[openfly]

Announcements yesterday on the Brighton to London line suggest there will be bus replacement from Gatwick to Redhill and from East Croydon to London Victoria on sat and sun. Not good news.

[SimonS1]

I’m not sure that’s right.

According to the announcements I heard trains will run from Gatwick to East Croydon and then EC to Victoria (ie 1 change is required but no bus).

Or the Thameslink services to London Blackfriars etc will be running as usual.

[GivingupBA]

Is it just me or have others had problems with the Gatwick Express for years? One e.g., a few years ago I was thwarted several times over several days from reaching LGW from London and/or London from LGW – was I just unlucky? Then, 11 days ago, Mrs GivingupBA and I were on the Piccadilly line on the way to LHR for CX with giant heavy suitcases when the tube irrevocably stopped at Barons Court because of ‘a signal fault’ – that was it: no more westbound Piccadilly line from there. And it was bucketing down with rain. We are not young and that was a fun onward journey, as you might imagine.

First world problems, some can say, but it’s getting really tiresome.

[SimonS1]

The GX is not great but in my experience it is quite rare there is no service. However it is more crowded since they extended peak time services to Brighton. Not much choice there really as GX services were running empty and using capacity whilst Brighton services were full and standing.

To be honest there are so many services from Gatwick to London that I’m not sure why an ‘express’ is needed these days.

[Hktbound]

Useful topic. I have a staff member who is not english and his first time in London on Saturday and he is flying home from Gatwick so I tried to book the Gatwick Express a week or so ago and there was no results. I sent an email and got a reply saying 20 days I would have a reply – really useful! Then I called and after a while a really rude guy answered and said all trains were full. I called again and was told that it was not running.
As mentioned before – Victoria should still be available with 1 change but as my friend is not familiar with the UK he has the following direct options
London St Pancras Intl to Gatwick direct – direct but 1 hour 9 minutes
London Bridge – Gatwick – 34 minutes
Blackfriars – Gatwick 55 minutes but only 38 pas the hour
Of course the National Express and Easy Bus services are working

Hope this helps

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=759959]The GX is not great but in my experience it is quite rare there is no service. However it is more crowded since they extended peak time services to Brighton. Not much choice there really as GX services were running empty and using capacity whilst Brighton services were full and standing.

To be honest there are so many services from Gatwick to London that I’m not sure why an ‘express’ is needed these days.

[/quote]

To charge higher fares to unsuspecting folks!

[SimonS1]

[quote quote=759962]Useful topic. I have a staff member who is not english and his first time in London on Saturday and he is flying home from Gatwick so I tried to book the Gatwick Express a week or so ago and there was no results. I sent an email and got a reply saying 20 days I would have a reply – really useful! Then I called and after a while a really rude guy answered and said all trains were full. I called again and was told that it was not running.
As mentioned before – Victoria should still be available with 1 change but as my friend is not familiar with the UK he has the following direct options
London St Pancras Intl to Gatwick direct – direct but 1 hour 9 minutes
London Bridge – Gatwick – 34 minutes
Blackfriars – Gatwick 55 minutes but only 38 pas the hour
Of course the National Express and Easy Bus services are working

Hope this helps

[/quote]

For most of the day Blackfriars to Gatwick direct is 4 times an hour at 08, 22, 38 and 52 past the hour. Those are the same trains as the St Pancras service but getting on 3 stops later.

There are about 7 an hour from London Bridge as well so it would make sense to head for one of those two. I prefer Blackfriars as it is much less crowded than LB and easier to navigate.

[Author]

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