The sad decline of Gatwick Express

I totally agree with the criticisms of Gatwick Express made by my colleague Christian Wolmar in his column in RAIL 891. It has suffered a sad decline.

Gatwick Express was originally set up in 1984 as part of InterCity, and run with a Class 73 hauling air-conditioned Mk 2 coaches and a Driving Trailer luggage van converted from a 2HAP unit.

Low-density comfortable seating, and nonstop between Gatwick and Victoria, it was an excellent service. As an aside, trains always passed through the Victoria station throat on diesel power, for a single Class 73 could easily become ‘gapped’ should it have to stop at a signal.

On privatisation it was run by National Express, and from 1999 to 2012 used one of the finest multiple units ever built - the eightcar Class 460 units. These had superb seats, including the best First Class seating the ex-Southern Region had ever had.

The mistake came in 2007, when the Department for Transport merged Gatwick Express with Southern (part of Govia Thameslink Railway). From 2008, Class 442s were used with far less comfortable seating, finally giving way to today’s utterly appalling rolling stock - the Class 387.

With hard seats, the ultimate insult is that First Class is exactly the same as Standard, merely with a paper antimacassar. There is, of course, no trolley, although that’s common throughout the GTR franchise.

So, we’ve gone from InterCity Mk 2s down to Class 387s that are less comfortable than the Metropolitan S8 stock - yet Gatwick Express charges a premium. And it offers at best a two-minute saving over any other service. Its abolition can’t come soon enough.