The bigger and better Gatwick Airport station has fully opened to passengers

Welcome

Dear stakeholder,

I'm delighted to let you know that the upgraded Gatwick Airport station fully opened to passengers this morning.

A new look Gatwick Airport station with a new concourse that is the size of eight tennis courts welcomed the first passengers just before 6am this morning.

You can find out more about the project and how it is improving the passenger journey on the  Network Rail website.

A new concourse

The first passengers using the new concourse and airport entrance

A new second concourse has been built above platforms 5, 6 and 7, doubling the space available for passengers at the station.

The new concourse which is the size of eight tennis courts will act as the new entrance for people accessing the airport terminal from the station, while the existing concourse will be for people exiting the airport into the station.

The existing station concourse, station footbridges and the South Terminal linkspan have been refurbished and reconfigured to provide a seamless one-way system to the airport from the train station.

The flooring is made up of 5,232 tiles and the total area of paintwork carried out within the new concourse is equal to 6.5 acres. 

A step change in accessibility 

Two of the new escalators

Eight new escalators, four new lifts and stairways take passengers directly from platforms up to the new concourse providing step free access from train to plane for passengers with luggage, families, and reduced mobility.

A new lift has also been installed to take passengers directly to platforms 3 and 4 from the existing concourse. Accessibility for wheelchair users has also been improved through the widening of the previously narrow platforms 5 and 6.

New tactile signage, including braille has been integrated into the wayfinding signage strategy alongside 70 hearing loops at key touch points along the route, such as the ticket retail and information points.

A new 24/7 special assistance point has been created in the existing station concourse to provide additional support for passengers.

Transforming the journey from train to plane

A bigger and brighter station concourse

The existing station concourse is bigger and better than before the project began with new customer information systems, more wide-aisle ticket gates and a new open-plan ticket area enhancing the passenger experience and helping people move through the station more quickly. 500m² of extra

space was created for passengers by removing retail units and moving the station control rooms and staff accommodation to a new dedicated back of house building.

Passengers using the airport will now make their way to airport departures directly from the station platforms to the new concourse using new lifts, escalators and stairways that have been installed at the station.

Faster, more reliable journeys

A Gatwick Express train at Gatwick airport station

The upgrade not only provides a gateway station befitting the country’s second busiest airport, it boosts train reliability on the Brighton Main Line, and as far as Milton Keynes and Cambridge. 

By helping passengers move between trains and the airport more quickly and easily, the crowding on platforms which stopped trains departing on-time has been resolved.

Track upgrades delivered by the project have given passengers a further boost, reducing journey times between London and Brighton to one hour and between Gatwick and London to just 35 minutes.