We must ask: does Gatwick Airport’s CEO drive to work each day, with a 19-minute journey and free parking? Or does he take public transport, which can take over an hour or more by infrequent bus services, or constrained train services that cost nearly £30, plus station/ bus stop parking?
Network Rail’s submissions to the new runway Planning Inspectorate suggested that Gatwick Airport’s new railway station (costing taxpayers £200m) may not be able to cope with the millions of additional passengers (32m according to Gatwick Airport submissions) it will be faced with, if a new runway is awarded by the Secretary of State for Transport on October 27th.
“The lack of public transport has always been Gatwick’s Achilles heel, and nothing has changed. If anything, it is getting worse with more houses being built in the area and no public transport investment”, says CAGNE, the umbrella aviation community and environment group for Sussex, Surrey and Kent. “If Gatwick wants this new runway (end of 2024 profits £342.9m), then they must pay to provide the public transport required, starting with meeting the cost for the rail junction improvements at East Croydon, as well as buses that run throughout the night to the rural communities where workers come from – not just Crawley.”
The Brighton Main Line (railway) needs investment but, even then, it will not change the fact that the line can’t be expanded, with no chance of double-decker trains. This therefore restricts the number of carriages and trains it can carry. This also rules out freight trains, despite the fact that, with a new runway, Gatwick predicts a major increase in cargo to 350,00 tones a year by 2047.
(The East Croydon Windmill Junction lacks funding, which would go some way to ease the junction limitations, along with reducing bottleneck issues – but, again, would not increase capacity of the line as a whole).
The pandemic still offers significant uncertainty about future passenger behaviour and demand, as well as the funding constraints following the government’s 2020 spending review. Even though Gatwick operates 24/7, there is little overnight public transport service, restricting use by both passenger and workers.
Gatwick argue that they do not control the scheduling of the line or trains but, with the Gatwick Express being expensive (over £34 return) and the commuter trains being full of commuters when they reach the airport, it seems impossible for the management of Gatwick to meet the restrictions proposed by the Planning Inspectorate without significant funding by the airport shareholders.
Gatwick has until 24th April to respond to the government on how they will overcome and meet the requirement of “54% mode share by public transport”.
“The biggest issue with the railway line is that it is not due to be invested in (according to the Transport for the Southeast funding) and calls for an east-to-west line is still a pipedream. So flyers and workers will continue to congest the surrounding roads (both major and residential) to reach the airport, further worsening air quality.
“Gatwick must not be allowed to weaken these proposed restrictions, as the taxpayer will pick up the bills – perhaps not directly, but inevitably through increases in rail fares, NHS costs, local authority air quality initiatives, and highways maintenance, all of which are already concerns today, in a 30-mile radius around the airport and beyond.”
CAGNE’s legal and qualified expert team will respond to Gatwick Airport’s response in April, ensuring that communities and the planet have a voice, and that the bill does not fall to the taxpayer or the planet to meet the ramifications of a new runway.