Save Gatwick Express

January 19th 2005

Passengers and local leaders have joined rail staff in calling for the retention of the Gatwick Express.

Alarmed aviation officials at Gatwick have even launched a campaign to save the service - go to SaveGatwickExpress.com web site. Gatwick Airport is urging supporters to get in touch and has made its own detailed submission to the SRA refuting arguments for the withdrawal of the fast rail link.

The SRA has proposed dropping the airport-dedicated aspect of the Gatwick Express service in its ‘Brighton Main Line Route Utilisation Strategy.’ Paul Griffiths, BAA Gatwick’s managing director said: “ The SRA’s proposals would be disastrous for air passengers and commuters. They would destroy the Gatwick Express and take us back to the 20th century.”

The London Transport User Committee is reportedly furious at the implications of overcrowding on services from Gatwick. Says Brian Cooke, Chair, LTUC, ‘A number of proposals in this strategy are badly thought through and would be detrimental to passengers. Withdrawing dedicated Gatwick trains would create unacceptable conditions for both airport travellers, and commuters and other passengers on the coastal services, with luggage obstructing seats, aisles and doorways.’

The SRA is trying to provide more seats for suits in the morning and evening peaks. However, the Gatwick Express is at its busiest between 06.00 and 10.00 every morning with the arrival of American flights overnight from the USA.
Gatwick Express trains, which wait in the platforms, are very highly used in the mornings. That international passengers might be forced to pile onto already overcrowded commuter trains, coming up from the coast, has been viewed with some alarm by airlines and airport authorities alike.

Says Neil Atkins, a former Commercial Director of Gatwick Express and now Commercial Director Fraser Eagle, ‘It is deeply disappointing to see an example of best practice squandered in this way. Gatwick Express has an international reputation as a fast, direct rail link service. There’s always a train waiting in the station.’

‘This helps safety - no waiting about on crowded platforms. Many of our passengers do not speak English and find rail travel bewildering. It is easy to direct them to Gatwick Express - which runs non-stop to Victoria. Commuters and Airline passengers are very different markets with widely different needs.’

Gatwick Express was the only train company to require zero subsidy at privatisation. The LTUC is also very concerned at the plan to stop the hourly Watford to Brighton service at Clapham Junction.

Says Brian Cooke, ‘Our research shows that the SRA had underestimated the use of this service, and quite apart from that, the platform and access facilities at Clapham Junction are very poor. It is imperative that the number of passengers compelled to use this interchange is kept at a minimum.’

‘If SRA staff would get out of the office, and walk the few yards up Victoria St. to Victoria station, they might realise how daft some of the proposals are. The murder of the Gatwick Express is based on poor, badly, validated information.’

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