Gatwick Express : Ask Biography

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Gatwick Express is the name given to the frequent rail shuttle service between Victoria station in London and Gatwick Airport in South East England, operated by the Southern franchise. Originally operating between Victoria and Gatwick only as a separate franchise, its services were incorporated into the Southern franchise in 2008, with some trains subsequently extended beyond Gatwick to Haywards Heath and Brighton. Gatwick Express units are also used for a fast service from London Bridge to Eastbourne, which ironically is scheduled to pass non-stop through Gatwick Airport. Due to the extension of several of these services, train liveries and signage have increasingly changed to simply 'express'.

The service was initially introduced as a separate entity under the nationalised British Rail (which bought together several previous schemes to run dedicated services to the airport). The service was operated by the Southern Region of British Rail, albeit using branding and a livery similar to that used on the Intercity running north, east and west of London. The service was run on a "push-pull" basis using Class 73 electro-diesels and dedicated stock consisting of converted BR Mark 2 coaches and EMU driving cars of Class 489.

As a small, self-contained operation, the service became one of the first private train operating company franchises from 1994 as part of the privatisation process of British Rail. The new company ordered new units of Class 460. Despite this, the franchise was due to be scrapped to free up capacity on the busy Brighton main line, especially during peak periods.

However, following objections by several interested parties, including the owners of Gatwick Airport itself, in June 2008 the franchise was absorbed into the larger private operator, Southern. Further new stock was bought in using redundant "Wessex Electric" units recently taken off-lease by South West Trains, which also enabled Southern to increase the service by incorporating services south of Gatwick, and to use the units on services to Eastbourne. The Class 460 units have now left the Southern franchise to be used to increase capacity elsewhere.