Travel Tips – Gatwick Airport Transfers to London

Jan 20
13:11

2015

Lisa Jeeves

Lisa Jeeves

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Access to London from Gatwick was once based on the train service into Victoria. Gatwick airport transfers by road have made it much more convenient.

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Gatwick Airport transfers to London are sometimes assumed to undertaken best by just getting on the train and heading into London Victoria. Yet there are some challenges with that method that might make you consider the very convenient private road services – aka shuttles to the centre of the city. Some travellers may find this brief history of this hugely busy airport very interesting.

A little history

In one sense,Travel Tips – Gatwick Airport Transfers to London Articles the airport was years ahead of its time. Decades before a traveller could do the same at Heathrow, passengers could walk directly off a public transport mainline train, walk across a bridge and into the main airport here. No need for transfer buses or anything similar.

That was ideal because in those now long-distant days of the 1960s, the airport had expanded on the basis of catering for essential charter flights, for what was then the newly-developing mass tourist market heading for the sun in Spain or Italy. Much of its inbound traffic was UK tourists returning from their package holiday.

However, times change and today it is a major international hub in its own right, catering for all sorts of travellers, including business and inbound tourists. What that means is that inbound travellers are no longer content with simply getting a series of trains and buses to their final destination but expect to be delivered to the door – hence the advent of the private Gatwick Airport transfers.

London’s mainline rail infrastructure

The problem with London, in common with many capital and major cities, is that its rail network remains essentially star-shaped, with the centre being London itself. Unfortunately, though, the individual lines into London from the various points of the compass don’t actually join-up directly for the most part. So, if you take a train into Victoria, that’s as far as you can go, unless you start taking the Underground to other mainline stations to catch more trains. If your final destination is close by in the south west of London that's fine, if, though, you’re heading to another part of the capital, you face the prospect of hauling your luggage over some significant distances around the public transport system.

It's for this reason that private Gatwick Airport transfers by road have become so popular. It’s possible for groups of people to travel together in considerable comfort and be delivered right to their final destination in or around the capital. The road links directly into the very centre of London are excellent and prices are reasonable – particularly for groups.

What’s the future?

For many decades now, the UK has recognised that additional airport capacity is required in the South-East of England. There is no easy answer to this, because this region is one of the most densely populated in Europe and building a new airport or increasing capacity at existing airports isn’t going to be popular with the public in the area or areas affected. However, many pundits are predicting Gatwick will be chosen as the new airport for major expansion - partly because it is already largely in place and partly due to the excellent Gatwick Airport transfers. So, watch this space over the next few years.