+ Gatwick Station - Now a pleasant surprise

Gatwick railway station’s second concourse has finally opened, doubling the space available to the millions of passengers who use the station each year. 

Readers are reminded that the fastest train from Victoria, the Gatwick Express non-stop, takes 29 minutes, whilst the quickest Thameslink alternative at London Bridge makes two stops and takes the same time.  Some trains go via Blackfriars to City Thameslink (St Paul’s) and Farringdon, plus stations north of St Pancras.

The huge rebuilding, at a cost of £249m, offers a second concourse and airport entrance, doubling the space available.  New are eight escalators, five new lifts, four stairways and widened platforms.

The new concourse now acts as the entrance for people accessing the airport terminal, while the existing concourse is for people exiting. 

The station footbridges and the South Terminal linkspan have been refurbished and reconfigured to provide a seamless one-way system to the airport from the train station.

Besides the main London stations, Gatwick rail provides services to as far afield as Reading (Great Western), with connections to the west and southbound to Brighton (which will be quicker) and a whole variety of stations in the South including Bognor Regis, Crawley, Eastbourne, Portsmouth and Southampton.

www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/gatwick-airport

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READERS' COMMENT

All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 200 words maximum

Malcolm Ginsberg, London

A helicopter link was operated by British Caledonian Airways from June 1978 until February 1986. Called AIRLINK 60,000 passengers annually were using the up to 10 flights each way daily when it finally ceased with the claim that the newly completed M25 would speed up road connections between the airports. Helicopter noise and politics killed it off, but with less intrusive machines now available maybe it is time to look again?

Jonas Smith, United Kingdom

I used the completed Gatwick Station improvements and was impressed. I come from North London and London Bridge is the easy way to the airport, and the walking no worse than Victoria.

Michael carrivick, United Kingdom

Railway connectivity has always been a strength of gatwick, to the point of too many passengers. Well dome to all parties for this huge improvement. It now needs some of the train operators, eg GWR via Reading to recognise the amount of services cancelled, the lack of capacity created by 2-3 coach trains, and the obvious lack of luggage space that is provided. That really would create the incentive to leave the car behind.

Barry Graham, United States

Will there ever be a Heathrow Gatwick link.