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Catching a flight can be stressful enough, but sometimes just getting to the airport is the most chaotic part. When you’re trying to keep track of your mates and haul your suitcase in the right direction, overcrowding on train platforms and congestion on the escalators are the last things you need.
Congestion and overcrowding have long been issues that’ve plagued London Gatwick airport’s train station – but soon they’ll be ironed out as part of a mahoosive £250 million makeover.
Given that Gatwick opened way back in 1958, needless to say it isn’t really fit for modern-day passenger numbers. In 2019, 21 million people used the airport’s train station, which is up from 14 million in 2010.
The number of people travelling through airports is slowly returning to pre-pandemic numbers, but Gatwick should no longer struggle to cater to this demand, as the works to improve its functionality are pretty comprehensive.
So what do they include? Well, Gatwick’ll be getting a whole new concourse above the platforms, which will double the space for passengers. There’ll also be eight new escalators, five new lifts, four new stairways, as well as upgrades to the tracks that will shorten the journey to London by five minutes.
‘The existing airport station was never designed for the growth and the demand of over 20 million passengers a year using it,’ said Lucy McAuliffe, Network Rail’s Sussex route director, to the Sun.
And excitingly, we don’t have long at all to wait. The work started in 2020, and it’s due to finally be unveiled in just over a week’s time, on November 21.
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