Campaign group says ‘premium’ service’s ticket prices ‘bamboozle’ foreign visitors, and can be up to three times more expensive than standard fares. Railfuture is holding a public meeting this week to explain how capital-to-coast services could be improved immediately
Gatwick Express has operated as a central London to airport service since 1984, using dedicated rolling stock. Since 2008, it has been operated by Southern, latterly Govia Thameslink.
But at a time when the Department for Transport is looking to streamline the rail fares system across the country, Gatwick Express is charging extra for its “premium” service, with the he operators implicitly accused of ripping off international visitors arriving at Gatwick.
Gatwick Express fares can be more than three times the cost of a regular ticket between Victoria and Gatwick. something campaigners call a “ruse” intended to “bamboozle” travellers.
In a report just published by the Railfuture group, they say, “In 2024 the ticket office at Gatwick Airport Station was removed and replaced with a series of 21 Ticket Vending Machines and one ticket counter.
“All written information about ticketing was also removed. Today there is no written information on ticketing at the station, only verbal announcements about Oyster and bankcards which can be used for journeys to any station in London.”
Railfuture’s report also highlights how the airport railway station, with its high footfall of international travellers, only has train ticket information in English, French and German, but no other languages, such as Italian, Spanish or Chinese.
Railfuture said: “There are 14 fare options between Gatwick Airport and Euston Station for example – with the most expensive (£35) more than three times the cheapest (£10.70).
“One wonders if this complexity is designed to bamboozle the uninformed to buy a far more expensive ticket than is necessary.”
Railfuture is the country’s leading independent organisation campaigning for better rail services for both passengers and freight.
The Railfuture report has been written by Coulsdon-based Charlie King, the long-time chair of the East Surrey Transport Committee and a former member of watchdog London Travelwatch.
Time to stop: an extra four trains per hour, stopping at Clapham Junction and East Croydon, would do much to ease overcrowding on existing Southern services
King says that the Gatwick Express service is “not working in the interests of passengers” and that other service between the capital and south coast end up being are overcrowded “an inconvenient and unwanted consequence of the current arrangement”.
King told Inside Croydon: “Travellers who choose Gatwick Express can end up paying 125% of the cost of the cheaper Southern service for a saving of no more than two or three minutes and possibly waiting while two or three Southern services arrive and leave before their train departs.”
King and Railfuture want to see Gatwick Express services scrapped, instead becoming an integral part of Southern’s services to the airport, and for all fares “rationalised”, with a single fare to and from central London stations (including Farringdon and London Bridge), with direct services to and from Gatwick.
Railfuture is staging a public meeting this week, on Thursday, November 20, at a venue close to Gatwick Airport. The meeting, starting at 7.30pm, is at Salfords Village Hall, 5 Honeycrock Lane, Salfords, Redhill RH1 5DG, just a short walk from Salfords railway station. The meeting is open to all.
Railfuture also ask the public to write to their MP, asking them to press the Department for Transport “to end the current Gatwick Express ruse” and implement fare simplification.
Neil Middleton, the vice chair of Railfuture, said “Because anyone with the necessary knowledge avoids Gatwick Express like the plague, the other services that passengers do use can get overcrowded – including the need to stand for the journey.
“If you do not do your research, it is far too easy to end up choosing to travel by Gatwick Express – spending extra money for a journey that arrives later than an earlier, cheaper service. Gatwick does not have a ticket office, so getting answers to questions such as ‘What’s the cheapest ticket to London?” is much more difficult to answer’.”
Railfuture says that its suggested changes will deliver a better service to current passengers now, with simplified ticketing offering best value for money. “That will encourage more travellers to choose rail when accessing the airport and will enable better service patterns for both local trains operating to the airport, and London to south coast trains, improving services for London when travelling to and from places such as Brighton and Eastbourne.”
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