Check-in suspended at £4.3bn T5

TheOtherOption

TheOtherOption

TheOtherOption

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From the BBC site ... "All luggage check-in has been suspended at Heathrow's new £4.3bn Terminal 5, after cancelled flights and baggage delays blighted its opening day."

You would think that the big passenger tests they were carrying out over the last year would have found the kind of problems that have occurred :p

The computer cannot cope with the number of bags going through
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The above just seems stupid ... when you consider they were so confident of making the whole check-in/departure and arrival process so easy and painless!

My mate starts work there on the 7th - not as a baggage handler however.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7317352.stm
 
I can think of worse places to get stuck to be fair - the other FAR older terminals would be much less fun.

But yea one does have to laugh at them for this having happened when it did :D
 
TheOtherOption said:
but maybe just leave it at this
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:eek:

That's the problem!

It's been an absolute dump of a place for as long as I can remember. Aberdeen Airport used to be bad, but at least they've improved the place in the past couple of years.

Only place that I've been to that comes remotely close to Heathrow is Madrid.
 
Jokester said:
They should just bulldoze the entire place.
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Quoted for truth, emphasis and anything else you'd care to mention.

When you think of the money that's been sunk into that place.....makes me want to weep with frustration at the idiocy.
 
I'd love to see the poeple moaning about the system invent one of there own, Instal it & then get it running Perfectly from day one.
People really do not realise what a state of the art piece of mechanical engineering these baggage handling systems are. Built by a Genius & when running properly are without doubt epics of mechanical genius.
Give the team time to trim the machinery in & give them some credit for having a seriously tuff job/challenge to overcome.
In Texas (I think) there baggage handling system cost the city summit like 5 mill a day in losses for a year because it wouldn't get up & running properly without throwing bags everywhere, Now that is a Problem. At the moment T5 is only experiencing teething problems & i think the team should be given at least a month to get it up & running perfectly.
I watched the show with the test run opf 12000 bags & every single bag went to the right place. give them time & some credit for there skill as you could Not do what they are doing.

I was lucky enough to wander about under Stansteads system & was Amazed at the baggage handling system they have. I do Love a decent bit of engineering though.
 
malc30 said:
I'd love to see the poeple moaning about the system invent one of there own, Instal it & then get it running Perfectly from day one.
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FAIL.

Whether anyone else can create one or not, does not change the fact that this one is crap and the designers incompetent. Same goes for anything else, the whole "I'd like to see you do better" argument fails.
 
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How can you decide it is crap in One day :p
You clearly have No idea of what it takes to create these machines or get them up & running properly. A tweak here & a tweak there & it'll run sweet for years without anybody even noticing.
 
I've no doubt it is an amazing piece of technology, it's just that when they've had a year to have carried out these kinds of tests it just seems odd that they didn't run into the same problems then.

I'm sure once it's up and running it'll be perfect day in and day out - as said though it won't be instant. I suppose it's the same with any pc - you won't have it setup and doing things the way you want from day 1 (more often than not)
 
Because the biggest test the system has run is 12000 bags. Nothing tests a system like a real life scenario.
 
It is an Amazing bit of kit & has a complete system as back up as well. The best thing about this new system is the open clearance it gives the passengers when it comes to boarding the aircraft, They can literally walk straight through check in & on to the plane, something that has been blocked previously by other baggage handling systems. You have to understand that the Whole of T5 was built Around the baggage handling system, It is the Number one system in the whole terminal. Pure state of the art genius & teething problems have to be accepted.
 
malc30 said:
Because the biggest test the system has run is 12000 bags. Nothing tests a system like a real life scenario.
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They should have tested it with the expected required throughput, however much it is.

Using real-life passengers as guinea pigs like this is shocking. If I handed over a system to a client and it failed on day 1 because it hadn't been fully tested, I would be expected to have to bend over.
 
It seems though that most people who were asked about their thoughts on T5 did like it, even if the flight they were on was an hour and they waited an hour and a half for their baggage!

I will look forward to going there and having a walk about myself one day!

*Actually I might be able to this august as I'm flying to Portugal - can't recall If we're flying with BA though.
 
If it hadn't been tested at full load, then surely they should have just gradually built up the amount of flight from that terminal, so they can see the problem emerging, e.g. run just a couple of flights from there the first day it opens, then a few more the next day and so on.
 
Well i want some of that Business class robot driven funkyness. Scuzi have words for me & get me a test drive :D

@Jokester.
I think they did give it a fair test but as i said previously there really is no other system in the world like it & a real life test was the only true test.
One thing to note is that the departure times are given only because of the new system, with an older type system the departure time would have been later anyway & the whole experience less desirable.
I think this is one of those rare occasions when being at the cutting edge of technology demands a little give & take from the end user.
 
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