Gatwick Express – What’s The Point Now?
The Gatwick Express is a non-stop service running between London Victoria and Gatwick Airport stations. These days it runs every 15 minutes off-peak taking 30 minutes to complete the journey from the capital to the terminal. When the service started it was quite successful, offering passengers a frequent and fast journey to the airport in specially adapted rolling stock. But in my opinion, Gatwick Express is no longer the success story it used to be.
The first thing I think went wrong was when the Department for Transport chose to incorporate Gatwick Express into the south central franchise, instead of keeping it with National Express. Southern, who currently hold the south central franchise, already operate all other rail services from London Victoria to Gatwick and therefore this decision removed the need for competition between these two services. In my opinion, healthy competition would’ve led to improvements or offers within Gatwick Express to make it a good alternative to Southern’s services.
The next point I would like to raise is about the journey time between the two stations. Gatwick Express were recently asked to take down an advertising campaign as members of the public noticed it was incorrect. It claimed that Gatwick Express was “the fastest way from the capital to Gatwick Airport” when in fact First Capital Connect, who operate services from London Bridge, are two minutes faster, completing the trip in 28 minutes. Also, the Gatwick Express journey time isn’t much different to the normal Southern one. One example would be the 47 minutes past the hour train from London Victoria to Ore and Littlehampton. This train makes the trip from London to Gatwick in 31 minutes. Yes, that’s just 1 minute difference, and its a similar story with Southern’s other mainline services. Whilst Gatwick Express don’t charge any extra for their services (you only need an “Any Permitted” ticket to use them), wouldn’t it be worth saving money with a “Southern Trains Only” ticket considering the journey time is almost the same?
The next decision I feel let the Gatwick Express service down was about their rolling stock. After replacing class 73s and coaching stock with class 460 EMUs in 2000, customers were greeted with trains designed especially for airport use with wide doorways, level platform access, comfortable seating, and plenty of luggage space inside including a dedicated luggage compartment at one end of the train. Unfortunately, its now rare to see these trains, as after another Department for Transport decision the class 460s are being transferred to work on South West Trains services and being replaced by class 442 ‘Wessex Electric’ units which used to work Weymouth services. These are not suitable for an express airport service. Their single doors with steps are difficult to negotiate with heavy luggage, and despite a recent refurbishment there’s still nowhere near as much luggage storage space available inside. The introduction of these trains also saw most services downgraded from 8 coaches to 5. Whilst I apreciate that sending the class 460s to South West Trains does benefit their passengers, I think its a real shame that Gatwick Express has lost such fit for purpose traction.
After all these changes were made to the service, there wasn’t much else going for Gatwick Express other than the fact you could purchase your ticket on board the train. This meant you saved time queueing at the station, and meant you could start your journey and wait for a member of staff to come through the train. Unfortunately this obviously caused problems with fare evasion, and now this isn’t possible. Gatwick Express have installed ticket gates at both Gatwick Airport and London Victoria stations, so you must purchase your ticket before boarding. In my opinion, this was the last good feature of Gatwick Express, and now I honestly don’t see the point in using them other than the fact the trains are sometimes a bit quieter.
So if you’re travelling between Gatwick and London by rail, have a think. There may well be better, more affordable alternatives available to you. Personally, I would like to see Gatwick Express merged into normal Southern services. They could continue to run as an express service, but with the same fares as the normal ones. This would help to relieve some of the crowds on mainline trains from London to the south coast.
Photograph: Matthew Baxter.
I certainly see your points as very valid, common sense indeed dictates that the Gatwick Express has over the years become somewhat ‘pointless’ in terms of operation, but, the public don’t think, or even care, about these operational dimensions. The public see the brand, and this is what attracts them find out about and (hopefully) use the train. In this case, competition isn’t the key to success in terms of TOC Vs TOC, its TOC Vs Car! Without this strong brand name and direct benefits to using the service, many users won’t even consider using the train to get to Gatwick. Of course regular rail users will know that their train serves Gatwick and are therefore likely to use it. But its the people who are trying to find the ‘smart’ way of avoiding the astronomical parking fees at airports that then proceed to easily access different ways of getting to Gatwick, and therefore the Gatwick Express brand is key to success for the rail industry as a whole.
I see you point Chris, somehow I don’t think I can see the Gatwick Express being continued in the near future.
Excellent piece, Chris. Very well written. One of the first nails in the Gatwick Express coffin was the closure of the airline check-in desks upstairs at Victoria. These allowed British Airways and American Airlines passengers to check-in at Victoria and not have to worry about their luggage again until they arrived at their destination airport. The bags were loaded into the dedicated luggage van and then taken to the aircraft by way of the barrow crossing at the London end of platform 1 at Gatwick. What a contrast to today’s struggle with ticket barriers, narrow train doors and steps. I’m not sure when the check-in desks closed, or why.
@Laurence M: Thanks for commenting. Yes, I see exactly what you mean about the brand. Plus, when people are seeking alternative ways of reaching Gatwick without using their car, Gatwick Express is possibly one of the first brands they see and one they can instantly understand and desire.
@Luke Spencer: In a strange way, I can see the service carrying on despite its changes. Like Laurence says in his comment, passengers look towards the brand of Gatwick Express rather than the service they offer compared to the normal Southern one’s. So even though regular commuters can see the differences people will continue to use Gatwick Express, at least for the time being.
@Fig: That’s an interesting point you make, I wasn’t even aware they had check in desks or that they used the barrow crossing, even though I’ve seen said crossing every time I’ve travelled into London. Thank you for sharing that with everyone.