FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - OT: Why no train between Gatwick and Heathrow?
Old Apr 10, 2006 | 12:22 pm
  #6  
rangerss75
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Originally Posted by ElkeNorEast
I've done a cursory search but find no discussion of this on the forum, so please excuse me if this has been asked before?

Why, why, WHY is there no direct train service between Heathrow and Gatwick airports? Having to chance it on a bus on the M25 just isn't my idea of a really efficient and clever way to travel.

I find this very curious. They would make a mint!

Thank you in advance for your non-sarky replies
I don't think there would be money to be made - that's the point. If there is not enough traffic for the Gatwick Express to continue to run a dedicated service into Central London (that is the airport traffic can be fitted on to the normal trains), I doubt there'd be enough transferring airport traffic to warrant a service. Plus there's the problem of the existing infrastructure.

There would be basically two ways there (building a line just for airport connection traffic is out of the question):
1 By building a connection from the airport southwards to the line at Ashford (Middlesex) then running south to near Weybridge, Guildford, Redhill and Gatwick. Unless another spur was built, the train would have to reverse at Redhill. Some of this track is heavily congested already.
2 By running via HEX tracks as far as Old Oak Common, then running south via Kensington Olympia and Clapham Junction. These trains could, I suppose, use the slots formerly used by Gatwick Express trains, but special trains would have to be built (again, out of the question economically) because the electrification systems are not the same on the HEX and South London lines.

I suppose 2 could work by diverting the new Heathrow stopping services away from Paddington so that after Ealing Broadway they served Olympia, Clapham Junction, East Croydon and Gatwick, also giving a direct rail service from these stops to Heathrow. But I still doubt anyone would invest in the rolling stock needed and would Gatwick/Heathrow passengers really want to take a stopping train via the London suburbs? Isn't a non-stop (well many stops, if you count being stuck on the M25) bus preferable?

PS Doesn't this really belong on the BMI board?

Edited to add: I think Swanhunter answered your question more succinctly while I was writing my long-winded post.

Last edited by rangerss75; Apr 10, 2006 at 12:35 pm
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