According to Gatwick Express's website its 31 minutes from Gatwick to Victoria @£19.50 for a single, but according to GTR's Thameslink Facebook ads its "as little as 29 mins and as little as £11.30" to get from London Bridge to Gatwick airport, have they finally given up on the Gatwick Express?
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Has GTR finally written off the Gatwick Express?
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No, there is an advertisement campaign for Gatwick Express as well at present.
BRX
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Have who given up on the Gatwick Express?
Gatwick Express was changed from an airport shuttle when they took two platforms out of use whilst rebuilding took place.
All platforms are now in use, although there are still building works in progress reducing passenger space (if you don't like being shouted at to keep behind the yellow line, I suggest you use another station. Or stay behind the yellow line
).
Anyway, the shuttles only run on Sundays at the moment, otherwise its to/from Brighton. I assume we will find out when the December timetables are announced if it's going back to a shuttle. Personally, I doubt they will
All platforms are now in use, although there are still building works in progress reducing passenger space (if you don't like being shouted at to keep behind the yellow line, I suggest you use another station. Or stay behind the yellow line
).Anyway, the shuttles only run on Sundays at the moment, otherwise its to/from Brighton. I assume we will find out when the December timetables are announced if it's going back to a shuttle. Personally, I doubt they will
Trainbike46
Established Member
why would they do a shuttle instead of providing a fast Brighton service as well?Gatwick Express was changed from an airport shuttle when they took two platforms out of use whilst rebuilding took place.
All platforms are now in use, although there are still building works in progress reducing passenger space (if you don't like being shouted at to keep behind the yellow line, I suggest you use another station. Or stay behind the yellow line
Anyway, the shuttles only run on Sundays at the moment, otherwise its to/from Brighton. I assume we will find out when the December timetables are announced if it's going back to a shuttle. Personally, I doubt they will
Alex365Dash
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I believe it was both pre-COVID.
On Sundays, the shuttle is complemented by a fast Brighton service branded as Southern, which does use Gatwick Express-branded 387s as well as the usual Southern 377s.
I was thinking back to when GX was a separate company, rather than a separate brand. The standard service used to be a train every 15 minutes, with a train always waiting in a platform.
AlbertBeale
Established Member
I don't really understand the question. There have always been Gatwick - London Bridge trains cheaper than the GEx; and they've always both been promoted - one for its non-stop to Victoria USP, and the other for being cheap(er).
Snow1964
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The adverts don't say London Bridge, the cheaper fare is described as Gatwick to Central London
So appears now advertising as Express to Victoria looks to be a slower and more expensive service, compared to quicker and cheaper train to Central London.
If you were a visiting tourist which destination (central London, or Victoria) would you pick ?
The last time I was at East Croydon every train stopped there (apart from GEX) but that was in the early 90s and things must have changed a lot since then.
Every Southern and Thameslink service train still calls at East Croydon. The previous poster is bemoaning the issue that there are a limited number of services using 377s which call at both Brighton and East Croydon because the services between Brighton and London Victoria are the Gatwick Express services, and they have to get one of the four trains an hour formed of a class 700.
BRX
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Tourists arriving at Gatwick aren't going to be looking at each company's Facebook page or website though - they will be looking at posters and signage at the airport, which I'm guessing is arranged to try and direct them onto GX rather than TL.
Snow1964
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They might put up lots of posters, but I don't know anyone who travels to another country and before travelling doesn't look up at least one website (or a guidebook) regarding onward travel from the airport. So will have read about overpriced, less regular Gatwick Express.
The notion that people only first plan how to get to London from the airport when they get to arrivals hall is crazy. The reality is can only pull off an illusion until it becomes common knowledge that it is bad value.
If you don't believe me just do a web search on travelling from Gatwick Airport, pretending you were naive traveller
BRX
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I think there *is* a proportion of people who don't do this pre-research, and they are part of who the Gatwick Express targets.
As for those who do look it up in advance, well, is the suggestion that GTR shouldn't promote the Thameslink option at all, in an attempt to prevent people from finding out about it?
Presumably it's still worth promoting the fact that you can get to Gatwick cheaply on Thameslink because there is a market that might consider other modes (own car, taxi, bus etc) that can be captured.
Agreed. Whenever I have been to America, I have planned the bus/train/subway journey from the airport to the hotel, including ticket options and prices. I certainly didn't just turn up in an unfamiliar city and hope for the best.
ThameslinkUser
Member
Getting back on topic, it is clear that GTR doing targeted adverts to a certain market demographic on Facebook is not a sign that they're abandoning the GatEx, it's just effective advertising.
Not only I worked at the airport and seen number of people arriving, here in London, with no clue whatsoever how to get to their hotel, every single day, every single hour, but even myself I've ended up travelling to some random place in Europe, having no time or desire to do research beforehand and planned to figure it out when I get there. The best example of that was Eindhoven, where I landed at the airport, found the railway ticket machine near the exit, bought a day ticket for travel in Eindhoven and went outside to look for a train station. Asked a police officer where is it and he directed me to a bus to take me to the city. I survived and turned out just fine. Same as all those passengers I helped throughout the time I worked at the airport.
ThameslinkUser
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