regurgitated my airline breakfast, I was delighted to be sitting in a coach with no air conditioning in August.

I agree that the alternatives are woefully underdocumented. I recall the choice being framed as "well, you can go to the taxi stand, spend 75GBP to go the whole way to the hotel, or use the rail option and spend 20GBP on a taxi from Paddington.

In retrospect, what I should have done is taken the Underground from near Paddington to where I was staying (100 metres from Euston, so I think it involves about 8 train changes within 75m) and saved the difference.