Gatwick Express: the first 25 years

HOWARD JOHNSTON examines the fortunes (and failings) of the UK’s first privatised passenger service - a financial superstar 25 years ago, but now mired in the capacity problems of the Brighton Main Line

Gatwick Express How have things changed for Gatwick Express in the 25 years since it became the UK’s first privatised passenger service?

It is now 25 years since Gatwick Express became the UK’s first privatised passenger service. British Rail’s highly profitable jewel in the crown produced a healthy cash return for the taxpayer, but is it now just a loss-making millstone for the Government and owner Govia?

Little detailed financial information is now publicly available on how Gatwick Express is faring, with the fortunes of what was once a little goldmine entwined in the problems of the creaking London-Brighton main line with which it shares tracks.

It will therefore be interesting to see what happens with the bidding for the Southern franchise, when the present Govia contract runs out in September 2021. Will the brand new Gatwick Express disappear with it?

The concept is a great one - a fast 30-minute non-stop service between London Victoria and the busy airport’s South Terminal, charging a premium fare just because you can. The trains are clearly branded with a bright red livery, and they have four dedicated train paths an hour to an airport station positioned right next to where planes take off for destinations all over the world.

The trains look good, but the timekeeping isn’t. The ticket prices are high, and the customer service rating is a cause for serious concern.

So what’s really happening with Gatwick Express? It’s not entirely clear, because the transparency of how it is performing has been completely submerged since it was incorporated into the former South Central franchise in 2008. The only figures we see are what operator Govia Thameslink Railway chooses to reveal.

While there is no doubt that Gatwick Airport (the second busiest in the country with more than 45 million customers a year) benefits immensely from a direct rail service, it is also clear that the current severe capacity restraints on the London-Brighton main line do little for the dedicated shuttle. Many wonder whether it is even relevant in the second decade of the 21st century, now that cross-London Thameslink services are up and running.

Gatwick Express was born out of BR Southern Region’s success, with a low-

cost launch in May 1979 of a 15-minute service from Victoria. All it did was put some extra luggage racks into 12 medium-density suburban electric multiple units (EMUs), and rebrand them Rapid City Link. But this was fine, although regular Brighton line commuters struggled to differentiate them from their usual trains and then complained about being submerged in tourist luggage.

But overall it worked, and the new service was heralded as rail’s first serious fightback in more than a generation against the private car and bus.

Typical of BR at this time, astute managers, engineers and operators worked tirelessly and enthusiastically to innovate when they had so little money flowing from The Treasury.

They could never have predicted that £100 million would be invested in brand new Class 460 EMUs that would only last a decade before some of the vehicles were broken up instead of being rebuilt for future use elsewhere, or that clearly unsuitable ( but available) Class 442 ‘Wessex Electrics’ would be foisted upon them

out at an average of £14.01m per annum.

As part of the deal, National Express would order eight eight-car Class 460 EMUs from GEC Alsthom. New elements to the operation would be additional early, later and night services within a year to ensure a 15-minute frequency from 0500 to midnight, and also hourly in the small hours on a year’s trial (they no longer run).

There would also be investment in more on-train staff (one for every three coaches), and special training to make the customer service compatible with airlines.

For the first six years, NatEx did very well out of the business, registering around £4m annual profits, while passenger number percentage increases were sometimes in double figures. By 2000, the taxpayer had received £10.3m in payments, making it the greatest success of privatisation, although the following year’s performance was knocked off course by the September 11 2001 terrorist attack on New York, which catastrophically damaged the transAtlantic airline business.

Recovery followed, and a customer survey in 2002 revealed that 15% of Gatwick Express’s total business was now daily commuters into London who wanted fast travel and who were not discouraged by the high car parking charges at Gatwick.

All that was to change with the Strategic Rail Authority’s Route Utilisation Strategy, published in September 2004. It was famously stated that the franchise was now a fallen star, with its decline in fortunes blamed partly on the increased number of low-cost airlines using the airport. Train loadings were only 50%, compared with 100% for Southern and up to 150% for Thameslink.

The SRA advocated abandoning the Gatwick Express franchise completely, and discussed a major revamp of the timetable - featuring possibly a ten-minute service with stops at East Croydon and possibly Clapham Junction, running on to Sussex coastal towns. An alternative would be longer trains cut back to half-hourly.

The honeymoon was also over for National Express. The business lost £4.03m in 2003 (compared with a £ 3.98m profit the previous year), followed by a £ 3m loss in 2004 and then a further £ 3.3m deficit in 2005.

Gatwick Express was soon a brand name only, after the awarding of a new enlarged

While there is no doubt that Gatwick Airport benefits immensely from a direct rail service, it is also clear that the current severe capacity restraints on the LondonBrighton main line do little for the dedicated shuttle.

Southern franchise to Govia (a 65% Go-Ahead Group/35% Keolis partnership) from May 2008 removed the airport service as a standalone business.

With the change went any transparency of its performance, profit, and financial return for the government. While Gatwick Express alone was supposed to make a contribution to the taxpayer of around £ 60m (as announced five years earlier), all we knew was that the total Southern business would require a subsidy of £103.6m over three years.

With the new franchise came an expected reshuffle of services. Many airport trains were extended to Brighton to increase peak hour capacity, with 17 redundant Class 442 ‘Wessex Electric’ EMUs resurrected to supplement existing stock.

So, where does Gatwick Express go from here? Are we living in the past by suggesting that it can stand on its own two feet, when its fortunes have become so entangled with those of the London-Brighton main line?

There are also other factors. Gatwick Express must find its place on a national network that is providing so many other crosscapital opportunities through Thameslink.

Until comparatively recently, the best way to reach Gatwick by public transport from large areas of the UK was via central London. You travelled to one of the major termini and then relied on your own wits by using the Underground, calling a taxi or catching a bus to reach Victoria station.

At the end of 2017, the start of Thameslink services through the Farringdon-Blackfriars tunnel changed our international travel habits forever. You are still free to follow your old habits, but it’s now possible to go direct in a brand new Class 700 EMU from Bedford and Peterborough to Gatwick via London Bridge and East Croydon, and also from Cambridge. Spacious coaches with plenty of luggage space (and no premium fare) make this a no-brainer compared with the uncertainty of travelling

You are still free to follow your old habits, but it’s now possible to go direct in a brand new Class 700 EMU from Bedford and Peterborough to Gatwick via London Bridge and East Croydon.

on Gatwick Express.

There seems little doubt now that Southern is trying to restore some level of confidence in its Gatwick Express services, undoubtedly helped by the clear branding of its new fleet of Class 387 EMUs to replace the second-hand Class 442 ‘Wessex Electrics’ that were foisted on the company in 2008.

Gatwick Express Passenger Services Director Angie Doll openly admitted at the ‘387s’ service launch that customers had been short-changed, when she said: “This marks a real step-change in the journey experience for Gatwick Express passengers. The new fleet replaces 30-year-old rolling stock which is not designed for today’s airport passenger, and the introduction of our new trains is just the start of some really exciting improvements yet to come.”

Perhaps innocently, she was apologising for her Department for Transport paymasters for imposing the Class 442 ‘Wessex Electrics’ on the business - partly because they just happened to be available, and because their extra length provided 644 seats for Brightonbound customers and reduced the numbers forced to stand in the aisles. One wonders whether Gatwick customers featured at all in anyone’s thinking!

Gatwick Airport had unsuccessfully rallied against the change, complaining that the ‘442s’ were the least suitable rolling stock that could possibly be found for the job, with their narrow end doors with high entry points, narrow aisles and constricted vestibules. Airport users jammed into crowded services might easily become confused and end up missing their stop, finishing up in Brighton and missing

ANTONY GUPPY. Gatwick Express 387215 departs Clapham Junction with the 1145 London VictoriaGatwick Express on July 18 2016. GatEx drivers belonging to the ASLEF trade union had initially refused to drive these 12-car trains in Driver Only Operation mode, following their introduction in April 2016, sparking off an almost nationwide dispute.

With just one passenger riding inside this coach of Gatwick Express 387217 on the 1100 departure from Victoria on September 19 2018 (his suitcase is parked in the seat behind), this £1.3 million vehicle is loaded to just 2% capacity. Most Southern stopping services operating on the same route were reportedly standing room only on the same day.

D. PYE/COLOUR RAIL. 73206 Gatwick Express awaits departure from Gatwick Airport for its return journey to London Victoria on August 26 1993. Gatwick Express became the first portion of BR’s InterCity sector to be converted into a separate train operating unit less than a year later, when its assets transferred to Gatwick Express Ltd in March 1994.

HOWARD JOHNSTON. Gatwick Express 442403 arrives at Gatwick Express on April 11 2016, and awaits its return to London Victoria. The last Class 442 ‘Wessex Electric’ unit operated on the route in March 2017, following the completion of Govia Thameslink Railway’s introduction of a new £145 million fleet of 27 12-car Class 387s.