A new look Gatwick Airport station is set to open to passengers on Tuesday 21 November, transforming the journey from train to plane and giving passengers travelling between Brighton and London easier, faster, more reliable journeys.
A bigger, better and brighter station with a new second concourse and airport entrance will double the space for the millions of passengers that use the station each year. Eight new escalators and five new lifts will provide a step change for accessibility. The new lifts and escalators, along with four new stairways and widened platforms, will help passengers move between the train station and the airport more quickly and easily. Here Roger Perkins from Govia Thameslink Railway explains how it will improve the passenger experience
A bigger, better and brighter station with a new second concourse and airport entrance will double the space for the millions of passengers that use the station each year. Eight new escalators and five new lifts will provide a step change for accessibility. The new lifts and escalators, along with four new stairways and widened platforms, will help passengers move between the train station and the airport more quickly and easily. Here Roger Perkins from Govia Thameslink Railway explains how it will improve the passenger experience
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00:00 - Absolutely, passengers with GoVitamin Railways,
00:03 so that's our Tenlink, Southern, and Gatwick Express,
00:06 are gonna just find a fabulous new station on the 23rd.
00:10 And that's because, well, up until now,
00:13 the platforms have been really quite congested,
00:15 and we've had one concourse,
00:16 and we've had a limited number of lifts and escalators,
00:19 so it's been quite cramped and difficult
00:20 for people to get on and off the trains.
00:23 So that's had two outcomes, really.
00:25 It's meant that if you're a passenger with us,
00:26 it's not been the best experience.
00:29 If you're a foreign visitor arriving in the country,
00:31 again, not the best of introductions.
00:34 And if you're a commuter or another traveller
00:35 passing through the station on one of our trains,
00:38 likelihood is you're gonna be held up
00:40 by people trying to get on and off those platforms
00:43 with their big wheelie bags, et cetera.
00:45 So this is really gonna transform people's experience,
00:49 we hope.
00:50 I mean, what's gonna happen is
00:51 they'll arrive here on the 21st,
00:53 and then they'll go up some escalators,
00:56 nice, lovely new escalators, or brand new concourse,
00:58 dedicated for people arriving at the railway station.
01:01 And then if they're leaving the plane in the other direction,
01:04 they go through the recently refurbished,
01:07 former existing concourse.
01:09 So it just separates the two flows out,
01:12 it's smarter, it's brighter, literally,
01:14 it's got LED lights and everything,
01:16 and it's just better.
01:17 Yeah, it's really good.
01:18 - So that's a lot of it's been about
01:20 the passenger experience, hasn't it?
01:21 - Oh yes, completely.
01:22 And so we've been working closely with,
01:25 so Network Rail delivered this,
01:26 it's been funded by DFT, Coastal Capital,
01:29 the whole 12, Gatwick Airport too.
01:34 I mean, what we're trying to do
01:35 with all of our industry partners
01:37 is encourage more people to use the train
01:40 to come to the airport, it's a sustainable choice.
01:43 Electric train, V3, is the form of public transit going.
01:46 We want more people to use them to come here to Gatwick.
01:50 And why Gatwick?
01:51 Because Gatwick supports the region of the continent,
01:54 it's the single biggest driver of economic growth
01:57 in the southern region.
01:58 The number of overnight stays that it generates
02:02 on the South Coast, based on Brighton,
02:05 there is a stat somewhere that I can't tell you,
02:07 but it's not in my head, but it's a large number,
02:09 and we're talking billions in terms of the actual injection
02:12 of money effectively, and jobs as well.
02:16 So many jobs are generated by Gatwick.
02:18 So it's really, really important.
02:20 But for us, it's ultimately,
02:21 it's always about the passenger.
02:22 We want passengers to have a better journey,
02:25 a fabulous time, and really, fabulous time?
02:28 Yeah, I think so.
02:29 I think when they get on the 21st,
02:30 they'll be really impressed.
02:31 - Yeah, and obviously, Gatwick,
02:32 they're going through their consultation
02:34 at the moment for the extra runway.
02:35 We're gonna get more and more passengers here
02:37 in the future, so this project is sort of
02:39 laying the basis and foundation for that.
02:41 - Well, certainly, the station itself
02:43 will be able to accommodate many more people
02:45 in the years ahead, including those coming
02:48 to use that extra runway, if that were to go ahead.