Gatwick Airport

The then new Gatwick Airport station comprised six platform faces arranged in the form of three islands, all capable of accommodating twelve-car trains. The Railway Magazine remarks that the old platforms of the previous Racecourse station were raised in height by 1-foot as part of the rebuilding works. Additionally, the western-most platform was extra long to accommodate lengthy racecourse trains; this was shortened during rebuilding and converted into an island comprising platform face Nos. 1 and 2. Upon the northern parts of platform Nos. 1 and 2 was a staff block, within which was the Station Master’s office, the foreman’s office, and a mess room for staff. General and ladies’ waiting rooms were in evidence on this island, the former of which had two General Post Office (GPO) telephone boxes fitted and fixed seating. Public toilets and a bookstall were also features on the same island platform. At the time, it was reported in The Railway Magazine that, with few exceptions, airport traffic would be handled at platform Nos. 1 and 2, which served “up” local and reversible lines respectively.

Platform Nos. 3 and 4, forming the middle island, served “down” local and “up” through lines respectively, and were host to waiting rooms and toilets. This island, and that which formed platform Nos. 5 and 6, were former Racecourse platforms which, as part of the airport works, were extended at their northern ends by 100-feet. As previously mentioned, these platforms were heightened by 1-foot with brick layers. Platform Nos. 5 and 6, serving “down” through and “down” loop respectively, would be the least-used, with only the occasional service calling; as a result, neither waiting rooms nor toilets were provided.

Glazed canopies of V-shaped cross section, as per those designs brought into use at the likes of St Mary Cray and Folkestone Central stations during Kent Coast Electrification works, were present on all three island platforms at Gatwick Airport. The Railway Magazine of July 1958 notes that the canopies were supported on welded steel columns of box construction, and platforms were illuminated for their entire lengths by fluorescent lighting.

Platform buildings were constructed using blue brick, some parts of which featured faded slate-coloured enamel tiles. Interiors of these structures were tiled and, as once again noted in The Railway Magazine in July 1958, the central heating supply for these was piped through from the airport terminal building.

A fully enclosed footbridge, about 185-feet in length and just shy of 20-feet in width, linked all platforms with the terminal building. The footbridge comprised lift shafts on all three islands and, on platform Nos. 1 and 2, provision was made for the future installation of an escalator if traffic levels justified it. The footbridge was supported upon steel box columns, with main spans of steel girder construction, and pre-cast reinforced concrete formed the decking. The roof cladding of the footbridge was fabricated from water-proofed aluminium sheeting.

In spite of extensive reconstruction and resignalling, the 1907 signal box of the Racecourse station was incorporated into the 1958 Airport layout. On the eastern side of the running lines, south of the platforms, existed a pair of non-electrified sidings; on the western side of the running lines, again south of the station, were laid four sidings, the pair nearest the A23 being electrified. An equal number of sidings south of the platforms had existed as part of the previous Racecourse station layout. The SR substation on the eastern side of the station site, dating from the Brighton Line electrification, also survived the 1950s building works.

What of the original Gatwick Airport with “beehive” terminal of 1936? The 1958-completed works resulted in this being isolated from the then new airport, the two being separated by the re-aligned A23 “Brighton Road”. The original airport, lacking any runway access, was renamed “Gatwick Airport South” and became home to the “Ministry of Aviation”, which succeeded the Air Ministry as the Government regulator for civil aviation.

In the 9th November 1975 edition of the Sunday Mirror, it was reported that British Rail (BR) was to spend £4,750,000 on improving Gatwick Airport station in response to a forecasted growth in traffic. In about 1978, two then new multi-storey car parks were built on the eastern side of the station. To link these with the 1958 terminal building, a pair of fully enclosed walkways were built over the railway platforms; the installation of the northern-most of these structures required the platform canopies to be cut back by about half their lengths. After completion of this phase, construction also got underway on a then new trapezium-shaped “high-level” concourse, about 220-feet long by 120-feet wide, which straddled all platforms at their northern ends. The structure featured brown-coloured external cladding and, upon the roof was painted a giant BR “Arrows of Indecision” logo, viewable from landing aircraft. The concourse comprised a lift and escalators down to platform Nos. 1 and 2, staircases to platform Nos. 3 and 4, and a lift and staircases to platform Nos. 5 and 6. As part of the same works, yet another enclosed walkway was erected across the station; this sat immediately adjacent to, and linked with, the footbridge of 1958 and housed escalators down to all three islands. The then new concourse across the northern ends of the platforms was completed in June 1981, which included replacement platform canopies.

What of the signal box of 1907? The cabin closed during a major resignalling of the Gatwick area in 1978, control passing to Three Bridges. The July 1958 edition of The Railway Magazine reported that the signal box had possessed the capability of broadcasting station announcements.

In 1978, a start was made on developing a dedicated airport railway service between Victoria and Gatwick. A four-car unit of BR’s existing electric passenger stock, 4 VEP No. 7755, was modified internally in an effort to provide a train which was better suited to handling airport passengers carrying bulky luggage. The extent of the alterations were limited to replacing some seating areas with luggage racks and, eventually, a further twelve units of the same class were so treated. All of the modified units were designated '’4 VEG’' and received the branding ‘’Rapid City Link Gatwick – London’’. Despite the then new name, the units retained the familiar Blue and Grey colour scheme, but the British Rail ‘’Arrows of Indecision’’ logo was accompanied by that of an aircraft symbol. In the meantime the prototype, No. 7755, was reverted to its original state.

The inaugural “Rapid City Link” service ran on 9th June 1978, and the first train carried Charles, the Prince of Wales, and the BR Board’s Chairman, Sir Peter Parker. On that day, the Prince formally opened larger terminal facilities at the airport. In newspaper advertisements placed in August 1981, BR stated that the “Rapid City Link” comprised four trains each hour from Victoria to Gatwick between 6 A.M. and midnight, and one per hour through the night. The service was advertised as part of an umbrella “Railair Link” brand, which promoted railway connections between local BR stations, the London Underground, and Gatwick and Heathrow Airports.

The introduction of InterCity 125 High Speed Trains onto the London Midland Region from 4th October 1982 provided the opportunity for more luxurious stock to be adopted on the dedicated Gatwick shuttles. A fleet of relatively young BR Mk2f air-conditioned carriages were displaced as a result of HST deployment, and these were seen as ideal candidates to be cascaded to the Southern Region to supersede the 4-VEG units. Seventy-four of these carriages were selected to become part of the Gatwick fleet, and these were subsequently dispatched to Derby Litchurch Lane for conversion. The project involved coupling the carriages together semi-permanently in sets of two and three, these formations being designated Classes 488/2 and 488/3 respectively. The sets would then be joined together to form longer train formations. Electric pneumatic braking was installed, and vehicles were converted for multiple operation with other semi-permanently coupled sets. The carriage formations were to be top-and-tailed by a Class 73 Electro-Diesel and a luggage van. With reference to the latter, a fleet of ten such vehicles were converted from redundant 2-HAP driving vehicles and are better dealt with in the section here. The “push-pull” operational concept would be employed, whereby the Class 73 would typically haul the train from Victoria to Gatwick, and then propel it back to the capital on the return journey. Some modest power assistance was supplied by a motor bogie on the luggage van. The then new trains were to be marketed as the “Gatwick Express”.

On Monday, 14th May 1984, the first scheduled trains of the Gatwick Express ran. As far as your author is aware, this was the only service operated by the InterCity business sector in which the entire route was within the confines of BR’s Southern Region. BR’s promotional material in newspapers — and, indeed, that of the airlines — during the month of the launch remarked that trains ran at fifteen minute intervals, from 05:30 to 22:00; later services ran at 22:30, 23:00, 23:59, and 01:00, then hourly until 05:00. The journey time was thirty minutes in duration, non-stop, in air-conditioned coaches.

In the run-up to privatisation in 1994, the Gatwick Express operation became detached from the InterCity business sector and was formed into a shadow franchise. The rolling stock came under the ownership of leasing company "Porterbrook" and, on 3rd April 1996, a fifteen year franchise to operate the Gatwick Express was awarded to the ''National Express Group''. This company formally took over the running of the trains on 28th of the same month.

A condition of the then new Gatwick Express franchise was that new rolling stock had to be procured, which culminated in the introduction of the Alstom-built Class 460 electric multiple units to the service in September 2000. At that point began a rather complicated chapter in Gatwick Express rolling stock history, one which your author has struggled to keep up with. On 28th July 2005, an official “send-off” for the 1984 stock was run, commemorating its retirement from service and the fulfilling of all diagrams thereafter by the Class 460 fleet. However, in November of that year, the 1984 stock was still spotted in use on the service.

The Class 460 fleet’s tenure on the dedicated Victoria to Gatwick shuttle was rather short-lived. From 22nd June 2008, the standalone Gatwick Express franchise ceased to exist and thereafter became part of the “Southern Railway” brand operated by “GoVia”. To increase capacity, it was decided to extend Gatwick Express services beyond the airport to Brighton in the peak. This was achieved using refurbished Class 442 electric stock, which provided much-needed additional seating capacity, and the first services started on 15th December 2008. Between 2010 and 2012, the Class 460 fleet was gradually phased out from the route and put into store; reportedly, these units were much more expensive to operate compared to the Class 442 fleet, and could not fulfil the capacity requirements of the peak-time Gatwick Express services extended to Brighton.

In 2013, work commenced on a £53 million project to commission a seventh platform at the Airport station, east of the existing islands. As part of this scheme, the SR concrete electricity substation, which was situated upon part of the required site, was demolished, after a career of about eighty years. The scheme was designed to remove a series of conflicting train movements, which in turn would free up capacity at an already very busy station. The intention was for platform 7 to serve southbound stopping trains; platform 5 and the little-used No. 6 would become dedidcated to the Gatwick Express, with this brand's passenger lounge above the island. Until that time, the Gatwick Express typically used platform Nos. 1 and 2, which served the slow lines; this involved these trains having to transfer from the fast to the slow lines, thus blocking the throat of the station. Since platform Nos. 5 and 6 were served by the fast lines, concentrating the Gatwick Express on this island removed the aforementioned conflicting movements; however, the reality was that the expresses would operate through any platform. As for platform Nos. 1 and 2, capacity would be freed up for the Great Western trains from Reading and have the advantage that the diesel multiple units forming these services could remain in the station after terminating, rather than having to head to those sidings to the south. Tracklaying for the new platform began at the start of November and included the renewal of the public footbridge situated about 60-yards beyond the southern ends of the platforms. Platform 7 was formally opened on Monday, 3rd February 2014, and the first scheduled services started to use it exactly a week later.

Further change was afoot for the Gatwick Express. In November 2014, a £145.2 million order was placed by Govia Thameslink Railway — the franchise under which the Gatwick Express was by then operated — for a fleet of twenty-seven Class 387/2 electric multiple units, to be built by "Bombardier Transportation Ltd.", Derby. Financed by Porterbrook Leasing, these were intended to wholly replace the Class 442 units then forming Victoria to Gatwick and [peak time] Brighton services. The newest addition to the "Electrostar" family, the Class 387 units were designed with an internal arrangement which was better suited to handling a combination of heavy airport traffic and — beyond to Brighton — commuters. The first completed Class 387/2 carriage for the Gatwick Express fleet underwent static tests at Derby in July 2015; in November of the same year, commissioning of completed units for traffic commenced; then, on 10th March 2016, the first unit was launched into service at Victoria with ceremony. The last scheduled public services operated by Class 442 units on the Brighton Main Line ran on 10th March 2017.

The platform 7 project was soon followed by a Government announcement on 8th July 2019, revealing that another £150 million was to be granted for upgrading Gatwick Airport station. The centrepiece of these works involved the construction of another “high-level” concourse above platform Nos. 5, 6, and 7, sandwiched in-between the covered walkways installed during the late 1970s. An artist impression shows the new development to be a curved glazed structure which, reportedly, will double the existing station’s concourse area. To accommodate the new concourse, drawings suggest that the portion of the 1958-built footbridge linking platform Nos. 3/4 and 5/6 will be demolished; additionally, the island forming platform Nos. 5 and 6 was planned to be widened. The new concourse design incorporates lifts and escalators down to platform level; as part of the same works, the 1981-completed concourse is set to receive additional stairs and lifts leading to platform Nos. 3 and 4, and a re-designed circulating area. At the heart of the latter is removing staff accommodation to a separate building immediately northeast of the concourse, to free up passenger circulating space.

The new works got underway by Network Rail’s closure of platform 6 from 26th April 2020. This was followed by the closure of platform 7 from 17th May of the same year; from 1st November 2020, platform 7 re-opened, but effective the same day, platform 5 was closed. Platform Nos. 5 and 6 are scheduled to be closed until May 2022, and completion of the entire scheme is due in September 2023.

Gatwick Airport: 2007

Click the above for a larger version. © David Glasspool

4th December 2004

The station had started to look rather tired by the time of this northward view from platform 2, as rust had taken hold of one of the car park footbridges built in the late 1970s. Although crossing the station, the bridges linking the terminal with the car parks have no access to the platforms. The Southern Railway's concrete substation, commissioned as part of the Brighton Line electrification, can just be seen in the background, right of centre. On the far left is the 1958 terminal building, whilst at platform 1 is one of the Class 460 units introduced in 2000 for the Gatwick Express. © David Glasspool

4th December 2004

The footbridge across the tracks beyond the southern end of the platforms has been a feature since the station rebuild of 1907. The structure was refurbished in November 2013 in conjunction with the works to provide a seventh platform. All sidings south of the station are now electrified. © David Glasspool

4th December 2004

The Class 119 DMUs were long gone and the Reading to Gatwick Airport services were now operated by the 1993-introduced Class 166 "Turbo Express" DMUs. No. 166203, seen here at platform 3 wearing the colours of then franchise operator "Thames Trains", will shortly depart for the "up" sidings south of the platforms, to stable prior to forming a return working. © David Glasspool

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