[openfly]

The U.K. Advertising Standards Authority has announced that the Gatwick Express cannot advertise its services from Gatwick to London as a “30 minute journey time” and must remove the incorrect fact from all advertising. It seems that only 20% of their trains ever complete the journey in 30 minutes!

[Mark Caswell]

Hi openfly – I think it’s actually around 80 per cent of the services that run to time, with just over 20 per cent delayed (still admittedly a significant proportion).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-45023993

[Swissdiver]

The problem lies in the very high price charged for a service that is actually nothing else than a regular commuter train’s…

[capetonianm]

Good. The last time I bought a first class flexible GA ticket from the airport to Victoria, the train arrived, late and crowded (it must have come from Brighton). It was pretty scruffy and dirty and the wifi didn’t work. As I couldn’t get a seat it didn’t really make much difference. First class was rammed and I doubt if even half of the people had first tickets, but there was no controller on the train (he/she wouldn’t have been able to get through anyway.)

As a matter of principle, I wrote to GA and requested a refund of the fare difference between what I’d paid and a second class ticket on a normal service. In fairness I have to say that within a week I had a decent letter from them and rail vouchers for more than I’d claimed.

[Flightlevel]

About time it was given to TfL and accepted Oyster cards,it’s the 21st century not the 18th?

[capetonianm]

You can use Oyster cards between LGW and Victoria, but not sure if that works on GA.

[openfly]

The Gatwick Express accepts “normal tickets” on its trains until the end of Sept, due to all the problems on its sister train companies. The only thing that is so annoying is that when buying an expensive Gatwick Express ticket you are not told this fact! Total rip-off. But something has to pay the highly inflated drivers salaries.

[AMcWhirter]

[quote quote=879086]But something has to pay the highly inflated drivers salaries.[/quote]

Back in BR days it was the drivers that used to strike for more pay. Today it’s other rail workers.

[jjlasne]

An embarrassment for a country that invented the railway… Anyway, I was thinking about using them because they offer a good fare for a party of 4 but, after having read the issues with that so-called express train service, I chose a door-to-door van service which is quite more expensive but I rather be stuck in traffic than stuck on the platform or the rails.

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