Have you walked the tunnel between Heathrow T5, T5B and T5C?

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A reader reminded me this week that we haven’t talked about the ‘secret’ tunnel between the three parts of Heathrow Terminal 5 for a long time – four years to be precise.

This is a good time to mention it again, because British Airways has recently re-opened the Galleries lounge in Terminal 5B. Open between Thursdays and Mondays inclusive, it is easily the quietest of the BA lounges at Heathrow Terminal 5. Our last review of the British Airways lounge in Heathrow’s Terminal 5B satellite is here.

When travelling between the main building in Terminal 5 and Terminal 5B or 5C, you are likely to take the train. You may also find yourself taking the train from 5B to 5C if you have a 5C departure and are using the Galleries Terminal 5B lounge.

You don’t need to take the train, however.

If you press the bottom button in the lift in 5A, 5B or 5C then you go below the level of the transit train and into this tunnel. It has travelators so the walk is surprisingly quick.

The photo above is from 2017 and shows my gang. The photos below were sent by a reader this week.

and

and (someone has clearly decided to liven up the walls to make the tunnel less intimidating!):

It can often be just as fast to walk, since you are not waiting around for the train. When the train does arrive, it takes a minute or two for passengers to unload first anyway. By the time it is ready to board you can be halfway down the tunnel and well on your way to the lounge.

As the coments pointed out, using the tunnel is also the ONLY way to get from Terminal 5B to Terminal 5 to take a flight. You might do this if you decide to use the quieter lounge in 5B. Taking the train from T5B to the main building drops you at immigration and you cannot get back to the departure gates.

The tunnel is also a good way to stretch your legs before sitting for many hours on a long haul flight. Give it a go and see what you think.

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This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Charlie T. says:

24 Oct24 October 07:36

LOL – had been on the “list” for me for a while but ticked it off when I essentially got kettled here on the evening of Sept 3rd with my family after passport control couldn’t handle volume of PAX.
Publius says:

24 Oct24 October 07:54

Another hint (I think given out here years ago) is always take the lift even if using the people mover. The esculators take forever!
- MarkZ says:
  
  24 Oct24 October 08:14
  
  Agreed! And I always have a knowing smile on my face when everyone else leaves the lift at the transit level and they are wondering why I am staying behind!
  - Save East Coast Rewards says:
    
    24 Oct24 October 08:47
    
    Or better when I got into the lift first and nobody else bothered to press the transit level button and so when the doors opened everyone got out but some were confused I heard one person saying “when did they get rid of that train”
    
    I remember the days before the travelators were added and the walls were totally grey. The area used to be publicly accessible but discouraged (no signage) so were only ever directed to it in the event of a transit failure.
    
    I had discovered it back before the terminal opened when they were running terminal trials with volunteers. It truly felt like a secret for the many years when it was not signposted. They then added the travelators and better signage but it still feels like a secret most of the time.
    
    The article misses out one thing. If you choose to use the 5B lounge and your flight is departing from the A gates then you have to use these tunnels. The train is not an option to get back to the A gates. This is because it is separated into a departures and arrivals stream. When you’re in the departures stream the train goes A-B-C if you think you can go to C and wait for the train to go back you’d be wrong as it then enters the arrivals stream and dumps you at immigration/flight connections whereas with the tunnel you just go down and walk the opposite way.
    
    There are two tunnels, so when you arrive you enter the arrivals stream, in that tunnel the travelators move towards A gates.
    - Memesweeper says:
      
      24 Oct24 October 09:43
      
      ^^^^
      
      This! Do not get the transit back unless you need to fly from T5!
    - Lyn says:
      
      24 Oct24 October 12:00
      
      You make a very good point, SECR, about having to use the tunnel to get back to Terminal A for a flight after using the quieter Galleries lounge in Terminal B.
      
      Agree this is important enough that it should be added to Rob’s main article.
Pandora says:

24 Oct24 October 08:01

We walked it from C back to A recently after we were sent to the wrong departure gate. No travelators in that direction and if we’d taken the shuttle train it would have put us in arrivals and we’d have had to come back through security again. It took about 15-20 minutes so probably about a mile. We didn’t see another soul.
Matt says:

24 Oct24 October 08:28

The other use of the tunnels is that it allows you to go to the B lounge and then get back to A gates for your flight – if you take the train from there you’ll end up in arrivals.
- IanMacK says:
  
  24 Oct24 October 08:34
  
  Agreed
  From memory, several years back one of my flights out of T5B was seriously delayed (3-4 hours) and the tunnel allowed me to walk back to T5A Concorde Lounge via the T5A concourse.
- Bluekjp says:
  
  24 Oct24 October 08:35
  
  You won’t end up in arrivals because the train doors won’t open on that side of the train when it stops when it is heading to arrivals. Departing and arriving passengers can’t mix at Heathrow. There are dual tunnels. One for departing passengers and another for arriving passengers.
  - Save East Coast Rewards says:
    
    24 Oct24 October 08:52
    
    You can take the train to C, wait on it and then let it return on the arrivals track. This is not what you want when departing from the A gates but I’ve heard some people use this method to self-offload if they’ve missed their flight or have decided not to travel for some reason
  - Matt says:
    
    24 Oct24 October 09:39
    
    There are dual tunnels, but the trains are set up to take departing passengers from A to B to C, and arriving passengers in reverse. That’s why the tunnels are useful if you want to go to B lounge
  - Tom says:
    
    24 Oct24 October 10:24
    
    Trust me it’s possible it happened to me a few years ago. All my duty free alcohol got confiscated when I had to go through security again. I can’t remember exactly what happened but clearly remember the guy saying I was “dirty” due to mixing with arrivals
    - Alex M says:
      
      24 Oct24 October 11:25
      
      I thought it happened only to me! Except I was able to salvage my bottle of whisky since it was in a sealed duty free bag.
ChrisM says:

24 Oct24 October 08:53

Yup, we have walked the tunnel a few times, but only on our way to C gates, never back. We like it that people say hi to you when walking past. They are usually airport & airline employees.
Peggerz says:

24 Oct24 October 08:59

I was in the tunnel last Sunday. Travellators not working. But it’s a short walk from T5B to T5A after a relaxing stop at the BA lounge, which was practically empty and the staff are friendly and attentive.
- Rich says:
  
  24 Oct24 October 09:39
  
  You do know they are motion sensitive?
  - Peggerz says:
    
    24 Oct24 October 15:15
    
    Indeed.
Harry T says:

24 Oct24 October 09:01

Yes.
Justin says:

24 Oct24 October 09:09

When I landed at T5C three Sundays ago the train wasn’t allowing arrivals to board so all passengers had to walk the tunnel. I suspect this was to prevent too many people arriving at immigration at the same time as we’d already been kept on the plane for half an hour after landing due to there being too many people in arrivals. When we finally got to passport control we were able to walk straight up to an e-gate…