Why is Gatwick such a big pain in the arse to get ro

[Pavementworrier]

And why does British airways put so many of its flights out of there??

Gets right on my wick

It's about 4 stops from my local station. Perfect. I don't live in Croydon.

Depends where you live. We're in West Kent and Gatwick is absolutely fine for us. Trainwise we can go to London Bridge or Victoria to get the connection otherwise it takes us about 45 mins to drive. We picked up friends from there last week and did the round trip in about 2.15 hours including parking and waiting for them to come through. Conversely my brother and family live in Colchester and their local airport is Stansted. He loathes it, has had major delays to and from the last few times and would sooner go to Gatwick!

When we go on holiday we factor in parking and an overnight stay at the Premier Inn at Gatwick as we have an early flight but that suits us.

I live in suburban London... Gatwick is great for us. We never drive there, get the train a couple of stops to London bridge and then train to Gatwick. Obviously all this depends on where you live

Maybe for you but the best location for others. Silly thread.

Gatwick is very well connected to the South East, it’s just not very well connected to West London. So perhaps you’re just starting from the wrong place?

The Gatwick transport infrastructure isn't great, for an international airport that serves London. Unless Victoria works for you, you're chugging along on suburban trains at 20 miles an hour through the Surrey countryside which hardly screams sophisticated metropolitan traveller. But then transport infrastructure is pretty terrible for all UK airports, they are all a ball ache to get in and out of.

@Pavementworriereasy for me. Why is it a pain for you?

Its 29 mins from Gatwick to London Bridge, quicker than the GE to Victoria

It's designed to be accessible from London (and Reading) by train.

Getting there any other way is a pain mainly because the price of bringing the M23 into South London was eye-watering.

It was perfectly accessible for us when we lived in S London (via East Croydon) but now we're west of Reading, we use Birmingham whenever possible.

Is this a reverse “Watford gap” post? There are obviously quite a lot of places in the south of England from which Gatwick is relatively convenient to access.

If you live north of London use Luton or Stanstead. There are other regional airports as well.

Why would you expect any airport to be easy to access for anybody regardless of where they live?

It’s certainly true that investment should be put into upgrading the train lines from London going south, particularly the London to Brighton line. This would be a far better investment than HS2 to make travel to Birmingham slightly quicker given these are major commuter routes and the route to a major airport.

This is spectacularly untrue @Pavementworrier

Chugging along ? It takes no time at all to get from Gatwick into London. If you want faster then take the Gatwick Express.

Hear hear to this! Was going to post exactly the same thing!

…which is actually slower to get into London than the regular train!

They say 30 mins? Regular trains are about 43. 🤷‍♀️

The regular train I catch goes from Gatwick to London Bridge in 29 minutes. Gatwick Express to Victoria is 31 minutes.

It used to be 10 minutes for me. Maybe your problem is just you live too far for Gatwick?

It’s a lovely spot for me, 40 mins away and no central london to contend with

It might be difficult for you but we live 4.5 hours away and the train goes directly to and from there. We love it for long haul travel.

Gatwick is my preferred airport. Super easy for me to get to. Sometimes if we are taking a very early morning flight we stay over in the Bloc hotel which is right in the airport. No stress in getting to the airport in the middle of the night. Can’t be doing with Heathrow or Stansted.

I’m not in Croydon and it’s really easy for me

28 minutes from Gatwick to Clapham Junction, only stop is East Croydon. That's hardly chugging along. As opposed to Heathrow, where it's almost impossible to get directly into Surrey, and until very recently with the Elizabeth Line, Berkshire was difficult too

This OP is determined to have a go, whatever the reply.

I love Gatwick. Easy to get to from anywhere south of Camden. Unlike Heathrow, it acts like an airport rather than like a vast mall with planes. Stansted is a nightmare. Luton is near Luton.

Gatwick's the airport of choice.

Ha! You think Gatwick is a pain to get to? Try flying from Bristol, or Cardiff. Gatwick has a mainline railway station and its own motorway junction. It's in easy reach of the biggest population centre in the country by both public and private transportation.