Key dates for the transfer of the Gatwick Express franchise to rail operator Southern, have been announced by the UK Department for Transport (DfT).
Negotiators from the DfT and Southern have set a transfer date for 22 June, 2008, that should see extra services introduced between London”s Victoria terminus and Gatwick Airport, with some trains continuing through to the south coast at Brighton. Current franchise operator, National Express will cease running the Gatwick service in June, 2008.
The handover will increase the size of the Southern franchise and allow it to conclude details for a new Brighton Main Line timetable that aims to proved additional capacity from December, 2008.
Southern”s current franchise is due to run until 20 September, 2009, to allow any new service to bed in before the start of a revised South London timetable in December of the same year and which will incorporate the East London Line extension.
Confirmation of the Gatwick deal should be good news for passengers, some of whom had feared that changing franchise might lead to a change in direct Victoria-Gatwick services. ”At high peak times, there will be six trains per hour [London-Gatwick] as opposed to the current four,” a Southern spokesman told ABTN.
”The trains that operate between Victoria and Gatwick Airport will stay the same, but the [two] new services will use Class 442 machines.”
The Class 442s will come from South West Trains and will continue on to Brighton, while Southern says it is evaluating how best to configure the interior to best suit commuter and airline passengers.
Southern also claims that the deal will ”free up capacity” although declined to be drawn on just how this would be done through the existing limited tracks at Gatwick.