The legality or otherwise of Gatwick Express Only/ Not Gatwick Express routings was discussed in this thread. Has anyone ever challenged it in the courts or anywhere else?
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I'm a fan of the Gatwick Express mostly BECAUSE it's half empty. My routine commute in the morning used to involve changing at Gatwick Airport rather than a direct train. The fact that it was half empty and didn't stop was a bonus. However, stopping at East Croydon during disruption was not that unusual in the last few years.
Who doesn't it benefit? On the trains which run to Brighton, passengers from Brighton get a fast service to London. On the trains which terminate at Gatwick, there is no path available for them to go any further anyway if we want the other stations to get a reasonable service.
Yup the unknowing tourists on planes who get conned into buying a GX ticket. BR came up with Gatwick Express brand and premium pricing other operators have just followed suit although FCC had there own more competitive fares.
Strange as I've just looked at the Thameslink services that terminate at Gatwick Airport and they are using up a platform for no longer then around 20 minutes per service which is a average of 40 minutes in every hour that Platform 2 is in use by them so how you could come up with 50 minutes is beyond me.
It's partly due to signal spacing being designed for comparatively high through speed, which prevents the next train being brought up very close behind, as at some other very busy stations such as East Croydon. Put simply, if the fast lines were better optimised for everything stopping, then they could do just that, but it would be at the price of lower through speed (with conventional signalling). Some places manage very high stopping throughputs with 'closing up' signals, additional signals almost at the ramp on the running in end. Thameslink took it a step further with mid platform signals at core stations so the next train can start to enter while the previous one is still pulling out, and the more recent ETCS installation further splits up the blocks to exploit this to an even greater extent. At Clapham Junction there have also been track layout mods proposed that could assist in allowing more fast line calls, on both the SW and SC sides.
Indeed the Littlehampton to Brighton stopping service was removed off peak to provide the path for the second Littlehampton to Victoria.
BR did at least use rolling stock for Gatwick Express that was superior to anything else on the Brighton line at the time. The 387s are frankly an embarrassment, being more expensive to travel on and less comfortable than the normal 377s. I would think GX is testing the Trade Descriptions Act, particularly with first class.
YES!
OK in 23mins occupation time but when you all time to come in and depart as well that makes it 25mins in terms of reoccupation time
Agreed
seconded
That actually got them in hot water with a passenger, there's a thread on here somewhere.
