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POINTS AND A FINE: London taxi drivers warned NOT to use M4 Spur bus lane into Heathrow Airport Terminals 2 and 3
- Perry Richardson
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
London cabbies are being urged to observe the bus lane restrictions on the approach to Heathrow Airport’s Terminals 2 and 3 following reports that police officers have been carrying out enforcement in the area.
A taxi driver posting on social media said they had witnessed a cab being stopped after using the bus lane on the M4 Spur towards Heathrow. The driver reported seeing two police officers at the location and later warned colleagues that enforcement was taking place.
The road concerned is the M4 Spur Road serving Heathrow rather than the main M4 motorway. Responding to the warning, the London Cab Ranks Committee said: “3 points and £100 fine for using bus lane on Spur Road it is regularly enforced.”
The warning is particularly relevant to London black cab drivers as taxis are permitted to use many of the designated bus lanes across the capital. However, those permissions are not universal and drivers remain responsible for checking the signs applying to each individual stretch of road.
The driver who reported the enforcement said passengers had previously questioned why their taxi was not using the Heathrow bus lane. They added that seeing other cabbies use the lane could give passengers the impression that taxis are permitted to enter it.
Another cabbie said drivers using the restricted lane “make the rest of us look bad when we don’t use it”, highlighting the potential for confusion among passengers when different taxis take different routes on the same airport approach.
The reports will be of interest to most drivers who regularly drop-off passengers at Heathrow Airport, where journey times and congestion can have a significant effect on the final fare if stuck in traffic on the spur.
