airport surface access strategy€¦ · airport with accessible and reliable surface transport...
TRANSCRIPT
AIRPORT SURFACE ACCESS STRATEGY
MAY 2018
CONTENTS
Welcome from our CEO
Introduction and Context 1
Sustainability 5
A New Airport Surface Access Strategy 9
Our Performance 17
Gatwick by Rail 25
Gatwick by Road 31
Car Parking 39
Cycling and Pedestrian Access 43
WELCOME This is the first update of our Airport Surface Access
Strategy since 2012, when almost 34 million
passengers passed through our doors. In the 12
months to July 2017 we passed the 45 million mark.
Over the same five-year period, the number of
people working at the airport has grown from almost
21,000 to over 23,800, with more than 10,000 in
airport-related jobs in the surrounding area. Our
surface access links, by road and rail, are essential
for delivering customer service and a safe and
accessible workplace. They ensure people and
goods have access to Gatwick as a gateway to the
world, and connect returning travellers and overseas visitors to the rest of
the UK. Our main line rail network and national motorway links, accessed
direct from our terminals, carry over 60 million journeys a year to or from the
airport. Ensuring we have a robust strategy for managing and improving
surface access is essential to Gatwick’s operations.
Gatwick is successfully competing in the global aviation market, operating to nearly
230 destinations in over 70 countries worldwide, including over 60 long haul routes.
Our established airlines continue to grow and new partners are attracted to the
airport by world class facilities and excellent onward transport connections. Having
reached the 45 million passengers a year mark, we are looking to how and when
we might grow above 50 million passengers. We can only do this if we support our
airport with accessible and reliable surface transport connections; for inbound and
outbound passengers, staff from a wide catchment area, and suppliers and
businesses across the region and nationally.
Our vision is to remain the best connected and accessible UK airport, delivering
sustainable travel choices and integrated solutions to support economic growth.
Our railway station is the busiest in the South East, excluding London, catering for
over 19 million journeys last year. We have an aspiration for over half our
passengers to travel by rail, and we are working with DfT, Network Rail and GTR
on exciting plans for a new railway station to support our ambition. This ASAS sets
out the first steps for achieving this aspiration by moving towards a target of a 45%
rail mode share by 2030.
Gatwick’s commitments are to improve our public transport mode share for
passengers and staff, provide sustainable travel choices and reduce the
environmental impacts of surface access. We are taking business decisions with
our supplier partners to support the use of electric and hybrid vehicles, and the
latest generation clean-fuel buses and coaches, to help achieve our carbon
reduction plans. We recognise that, for some, car travel will be the only effective
mode of access so we are also developing a roads strategy to enhance our access
roads, forecourts and car parks to manage growth, as well as supporting the M23
Smart Motorway widening project led by Highways England.
We believe that our Surface Access Strategy leads the way for best practice, in
part due to the active involvement of stakeholders and partners with common
goals. We are very grateful to the members of the Transport Forum Steering
Group that monitor progress on our surface transport initiatives and hold us to
account. Efficient transport links will benefit the whole of the local community and
the opportunities that exist for improvements to road and rail access mean that we
remain confident in our ability to grow sustainably.
We have a credible, financeable and deliverable plan for a second runway at
Gatwick, including investment in road and rail access, which guarantees growth
and a connected future for Britain as it leaves the EU. Whilst Government pursues
an alternative solution, Gatwick will continue with the important task of planning for
growth and investing in the world’s most efficient single runway airport and making
best use of existing facilities. The years covered by this ASAS correspond to an
exciting period for Gatwick. We will continue to upgrade our facilities, improve
passenger services and focus on driving operational efficiency.
This Strategy will be consulted upon with the Gatwick Area Transport Forum and
updated in line with our future master plan. It will be delivered by our Surface
Transport Team, in partnership with others at Gatwick and with all our stakeholders
through the Transport Forum.
Stewart Wingate
Chief Executive Officer
An aerial view of Gatwick Airport shows the proximity of the M23 motorway, with direct access to both South Terminal and North Terminal, and the full integration of the railway station on the
Brighton Main Line with South Terminal, providing a class-leading air-rail interchange
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INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT This is Gatwick’s Airport Surface Access Strategy (ASAS), a five year plan
that sets out an objective-led vision for sustainable access to and from the
world’s most efficient single runway airport and the UK’s second largest
international gateway. Access to and from the airport is an essential part
of Gatwick’s ambition to grow and become London’s airport of choice.
Although not a statutory document, this ASAS sets out important targets
and action plans, which will be monitored by key stakeholders and provide
the focus of activity for Gatwick’s Surface Transport Team. This strategy
sets out the infrastructure, services, relationships and ways of working we
will need to support the airport operations, Gatwick’s users and our
neighbouring communities through to 2022, as well as setting the
foundation for the longer term.
Our aim is to promote sustainable travel for our passengers and staff, and
we will work with our partners and service providers to deliver safe and
efficient access 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Our ASAS will also
be reflected in our masterplanning for future growth, our Decade of
Change sustainability strategy and our Capital Investment Plan.
In 2012 “Access Gatwick” set a new benchmark for best practice by setting
our objectives for sustainable travel within a longer term vision, supporting
growth, embracing technology and providing choice. It explored how
surface access to airports may change in the years to 2030. This new
ASAS will consolidate the achievements that have brought unparalleled
growth, world-first innovations and exciting development projects. It builds
on the 2012 ASAS and highlights how we are already embracing some of
the “future” technology, which is already here.
Within the last five years Gatwick has served a record number of
passengers, completed some of the biggest and most complex projects in
our history and provided industry leadership in technology, sustainability
and efficiency. Our recent achievements include hitting almost all of our
surface transport targets and creating a sound basis for managing major
changes to both road and rail access over the next few years.
This ASAS sets out how we will tackle these new challenges while
delivering an excellent passenger experience and maintaining capacity
and choice to meet the needs of all airport users. It will be updated as
required in line with relevant masterplanning and investment strategies.
GATWICK AIRPORT CONTEXT
Gatwick has evolved over 60 years, since the current South Terminal first
opened in 1958. Thirty years ago the airport added a second, the North
Terminal and this forms the basis of the single runway, two terminal
operation that continues today. However, facilities and capacity across the
airport have continued to develop, in response to increasing demand, the
need for greater efficiency and to adapt to changing customer
expectations and technology.
Gatwick’s runway sees up to 55 movements in a busy hour during the summer
Gatwick is the second busiest airport in the UK and the world’s most
efficient single runway achieving 950 aircraft movements a day during our
busiest periods and one arrival or departure a minute in peak hours. This
allows Gatwick to serve over 160,000 passengers on a busy, summer day.
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London is the biggest aviation passenger market in the world and more
than a quarter of London’s air passengers chose to use Gatwick Airport in
2017. Since 2012 Gatwick has grown by over a third, adding nearly 12m
passengers, more than any other UK airport. In 2012 we transported
close to 34 million passengers through our doors, in the 12 months to July
2017 this figure exceeded 45 million. Approximately 8% of these
passengers transfer between flights at Gatwick, the remainder use the
road and rail networks to access the airport or for onward travel.
We currently serve nearly 230 destinations in over 70 countries, more than
any other airport in the UK, including more than 60 long haul destinations
as far afield as Peru, Singapore and China. We are served by some of the
largest and fastest-growing airlines in Europe. Gatwick is the largest base
for EasyJet accounting for over a third of our passengers in 2017 and a
growing British Airways route network. One of our fastest growing airlines
is Norwegian, operating short haul and expanding long haul schedules.
Figure 1: UK distribution of terminating passengers (CAA survey data)
Gatwick’s proximity to London and surface access links to the wider South
East (and beyond) provide a wide catchment area. In total, around 15
million people are estimated to live within an hour’s travel time of Gatwick.
According to CAA survey data, 80% of Gatwick’s terminating passengers
(i.e. excluding transfer passengers) were travelling to/from destinations in
London or the South East and around half of those were in Greater
London, as illustrated in Figure 1 and Figure 2.
Over 23,800 people work for over 250 employers at different sites around
the airport, including over 50 different airlines. We have a responsibility for
keeping all of our staff and suppliers safe while they are working or
conducting business at the airport and this influences our day to day
operations and our staff travel planning. We provide support and
incentives for staff to use sustainable modes of access for their journey to
work.
Figure 2: South East distribution of terminating passengers (CAA survey data)
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In 2017 Gatwick handled approaching 100,000 tonnes of cargo, mostly in
the hold of long haul passenger aircraft. This is still significantly below
figures from the early 2000s but is increasing as Gatwick’s long haul network
grows. Through consolidation, we have reduced the number of goods
movements to and from the airport, which remains a very small proportion of
total traffic, and will continue to adopt best practice to minimise the impact of
any increase in cargo volume.
We aim to deliver the best passenger experience by listening to our
passengers and providing the kind of service that will make them choose
to fly from Gatwick. One of the first initiatives at Gatwick under new
ownership in 2010 was the creation of three key Passenger Commitments:
We’ll treat you as our guest
We hate queues
We love to be on time
A significant part of the £1.5bn already invested at Gatwick since 2010,
and the £1.2bn earmarked for the next five years, is targeted directly at
these commitments. We have re-built Pier 1, combined with a new
baggage handling system in South Terminal, allowing passengers to
check in luggage up to 18 hours before their flight.
The new fast turn stands at Pier 1
We have improved the passenger journey through the airport, including a
world leading passenger security search process and the world’s largest
self-service bag-drop facility in North Terminal.
Our North Terminal has been transformed with the new self-serve check-in and bag drop areas
Our investment programme is outlined in our Capital Investment Plan,
which is updated annually. As well as setting our key spending priorities
the CIP provides an update on our anticipated passenger demand, based
on forecasting that takes account of prevailing market conditions. The
most recent CIP, published in June 2017, estimated that Gatwick would be
serving up to nearly 47 million passengers per year by 2022. As we
prepare to update the CIP for 2018 we are already slightly ahead of our
estimated passenger demand.
In January 2017 Gatwick completed the successful 72 hour transition
during which easyJet was consolidated in North Terminal, and we
switched two of our biggest airlines British Airways (north to south) and
Virgin (south to north). Airline Moves was one of the largest and most
complex projects in Gatwick’s history, the culmination of 2 years of
planning, affecting 10,000 staff and combining 84 construction projects
and 37 operational trials.
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We lead the way in applying new technology to improve efficiency and
enhance the passenger experience. In 2017 we installed 2,000 indoor
navigation beacons in our terminals enabling augmented reality wayfinding
for passengers. The system is much more reliable than GPS and can be
used within a range of mobile airport, airline or third party apps. We have
also introduced a new airport app providing information and orientation for
passengers at every stage of their journey through the airport, which also
will be the platform for the new augmented reality wayfinding.
ACCESSING THE AIRPORT
Gatwick has operated around an integrated air-rail interchange for over 80
years, from when the circular Beehive terminal was built for the first
commercial aircraft at Gatwick in 1936, with direct access from a high
quality rail service via a dedicated station, a world’s first. When the new
South Terminal was opened in 1958 it was accompanied by an adjoining
railway station and large parts of both are 60 years old this year. In 2014
Gatwick Airport railway station opened its seventh platform, allowing for
improved operation and greater capacity.
Our new onward travel screens in our baggage claim areas provide live information about
road and rail connections from the airport
In 1988 a new North Terminal brought with it new highway access, car
parks and an inter-terminal shuttle connecting back to the railway station.
Gatwick operates on a relatively small footprint and while this creates
challenges for incremental growth it ensures a high degree of accessibility
with short walk and travel times between sites.
Simplified wayfinding, with information designed to improve accessibility, is used throughout
the airport
The airport is directly connected to the M23 motorway at South Terminal,
with a dedicated motorway spur. From South Terminal Airport Way
connects to the North Terminal, which also sits adjacent to the A23
running between Crawley and Horley. Proximity to the local and strategic
road network allows access by both local buses and long distance coach
services. These can be operated efficiently to within a short walking
distance of both our terminals rather than to a remote interchange point.
The same is true for car and taxi access, with drop off/pick up and short
stay parking closely linked to each terminal.
Segregated walking and cycling routes exist to connect Gatwick with its
adjacent communities in Horley and Crawley, providing useful access for
staff living locally. The South Terminal and railway station lie adjacent to
National Cycle Network route 21, which in turn links to recreational routes
across the South East.
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SUSTAINABILITY Sustainability plays a central role in Gatwick’s transformation and the
airport has a clear, publicly stated aim of becoming the UK’s most
sustainable airport. In 2010 we launched our Decade of Change initiative,
Gatwick’s sustainability strategy, which set ambitious targets to improve
Gatwick’s environmental and sustainability performance by 2020.
Achieving our surface access targets and delivering on our action plan is
an important contributor to meeting our sustainability objectives.
Gatwick is acutely aware of the balance between the environmental
impacts of an expanding operation and the economic benefits of the
airport, while at the same time delivering excellent service to our
passengers and airlines. We believe that the better we manage our
facilities, including modernising the airport in the most sustainable way, the
smaller our environmental footprint will become.
Gatwick’s performance against the Decade of Change targets is
measured, audited and reported on each year in our Decade of Change
Sustainability Report.
Since the initiative was launched in 2010, the airport has grown from 31
million to over 45 million passengers a year, yet Gatwick’s environmental
footprint today is the same or smaller than in 2010.
Our Decade of Change sustainability pledges
Our Decade of Change programme sets out our 10-year 10-topic strategy for
making Gatwick a leader in sustainability by 2020. We are two thirds through our
programme for delivering these pledges and we monitor and report on our
performance in each category every year.
1. Community - Share the benefits of Gatwick’s growth, contributing to the social,
environmental and educational development of our community.
2. Economy - Develop and fulfil our role as an economic driver of local, regional
and national significance.
3. Carbon - By 2020 reduce our carbon emissions by 50% against a 1990 baseline
(Scope 1 and 2 emissions). Source 25% of our energy from renewable sources.
4. Air quality – Improve air quality impacts using new technology, systems and
processes.
5. Noise - Be consistently recognised as a best practice operator for noise
management.
6. Transport – Increase sustainable access options for our passengers and staff.
Achieve 40% public transport mode share for air passengers and staff by the time
the airport reaches 40 mppa and identify feasible measures to achieve a stretch
target of 45% mode share.
7. Energy - By 2020 achieve a 20% reduction in energy against a 1990 baseline.
8. Waste - Generate no untreated waste to landfill and achieve a 70% waste
recycling rate by 2020.
9. Water - Continually improve the quality of water leaving the airport. Achieve a
20% reduction in water consumption against a 2010 baseline.
10. Biodiversity - Have an award-winning approach to biodiversity through
achieving a nationally recognised award for ecological awareness.
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AN INTEGRATED APPROACH
Carbon emissions
As part of our Decade of Change reporting, we calculate and review the
annual carbon footprint from Airport operations and those who use it.
Emissions from passengers’ and staff surface access journeys to the
airport contribute 26% of carbon emissions with staff commuting adding a
further 7%, behind only the landing – take off cycle for aircraft as a share
of overall emissions. This means that promoting greater uptake of
sustainable travel and low or zero emission vehicles can make a
significant and measurable difference to carbon management and climate
change mitigation.
One of the most significant, recent sustainability achievements for Gatwick
has been the certification of the airport at ‘Level 3+ Neutral’ by Airport
Carbon Accreditation. This means we are the first carbon neutral London
airport and the second busiest neutral Airport in Europe after Amsterdam
Schiphol.
We are already making good progress towards meeting several of our Decade of Change
targets and, in the process, are setting new UK and global benchmarks for sustainability
This accreditation applies to our emissions from fuels, electricity and
business travel. In 2016 we continued to reduce these emissions and to
purchase 100% certified renewable electricity to run the Airport. Our
residual 2016 emissions were offset through Gold Standard carbon
credits. Airport Carbon Accreditation also requires independent verification
of our carbon footprint and collaborative action to reduce third party
emissions.
In 2016 Gatwick also became one of a handful of organisations to hold
triple certification to the Carbon Trust Standard for reducing carbon, water
use and waste management.
Air quality management
We review and assess air quality in and around Gatwick on a regular basis
to ensure that pollutants resulting from our day to day activities are below
their respective limit values set by the Government. The general trend in
emissions levels over the years has been downwards and our goal is to
maintain this trend. Our objectives to improve air quality are a key
component of our Decade of Change sustainability strategy.
Off-airport monitoring takes place at three permanent sites near the airport
and is conducted in partnership with Reigate and Banstead Borough
Council (RBBC) as part of the Horley Air Quality Management Area
(AQMA). In 2016, in agreement with RBBC, we put in place an additional
air quality monitoring programme on the A23 Brighton Road in Horley and
also at Hazelwick Roundabout area in Crawley. At both locations, Gatwick-
related road traffic represents a small proportion of total vehicles,
particularly in the peak periods. On the A23 Brighton Road tips to and from
Gatwick account for less than 17% of total traffic across both peaks and at
Hazelwick Roundabout less than 5%. We will continue to assist with
monitoring air quality in both areas as well as supporting further measures
to provide low or zero emission choices for onward travel in the local area,
alongside our service providers.
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Waste management
In 2016, Gatwick became the first airport in the world able to dispose of
Category 1 airline waste on site. At Gatwick’s waste processing plant this
and all other organic waste is converted into energy to heat the new plant
and potentially other airport facilities. We also sort waste in-house to
maximise the amount recycled, reaching almost 70% in 2018 which is the
highest rate for a UK airport. The upgraded plant also has a surface
access impact, reducing lorry journeys to external waste plants by 50%
and so reducing local road congestion, carbon and air quality impacts.
Our energy from waste facilities helps us to achieve our no waste to landfill target but also
reduces waste truck movements by over 50%
SUSTAINABLE SURFACE ACCESS
Surface Access presents one of the areas with the highest potential to
improve Gatwick’s environmental impact. Vehicle traffic to the airport
contributes to our carbon footprint, greenhouse gas emissions and local
road congestion. Thus Surface Access is an integral part of Gatwick’s
Decade of Change sustainability strategy, with an initial objective set in
2010 to increase sustainable travel options for our passengers and staff.
Following our 2012 Airport Surface Access Strategy, its public transport
mode share goals for passengers were also incorporated into the Decade
of Change strategy. We report annually on this, as well as staff sustainable
transport mode share, in our Decade of Change sustainability report.
This reporting on our modal share targets is based on data provided by the
CAA. We also undertake our own surveys of passenger modal share. In
2016 we undertook the Travel to Work survey to obtain an updated picture
of staff travel behaviours. This indicated the proportion of staff that are
commuting via sustainable modes, again set against our ASAS targets.
We are committed to increasing our public transport mode share, having
achieved our target of 40% of passengers using public transport by the
time the airport served 40 million passengers per annum and approaching
our stretch target, with over 44% using public transport in 2017. We are
making further strides among staff commuting to the airport by sustainable
modes, at 37% in 2016 and over 40% if sustainable travel options such as
car sharing are included.
From a surface access perspective sustainability means:
Maximising the number of passengers and staff utilising public transport and other sustainable transport modes to access the airport
Driving innovation in transport technology to improve sustainability
Minimising our impact on congestion on local and national strategic road networks
Minimising the impact of airport-related traffic in terms of air quality, promoting low and zero emission vehicles in use at and around the airport
Adhering to our obligations under S106 and committing to our action plans.
8
An aerial view of the South Terminal shows the integration of the railway station and terminal, with the forecourt and multi-storey car parks to the east. The terminal building sits over the A23
running north to south and the entrance to the shuttle linking South Terminal to North Terminal is at the top of the view, between the railway station and the A23 (note, this photograph pre-dates the
construction of Platform 7).
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A NEW AIRPORT SURFACE ACCESS STRATEGY Our ASAS is built around the inherent characteristics of the airport,
including easy access to the strategic road network and an integrated
main line railway station alongside local access routes. Gatwick strongly
supports the use of sustainable travel choices to and from the airport, and
we have one of the highest public transport mode shares of any UK airport
including the highest rail mode share. We recognise that bus, coach and
rail services will not be convenient for all airport users and therefore we
also cater for car and taxi journeys. We also work to ensure everyone has
an equal opportunity to fly and provide services and choices suitable for
those with impaired mobility or for people that find access to, from and
through the airport challenging. Our surface access approach is
developed in partnership with our Terminals and Passenger Experience
teams.
To achieve our objectives for surface transport and ensure good quality
accessibility we work with a range of service providers and stakeholders
including Government, national agencies, local authorities, operators,
investment partners and stakeholders. We aim to secure the right future
investment decisions, with resilient transport solutions, delivered on time
and in readiness for growth.
We are constantly seeking to improve our working practices, reporting and
engagement in order to reflect the changing nature of the airport and the
needs of our passengers, staff and service providers. As a result, this
ASAS does not simply update the previous one but shows how we are
moving forward and delivering on some of the objectives and targets we
set just over five years ago. It also reflects where we still have work to do
or where we might decide to adjust our focus.
BACKGROUND
To reflect progress on measures to provide efficient and safe access to the
airport we publish an Airport Surface Access Strategy. The ASAS is
subject to regular monitoring and covers a period of approximately five
years. The main elements of the ASAS relate to promoting public transport
and active travel (walking and cycling modes), managing the impacts of
road traffic accessing the airport and taking measures to reduce this where
possible, whilst maintaining choice. Government guidance states that the
ASAS should:
Show how we intend to increase passenger/staff access by public transport (offering clear and robust targets and a strategy for delivery)
Include a staff travel plan for increasing travel to work by sustainable modes
Provide an action plan with performance indicators and output measures to monitor and assess progress
Confirm the approach to monitoring progress through an Airport Transport Forum
We provide a clear and robust strategy to secure delivery of these targets
based on sound analysis and agreed with the Transport Forum. Within this
strategy, we recognise the airport’s role as a transport interchange. Our
ASAS targets are not statutory but we note their relevance to other
statutory requirements, such as those relating to air quality, which may rely
on measures to reduce road traffic emissions that are stated in the ASAS.
It is important that the strategy fits with wider airport masterplanning and
our Capital Investment Plan, which evolve in response to passenger
requirements and our business objectives. The ASAS must also explicitly
considers longer term objectives for sustainable growth. For the purposes
of monitoring, the targets and action plan consider a five-year time
horizon. The exception is where targets reflect the outcomes from any
major infrastructure projects planned and delivered over a longer period.
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This ASAS is an overarching document covering all access modes and all
user groups, including passengers, staff, service providers, contractors
and emergency services. Our strategy has specific regard to the following:
accessibility needs of all groups, including mobility impaired people
transport modelling and analysis required to appraise schemes being considered in the action plan
the need to consider methods of demand management options to tackle congestion and pollution, if required as a result of environmental targets
relevant parking and road strategies (on and off airport) and how these might be used to meet demand whilst encouraging motorists and car passengers onto public transport
Our Section 106 agreement with Crawley Borough Council and West
Sussex County Council requires our ASAS and car parking strategy to
demonstrate that Gatwick is acting consistently with local and national
planning policy to reduce the impact of road traffic.
THE GATWICK AREA TRANSPORT FORUM
One of the most important aspects of our surface transport remit is to work
with a wide range of stakeholders and business partners. By doing this we
can achieve a co-ordinated approach against shared objectives. The main
consultative group is the Gatwick Area Transport Forum, which was set up
in 1998. The Transport Forum consists of GAL, local authorities, transport
providers and agencies, business representatives, airlines and other
interested parties.
Our Transport Forum Steering Group meets quarterly to review progress
on initiatives and projects relating to surface transport. The group also
discusses any wider, relevant issues that could impact access to Gatwick.
One of the main responsibilities of the Steering Group is to monitor
progress against the ASAS, in accordance with Government guidance.
Their role is to oversee its development and implementation, specifically
ensuring that the ASAS sets out:
challenging short- and long-term targets for increasing the proportion of journeys made to the airport by public transport;
a staff travel plan consistent with achieving these targets, taking into account prospective growth at the airport and background growth in traffic; and
a monitoring system whereby the Transport Forum can oversee implementation of the strategy
Members of the steering group are drawn from the following organisations:
West Sussex County Council (WSCC)
East Sussex County Council (ESCC)
Surrey County Council (SCC)
Kent County Council (KCC)
Crawley Borough Council (CBC)
Highways England
Network Rail
Transport for London (TfL)
South London Partnership
Gatwick Diamond
Passenger Advisory Group (PAG)
Airline Operators Committee
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR)
Metrobus
In addition, the steering group appoints task sub-groups to look at specific
issues. In 2017 a permanent Bus & Coach Sub-Group was set up to
develop our approach to local bus services. This includes reviewing our
priorities for funding local services through the Passenger Transport Levy
(PTL), in support of our objective to increase bus and coach mode share
for passengers and staff.
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The Transport Forum works alongside two sub-groups from our airport-
wide Passenger Advisory Group (PAG), one for rail and the other for
non-rail modes. These represent the specific needs of airport passengers
and explicitly consider passenger experience, including the needs of
mobility impaired travellers, as well as reviewing progress on projects and
initiatives.
ANNUAL GATWICK TRANSPORT FORUM
All of our relationships with our stakeholders, partners and agencies are
distilled once a year into a single room for the Gatwick Transport Forum.
This annual event brings together these partners to celebrate the work that
has been done, hold Gatwick to account for its surface access and to
discuss wider issues and trends within the transport sector.
The Transport Forum helps us take stock of what has been achieved and
allows us the following:
To update stakeholders on our actions
To inform them on our performance
To communicate our plans for the future
To listen to their concerns, thoughts and ideas
And to inspire them with trends and innovation in the transport industry through thought-provoking presentations and guest speakers.
We also welcome the forum as an opportunity for stakeholders to
challenge us and hold us to account for our progress and actions.
OUR SURFACE TRANSPORT TEAM
GAL employs an experienced Surface Transport Team responsible for
managing all aspects of surface access, working with suppliers and a wide
range of stakeholders. Our roles include stakeholder engagement,
partnerships, communications and marketing as well as operations,
commercial contracts with suppliers, planning, project delivery, data
analysis and strategy.
The Team is responsible for making sure all of our passengers and staff
can access the airport conveniently and safely by road, rail, on foot or
cycle. It is responsible for the first impression of Gatwick for a departing
air passenger and the last impression for an arriving air passenger, as well
as providing for safe 24/7 staff access including sustainable travel choices.
Day to day the Surface Transport Operations team keep the 27 miles of
roads that GAL manages safe and clear. It also assists with the
management of any highway or rail incidents or disruption as effectively as
possible ensuring impacts and mitigation are communicated to our
customers, staff and stakeholders as quickly as possible. We work closely
with the emergency services, Highways England and its network
management framework partners, and with GTR’s Gatwick Airport Station
Manager to stay up to date with any changes that may require action.
An essential part of our Surface Transport operations function is to maintain a safe and
accessible airport, whatever the weather. During the winter we can use as much as 15-20
tonnes of grit to keep our roads and footways clear
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The safety and security of our passengers, staff and service providers
around the airport is our top priority. Our approach to managing road and
pedestrian safety is part of our airport-wide programme called
GatwickSAFE, which is a cultural approach to identify and encourage the
challenge of unsafe acts and conditions, and recognise, reward and
reinforce those which are safe. We take a proactive approach to
monitoring the condition of our assets and using data to identify the need
for any action.
Our Strategy team works with other groups across the airport to develop
our medium and long term plans to serve the needs of our staff and
passengers in a sustainable way. The whole team works with project
managers, engineers and change managers from across the wider
business to deliver these plans. We provide a focus for all staff travel
needs and enquiries, working with service providers and stakeholders in
the local community to maximise the effectiveness of our travel plan.
We regularly review data related to Gatwick and other airports, as well as
researching changes in transport trends and policy to ensure we aspire to
good practice. Alongside the Operations team we provide a
comprehensive Communications Plan for surface access, ensuring we use
our media channels to provide accurate, relevant and up-to-date
information for passenger and staff travel. This involves close working
with service providers and stakeholders to keep information consistent.
Through these stakeholders we also contribute to regional and national
consultations and working groups relating to surface transport.
OUR SURFACE ACCESS VISION
Gatwick has achieved a number of UK and global firsts in achieving our
ambition to be the world’s most efficient single runway airport. This is
based on a vision of efficiency across all areas of our business, and using
technology to achieve sustainable growth. We have the same ambition for
surface transport, supported by our service providers and partners.
Our ASAS Objectives, Targets and Action Plan are set out in this section
of the report. Running across our objectives, and linking the ASAS back to
Gatwick’s passenger commitments and core values is our Vision for
surface access. Whilst we recognise that we can only influence certain
aspects of our surface transport links we are committed to ensure the
quality and efficiency of access does not compromise the safe operation of
the airport or the transport and environmental impacts on our neighbours.
Our surface access vision is:
To provide safe and sustainable access for all
airport users, without compromising quality
or choice, and to provide for growth while
supporting the needs of our local
communities, economy and environment.
The responsibility for delivering this vision lies with our Surface Transport
Team, supported by the wider airport community and endorsed by the
Executive Management Board.
Achieving this vision will be a constant and evolving challenge, requiring
the participation and support of a wide range of partners. In order to
measure progress and ensure this ASAS is consistent with our vision we
have identified a number of key objectives that will guide our activities over
the next five years.
In translating this vision into a coherent set of objectives, targets and
action plans we have consulted the Transport Forum Steering Group on
what they expect from the ASAS. Our strategy therefore seeks to address
the following comments:
Provides a positive vision for Gatwick, referencing its strategic economic value
Includes aims that are clear, concise and linked to objectives
Identifies targets that are measurable and distinct
Has a clear, “auditable” action plan for the TFSG to challenge GAL on progress
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Sets mode share targets for staff and passengers separately
Includes targets by mode where relevant, and for public transport/sustainable travel overall
Provides more emphasis on relationships and joint working (with a range of stakeholders, including airlines) to promote sustainable travel
Highlights more use of data and evidence to support the action plan
Is based on clear project delivery timescales to achieve targets
Set proactive targets for staff travel, to make best use of PTL budget and spending
Include targets/actions for managing parking (on and off airport)
Include actions to extend ASAS working groups and stakeholder engagement
Our Annual Transport Forum plays an integral part in creating awareness of our Surface
Transport activities and promoting stakeholder engagement
OBJECTIVES
Our new ASAS is objective-led so that we can be transparent in measuring
our performance and be held to account by our Transport Forum and
stakeholders. We will continue to meet the objectives set in our 2012
ASAS, which focus on being well connected, accessible, sustainable and
innovative. However, our rapid growth means that we also will need to
focus on maintaining a high level of passenger experience at the same
time as managing considerable change, especially to road and rail access
in the next few years. With this in mind we have developed the following
four objectives in consultation with our Transport Forum Steering Group:
Objective 1: Continue to innovate as the best connected and most
accessible UK airport, delivering integrated surface
transport and sustainable growth by meeting customers'
needs.
Objective 2: Manage the transition to enhanced rail and road provision,
securing safe, efficient and reliable journeys for all users of
the transport network, with effective communication.
Objective 3: Collaborate with key stakeholders and communities in the
region to maximise the economic potential from efficient
road and rail access to Gatwick.
Objective 4: Deliver a new standard in sustainable surface access in
support of Gatwick’s Decade of Change, using technology
to achieve greater choice and efficiency.
These objectives give us high level, over-arching criteria against which to
assess our projects and plans. We will also use these objectives to
articulate our surface transport “contract” with staff/passengers/suppliers.
To help with measuring how we are achieving our objectives we need a
series of targets and a corresponding action plan. We have set out to
make our targets challenging but realistic and achievable. We will strive to
exceed our targets where possible. These will also contribute to meeting
our statutory Section 106 obligations and Decade of Change targets.
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TARGETS
Our main targets relate to mode share change, which we report quarterly
and support the Government’s objective to promote sustainable travel.
Over the last two decades Gatwick has successfully grown its public
transport mode share and supported sustainable staff travel through a
variety of projects and initiatives. We currently sustain a public transport
mode share for passengers of 44%, the majority of which (39%) is by rail.
We expect these trends to continue over the period of this ASAS and our
targets reflect this.
This ASAS sets out specific targets related to reductions in car journeys
that have the greatest environmental impact. We have also reflected the
views of the Transport Forum Steering Group regarding stakeholder
relationships and joint working initiatives.
Target 1: Achieve 48% public transport mode share for airport
passengers by 2022 under the scrutiny of the Transport Forum
Steering Group
Target 2: Demonstrate clear progress towards reaching a rail mode
share aspiration of 45% by 2030, by achieving a rail mode
share of over 40% by 2019 and sustaining at least this level to
2022.
Target 3: Achieve 42% of staff journeys to work by sustainable modes
(public transport, active travel modes and group travel provided
by individual employers for their staff, referred to as “company
transport”) and 45% including other sustainable travel initiatives
(car share and zero emission vehicles) by 2022.
Target 4: Deliver a reduction in air passenger “Kiss and Fly” car journeys
equivalent to at least 10% of its 2017 mode share by 2022, and
a reduction in single occupancy car journeys by staff of at least
10% of its 2017 mode share.
Target 5: Reduce the ratio of staff to parking spaces in line with a shift to
more sustainable modes of at least 5% by 2022 and achieve
5% of staff car journeys by registered car share users.
Target 6: Achieve in excess of a 5% year on year increase in bus use by
staff and passengers, and demonstrate measurable value for
money from Passenger Transport Levy funding.
Target 7: Deliver continuous improvement across the full range of Quality
Service Monitor metrics, maintaining a level above 4.0 with
measurable scores for bus/coach, taxi and car rental.
Our new sustainable travel targets indicate more public transport use by 2022 and more staff
cycling, walking and car sharing
ACTION PLAN
Our targets are challenging but achievable, in many cases requiring
continued close working, and the support, of our surface transport service
providers and partners. With respect to Gatwick’s commitment to meet
these targets we have developed a series of actions, which may be added
to over the course of the ASAS, in consultation and agreement with the
Transport Forum Steering Group.
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Each action is designed to contribute to the successful delivery of one or
more of our ASAS Targets.
Action 1: Continue to meet our Section 106 obligations in respect of
local planning policy, including Crawley Borough Council’s
policy on airport related car parking (Policy GAT 3)
Action 2: Create a strong Surface Transport brand identity for
communication and engagement with stakeholders.
Action 3: Produce and implement Communication Plans for the delivery
of the M23 Smart Motorway Project and Gatwick Station
Project and manage the information flow to stakeholders,
passengers and staff through to completion.
Action 4: Prepare a Surface Transport Plan for Construction to manage
access for Gatwick development projects during potential
motorway and railway disruption and measure outcomes in
terms of delay.
Action 5: Work with bus and rail operators to integrate the Gatwick
Staff Travel Discount within the KeyGo smartcard.
Action 6: Develop an Action Plan to increase awareness of staff travel
initiatives and the take up of public transport and active travel
modes for the journey to work.
Action 7: Develop plans for a new Gatwick Cycle Hub in consultation
with local stakeholders and partners.
Action 8: Trial or adopt zero/low emission vehicles for selected Surface
Transport operations, local bus services and car park shuttles
Action 9: Complete projects to improve bus/coach passenger facilities
and capacity at North Terminal.
Action 10: Set out an annual data collection programme in consultation
with the Transport Forum Steering Group, sufficient to
support quarterly monitoring of progress against targets.
Action 11: Undertake a new Staff Travel Survey by the end of 2021 to
measure change in journey to work behaviour in accordance
with ASAS targets.
Action 12: Complete a thorough review of options to manage forecourt
access, including consideration of measures to reduce the
proportion of “Kiss and Fly” trips (those incurring both drop off
and pick up journeys).
Action 13: Develop a sustained approach to funding local bus services
through the PTL that correspond to key staff and passenger
catchment areas in Sussex, Surrey and Kent.
Action 14: Convene regular stakeholder working groups related to the
following:
- Local Community Access and off-airport parking;
- Active Travel.
Action 15: Complete a thorough review of wayfinding and signage at the
airport to produce a prioritised action plan for improvement
and to fill any gaps.
Action 16: Provide an annual update on progress against the ASAS
targets and Car Parking Strategy.
Action 17: Sustain an active role in the Brighton Mainline Alliance,
Community Rail Partnerships and Transport for South East,
and continue Gatwick’s contribution to consultations of
regional and national significance.
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Further initiatives
Achieving our targets and building on recent success becomes more
challenging, as we seek to attract increasing numbers and a wider
catchment of passengers and staff to public transport. This makes it
important that we work together with our surface transport partners to
provide further incentives for sustainable travel. We are confident that we
will achieve a continued increase in rail mode share over the next five
years and beyond. This is as a result of several ongoing initiatives and
new projects that Gatwick will support:
Improving passenger experience at Gatwick Airport station through delivery of a major improvement project that increases concourse capacity, vertical circulation and platform availability.
More frequent trains between Gatwick and London as a result of the 2018 timetable change and the wider catchment achieved with direct trains to Cambridge and Peterborough for the first time with GTR.
Increasing the take up of Oyster and contactless ticketing, offering passengers convenience for onward travel to and in London.
Continuing our successful partnership with Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), to improve the passenger experience and attract regular users.
Doubling the service frequency between Gatwick and Reading as part of a franchise commitment by Great Western Railway (GWR).
Working with bus operators we have increased capacity at our North Terminal bus stops but
are looking at ways to improve the passenger experience further
Alongside exciting projects for rail, we will continue to work with bus and
coach providers to trial new services and provide funding in an effort to
establish sustainable commercial services. Examples of ongoing initiatives
with local and long-distance providers are as follows:
Increase the availability of 24 hour local bus services to provide access to work for staff living in the Crawley, Horsham, Horley and Redhill areas.
Support the new staff service from Brighton and promote further enhancements to increase choice.
Co-funding trials of new routes, in parallel with increasing frequency on existing routes, through express coach providers.
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OUR PERFORMANCE The success of our operation, and our ability to plan effectively for the
future, is supported by regular and in-depth passenger research. This
research helps us to understand passenger needs, their current perception
of Gatwick and how industry and technology trends are changing
expectations on future products and services. We know that, while at the
airport, it is the Gatwick brand that passengers identify with most.
Therefore, it is important to understand what service levels passengers are
both expecting and experiencing. Customer feedback shows that we are
continually improving and compare well against other major airports.
BENCHMARKING
Using our own and third party data, and with consideration of how we are
doing at meeting our objectives and targets, we can also benchmark
Gatwick against other UK and international airports. We constantly strive
to deliver best practice and learn lessons from other airports, sharing
knowledge and aspiring to be the best, encourages us to always meet or
exceed expectations. An example is our benchmarking of short stay
parking, drop off and pick up arrangements to help us address capacity
and provide guidance for private hire access, including Uber.
We also track our surface access mode shares against other airports to
understand if there are underlying trends in passenger behaviour that we
should respond to. Looking over the last 10 years Gatwick has
outperformed the other main London airports in terms of increasing public
transport mode share. Over that time our combined rail, bus and coach
share has increased over 7% compared with around 4% at Stansted and
Heathrow’s remaining broadly flat, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Comparison with other London airports – CAA Public Transport
Mode Share
Source: CAA Annual Passenger Survey
Our benchmarking tells us we continue to lead the way in the UK and
Europe in terms of rail access and connectivity but lag behind other major
UK airports in terms of bus access. Whilst partly this is due to rail
competition, we have highlighted that this requires more focus within this
ASAS.
There are also type types of quality measure that we report
Quality of Service Monitor
Our monthly Quality of Service Monitor (QSM) is an important piece of
research that helps us ensure we are doing everything possible to deliver
the best possible experience for our passengers. The survey aims to gain
an insight to how passengers feel at each stage of their journey through
the airport, with passengers asked to provide a rating from 5 (excellent) to
1 (extremely poor) at selected service touchpoints for both departing and
arriving passengers.
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The findings are distilled into a single overall satisfaction rating and, in
January 2018, we achieved our highest-ever monthly score of 4.33.
However the survey also picks up examples of where scores are slipping,
for example with bus waiting facilities and wayfinding, helping us direct our
attention to aspects of the operation that need improvement.
Airport Service Quality
The Airport Service Quality (ASQ) survey is run by the Airports Council
International (ACI) and involves almost 300 airports worldwide. It is a
quarterly report that we use to benchmark our performance against other
European airports, helping us to see what we are doing well and where we
need to improve. Like our QSM survey, the ASQ research helps us to
target areas of weak performance. It can also be used to measure trends
in passenger satisfaction following change programmes or construction
projects. For example we identified positive improvements in satisfaction
scores following the introduction of new security and check-in processes in
both terminals.
PERFORMANCE AGAINST 2012 ASAS TARGETS
When we set our last mode share targets in 2012, the airport was serving
34 million passenger journeys a year and our mode share for public
transport was just over 40%. We recognised that, even to maintain this
mode share as the airport grew towards 40 million passengers, around
four million additional bus, coach and rail journeys to and from the airport
would be needed. While this appeared challenging in itself, we chose also
to add a stretch target to achieve a 45% public transport mode share as
the airport continued to grow.
So how does our report card look? Since 2012 the airport has grown
significantly, and a number of important changes have taken place. This
growth presents a physical challenge for any facilities that have remained
broadly unchanged over that period having to accommodate up to 35%
more activity.
The targets we set in 2012 were designed to be realistic but challenging,
and were agreed through consultation with our Transport Forum Steering
Group. Our achievement against these targets is as follows:
achieve 40% public transport mode share for air passengers and staff by the time the airport reaches 40 million passengers per annum (mppa) We have sustained a public transport mode share for air passengers since 2010 when we handled 31mppa. We reached 40mppa in 2015, when our public transport mode share was nearly 44%, comfortably exceeding our target. Our preferred metric is to measure staff travel by including all sustainable modes (adding cycling and walking, plus company transport provided by airlines) rather than just public transport. In the 2016 staff travel survey the sustainable mode share for employees was 37% excluding car share, which accounts for up to 6% more, which puts us ahead of our target of 40%.
identify feasible measures to achieve a stretch target of 45% public transport mode share once the 40% target at 40mppa has been achieved We have almost hit our 45% stretch target whilst accommodating growth to over 45mppa, including a boost in rail mode share from 35% in 2012 to 39% in 2017.
achieve a quality service rating of 4.5 for all surface access transport modes and facilities by the time the airport reaches 40mppa Our QSM scores apply to car rental and bus/coach with our taxi provider providing separate customer feedback. Scores have improved in almost every case. For bus, scores are at or above 4.0 with one exception and 20% of metrics have reached 4.5. For car rental and taxi feedback scores remain above 4.0 but have not reached 4.5.
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Passenger journeys
Having already exceeded 45 million passengers for the twelve months to
June 2017 we have almost achieved our 45% stretch target, which is a
great achievement. CAA mode share data for 2017 (adjusted to 100%),
illustrated in Figure 4, shows 44.9% public transport mode share,
corresponding to a significant uplift in passengers choosing sustainable
modes. This equates to over 18.5m journeys by train, bus or coach made
by our airport passengers each year.
This also shows a continuing trend to reducing the proportion of
passengers travelling to and from the airport by private car. Since 2002
the mode share for private cars has dropped by more than a quarter, from
over half of passengers to around 38%. In contrast rail mode share has
risen by 80%.
Figure 4: Surface access transport mode share percentages for air
passengers travelling via Gatwick
Source: CAA Annual Passenger Survey
Table 1 shows the transport mode shares for passengers in 2017 as
recorded by the CAA, alongside the equivalent figures from 2011. This
shows that the total public transport mode share (rail and coach/bus mode
shares) for passengers has risen to nearly 45%.
Table 1: Transport mode share – Passengers 2011 and 2017
Mode 2011 (percentage) 2017 (percentage)
Private Car 42.4 38.6
Rail 35.6 39.0
Taxi 13.3 15.4
Coach/Bus 6.7 5.9
Car rental 1.7 0.9
Other 0.3 0.2
Total 100 100
Source: CAA Annual Passenger Survey
Overall we have been successful in most areas and will continue to build
on these achievements. We will maintain progress on our challenging
QSM targets and have completed a number of important projects, such as
the new bus waiting area in South Terminal, which should have a positive
impact on passenger feedback going forward. As a result of improved
monitoring and data collection we are also better at capturing information
on issues that require changes or new facilities.
Staff travel
We take a similar approach to our staff journeys, ensuring employees
have access to a range of travel choices and encouraging the use of
sustainable modes. In 2016 we undertook a comprehensive Staff Travel
Survey which provides valuable information on the travel patterns of our
23,800 strong workforce, including how far and how long they travel to
work. This is being used to target improvements where and when staff
need them most.
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Due to changes in shift patterns corresponding to a busier early morning
schedule of flights, and a higher proportion of aircrew that rotate between
more than one London airport, there are challenges around how staff get
to work by public transport, particularly rail, at a 24 hour airport. To offset
the relatively limited rail connectivity available to cover the early morning
and late evening shift patterns we have secured the support of local
operator Metrobus to make more bus services available 24 hours a day,
serving the Crawley and Horley areas where a significant proportion of our
staff live. Our staff receive discounts on both bus and rail journeys with
local operators.
We recognise that place of residence, shift-working and lifestyle factors
may make it impossible for some staff to find a reliable public transport
option for their journey to Gatwick. We are therefore doing more to support
alternative sustainable travel modes. This includes investment through the
Passenger Transport Levy for more and better facilities for cyclists,
including lockers, showers, secure storage and “Ride to Work” support.
Investment in new cycling facilities delivered in 2017 created immediate,
additional demand, to which we will continue to respond.
The percentage of staff who travel to work by car (driver or passenger) is
61%, down almost 10% since the last travel survey in 2012. Driver only
journeys have dropped at a similar rate and account for only just over half
of staff in 2016. There has been a corresponding shift to bus, rail and
company-provided transport, as well as a small increase in car share.
Along with cycling and walking these sustainable modes now account for
over 37% of staff excluding car share and over 40% with car share.
Historically, it has been hard to accurately track car sharing, though survey
data show up to 6%. We have recently agreed a contract with a new car
share scheme supplier that enables accurate, regular monitoring of actual
car share activity, allowing the prioritisation of available spaces and
targeted incentives based on measured use. We believe this is a more
transparent and auditable approach than relying on the number of users
registered to the scheme.
ACHIEVEMENTS
The following milestones have been achieved during the course of the last five years:
Opening of Platform 7 at Gatwick Airport station in February 2014, to improve operational performance and longer platform occupation times for Gatwick Express.
Arrival in January 2016 of Oyster and contactless fare payment for train journeys between Gatwick and London.
Completion of the Gatwick Express Portal, waiting area and first class lounge at Gatwick Airport station in October 2016.
Implementation of common signage design (yellow on black) matching the railway station to terminal wayfinding in Summer 2016.
Increased support for local bus services including the extension of 24 hour services to Horley and Crawley and a wider network of routes serving staff catchment areas.
Refurbishment of multi-storey car park MSCP6 at North Terminal to make structural repairs, with the facility returning to service in 2017.
Introduction of the first Tesla all-electric cars on the Gatwick Airport Cars taxi fleet in Spring 2017 along with on-airport charging facilities.
Completion in March 2018 of the Northway widening project, providing new crossing facilities and an improved road layout for passenger drop off.
Opening in Summer 2017 of a limo pick-up facility for premium passengers at North Terminal.
Installation of expanded and improved cycling facilities at South Terminal in Summer 2017, including new stands, dedicated changing/locker facilities and shower access.
Refurbishment of the ready-return layout for car rental at South Terminal to improve vehicle flow and safety, completed in 2016.
Revisions to bus stop allocations and layout accompanying the introduction of 18m articulated buses on staff and long-stay car park shuttles.
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Enhancements to crossing facilities on Eastway, adjacent to the Hilton Hotel to improve visibility and encourage safe pedestrian behaviour, completed in 2017.
Launch of the UK’s first fully electric airport based car share scheme in partnership with BlueCity in April 2018.
Reconfiguration of Furlong Way bus stops in November 2017 to provide additional stop facilities for coaches and local buses.
Opening of a new bus/coach waiting area at South Terminal in January 2018 to improve passenger facilities and comfort.
Replacement of the barrier control hardware and software for our passenger and staff car parks during 2017 to improve passenger convenience at entry/exit and provide better monitoring of car park use.
In 2018 we launched the “Car and Away” peer-to-peer car rental scheme, which allows passengers parking at Gatwick to earn income by pairing with another passenger who requires access to a vehicle while it would otherwise remain at the airport.
Progress on our surface transport projects are monitored by both the
Transport Forum Steering Group and our Passenger Advisory Groups,
who also report on any issues post-implementation. As a result of this
scrutiny we have identified or introduced additional projects to meet
passenger needs.
This ASAS sets out how we will meet our remaining targets and set the
bar higher still, despite the challenges of growth. Some of the surface
access improvements that we envisaged when we set our targets in 2012
have not yet been implemented but these are still either under review or
expected to be delivered in the next few years. These include
improvements to the forecourt at North Terminal, completed in April 2018,
and the new rail station at South Terminal. Further improvements are still
needed to the pedestrian access between South Terminal and local bus
stops located on the A23, which we expect to start on site later in 2018.
MEASURING PERFORMANCE
Measuring performance is crucial for understanding how well we meet the
needs of passengers and staff. We also need to monitor progress against
our targets and objectives, to ensure we are on track to achieve agreed
aims. Gatwick collects information on travel behaviour (who, how many,
when, why and how) and attitudes to surface transport. We also monitor
the condition of our roads and other assets to ensure we operate in a safe
environment. The surveys and data allow us to forecast when changes or
improvements need to be made so we can plan and invest effectively.
These data allow us to plan effectively to provide safe and efficient travel
choices and provide a report card on how well we are meeting
expectations. This information must be in sufficient detail and as
comprehensive as possible, and needs to cover air passengers,
employees, suppliers and service providers. Our road and rail links are
also used by the local community and commuters, who require a similar
level of service and reliability.
How we measure performance is very important. The information we use
should be clear and consistent and we need to collect data regularly to
spot any trends and to implement any changes that may be needed in a
timely manner. Our aim is to be open and transparent, working closely
with service providers such as bus, coach and rail operators and local
authority partners to share data.
For example, we work with local highway authorities, Highways England
and their contractors to combine insights from our passenger data and
their road traffic counts to select the best times (and avoid the worst) for
roadworks, to minimise any impact on Gatwick’s operations and the local
road networks. This has resulted in overnight maintenance work on the
M23 being restricted to 2200-0400, a period up to two hours shorter than
usual, by agreement with Highways England and its contractors, to
prevent disruption for passengers arriving for early flights. We also seek
to avoid disruption during our busiest periods of the year, benchmarked
against our passenger forecasts.
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Data relating to air passenger figures throughout the year can be analysed alongside road
traffic and public transport passenger data to identify trends and capacity requirements
For surface access the data we use include regular, or continuous
monitoring and repeated but less frequent surveys and counts. Some of
these data are used in regular reporting and others are used to inform
decisions regarding projects and improvements here at the airport. We
also supply data and results from our own modelling to help inform the
best design of infrastructure delivered by others, such as the M23 Smart
Motorway project.
Regular/Continuous Monitoring:
Traffic counters on Gatwick’s own road networks. These are placed at strategic locations across the airport to understand traffic flows and congestion, as well as total numbers of vehicles. The counters allow us to monitor safety on our roads, through measuring average speed so we can recognise hotspots where drivers are more likely to exceed speed limits.
Passenger data by time of day, segmented by terminal
Regular updates from Metrobus on take up and use of staff travel discount cards
Less frequent monitoring:
Staff Travel to Work and Employers Surveys, undertaken every 4-5 years to understand staff travel behaviours. The data allows us to plan effectively according to the changing demographics of airport staff.
Forecourt and taxi/bus stand surveys – monitor use and effectiveness to support business decisions
We set our surface transport performance monitoring against the wider
context of operations at the airport and on the transport networks serving
Gatwick. Overall air passenger numbers provides an important point of
comparison; as we grow, we expect our surface transport networks to get
busier. Utilising flight data we can identify the times of day which are likely
to be busiest and plan accordingly.
We use staff travel data, such as this map of journeys from Sussex to help target initiatives
for sustainable travel
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As the airport grows and airline business models adapt to the changing
environment, we may see an increase in the number of airport-based staff
and changes in the way they travel to work. For example, one of the
impacts of our Airline Moves project, which saw EasyJet consolidate at
North Terminal and British Airways and Virgin swap terminals, was the
need to work with our Car Parks team to identify where best to reallocate
car park permits and ensure that the road network would not be impacted
by the change in traffic volume at certain times of day.
EMPLOYER AND TRAVEL TO WORK SURVEY
Every four to five years we carry out the Employers and Travel to Work
Survey, which examines businesses based at Gatwick and the number of
staff they employ. The most recent was in 2016. This research helps us
create a picture of the airport’s economic importance at local, regional and
national levels.
The survey also gathers information on the type of employment, working
patterns/hours, method of transport used to travel to Gatwick and where
the employees live. This information is used to inform staff travel and
other surface access strategies.
USING THE DATA
The main metrics we use to monitor surface transport demand are road
traffic counts, forecourt and car park use, rail passenger information and
mode share for air passengers. This allows us to analyse the need for
additional capacity as well as to understand how sensitive our networks
are to locating certain facilities or services.
Our regular monitoring of behaviour allows us to identify trends and enact
changes, for example in the way we respond to incidents and
planned/unplanned disruption or consider the need for change. This
requires close co-operation and data sharing with our local stakeholders
and partners, with agreements in place governing any use of sensitive or
confidential information.
Increasingly our proactive approach to monitoring potential disruption is
delivering benefits to passengers and staff, by our collaborative working
with other stakeholders such as local authorities, GTR, Network Rail and
Highways England to provide accurate and timely travel advice. This has
been instrumental in our management of the impacts of rail disruption over
recent years, including planned Bank holiday closures and service
reductions arising from industrial relations disputes.
Our Quality Service Monitor (QSM) activities focus on attitudinal research
into how well our passengers think we are doing at providing a good level
of service and a positive passenger experience. We gather quarterly data
on a wide range of surface transport metrics covering different modes,
some of which are linked to our service level agreements. We report on
taxi, car rental and bus/coach facilities on a 0-5 scale (5 being excellent).
In the past we have focused on sustaining a QSM level above 4.0 for all
metrics and improving our overall scores towards a target of 4.5 out of 5
for each mode. We continue to aim for continuous improvement,
recognising this becomes increasingly challenging as the margin to a
perfect score reduces.
It isn’t only our own data that we use to measure performance and growth.
We engage with our service providers and other stakeholders to best use
wider information on travel at and around Gatwick. For example, we have
closely monitored the uptake of Oyster and contactless ticket sales for
GTR rail services between Gatwick and London, aligning the data to our
own passenger analysis and assessing the benefits, such as reduced
queueing at ticket machines.
We will continue to improve our use of third party data, including sharing
information with partners under non-disclosure agreements, with certain
restrictions on reporting. In particular we should like better arrangements
for sharing bus and coach patronage data in order to review our bus stop
and waiting facilities. In making changes to the way we use data we will
adhere to the new General Data Protection Regulation for managing
personal and sensitive data.
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The transformation of Gatwick Airport Railway Station is one of the exciting projects coming up during this ASAS period. Work is due to start in 2019 (Image: Network Rail)
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GATWICK BY RAIL Gatwick is the UK’s best connected airport by rail with direct connections
to over 120 different stations across the South East and beyond, and
many times this number with a single interchange. Like the airport,
Gatwick’s railway station is open 24 hours a day. Staff dispatch a train
from Gatwick’s seven platforms 27 times an hour during the day,
maintaining safe and efficient operation with destinations as far as
Southampton, Reading, Bedford and Eastbourne.
From Gatwick there are train services to a variety of central London
stations and interchanges as well as continuing through the capital to
provide links further north. These provide easy onward travel across the
capital or interchange with other main lines. The airport is also well
connected by rail to the wider South East, including Brighton and other
coastal towns and cities as well as stations to Reading, Guildford and
Bedford. From May 2018 there will be additional direct services as far as
Peterborough and Cambridge for the first time.
This unparalleled level of service and coverage, and a mainline station
connected directly to our South Terminal, delivers a higher rail mode share
and more rail passengers than any other UK airport. The latest statistics
from the Office for Rail and Road indicate over 19.4m passenger journeys
using Gatwick Airport station in 2016/17. This makes it, outside London,
the busiest railway station south of Birmingham. Over the last five years
Gatwick’s rail passenger numbers have grown more than any other station
outside London except Birmingham New Street, Manchester Piccadilly,
Leeds and Glasgow Central. By May 2018 train capacity serving Gatwick
will have more than doubled compared to 2014, with new rolling stock on
most of the services calling at the airport.
This has been accompanied by a range of improvements to the passenger
experience, including the introduction of Oyster and contactless fare
payment for all journeys between Gatwick and London and a range of
rolling stock fleet improvements.
Since the last ASAS a new platform has been constructed at Gatwick
Airport station. This offers more capacity and operational flexibility. A new
franchise operator is in place, consolidating the services of First Capital
Connect and Southern Railways into one, GTR. While considerable
disruption has taken place over the last three years, as a result of
Thameslink engineering works, industrial disputes and urgent
maintenance work, we will begin to see significant service improvements
as the benefits of the Thameslink Programme are fully realised.
ACCESS TO LONDON
Services from Gatwick run direct to several main London terminals and
interchange stations, including London Victoria, London Bridge, Kings
Cross St Pancras and Farringdon, for interchange with the new Elizabeth
Line (Crossrail). From 2018 there will be a train between Gatwick and
Central London every three minutes. The Gatwick Express service to
London Victoria takes passengers to the heart of London within 30
minutes. Thameslink services reach London Bridge in 28 minutes and
across London in under 50 minutes, including interchange at Farringdon.
GTR operates one of the youngest fleets in the country, the new Class 700 Thameslink trains
include many improvements to passenger facilities (Image: Govia Thameslink Railway)
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Services between Gatwick and London are split between routes to London
Victoria and via Thameslink to London Bridge, Blackfriars, City
Thameslink, Farringdon and Kings Cross St Pancras. Included in the
services to London Victoria is the premium Gatwick Express service, which
is designed to serve the needs of air passengers and operates every 15
minutes throughout the day. As well as serving Central London, Gatwick
Express now also extends to Brighton. Gatwick Express currently carries
around 50% of all rail journeys between Gatwick and the Capital. It
reaches London Victoria in 30 minutes, which is considerably quicker than
by car, taxi or bus.
Overall there are set to be 20 trains per hour between Gatwick and the
capital by the end of 2018. This follows the completion of the Thameslink
Programme, which has seen a £7bn upgrade of track, signalling,
equipment and trains. These services will be split 50:50 between those to
London Victoria (including Gatwick Express) and the Thameslink services
to London Bridge or via Kings Cross St Pancras to Bedford, Cambridge
and Peterborough. This level of frequency and convenience for access
across the capital will promote sustainable growth by delivering a high rail
mode share on this busy corridor.
All of the signage in the railways station matches the airport’s “yellow on black” style
Gatwick gains the following benefits from Thameslink improvements:
new rolling stock with more capacity and longer trains as standard from 2017
consistent peak and off peak services to a transformed London Bridge station
good interchange with London Underground and Elizabeth Line services at Farringdon
more direct or “one change” destinations
ACCESS TO THE WIDER REGION
Whilst the Brighton Main Line supports high frequency services between
the coast and the capital, Gatwick’s rail connectivity extends much further.
There are direct services as far as Reading, Southampton and
Portsmouth, and as far north as Bedford. From May 2018 there will also be
direct services to Peterborough and Cambridge. The extension of Gatwick
Express services to Brighton brings the same high quality service that
serves the capital, to the South Coast.
The Gatwick Express portal includes a new waiting area for passengers and better signage
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Gatwick has a direct connection to Reading via Redhill, Reigate and
Guildford along the North Downs Line. The route, operated by Great
Western Railway (GWR), is achieving the highest percentage growth of
any in the GWR franchise. The service between Gatwick and Reading is
hourly but there is a franchise commitment to double this, which the
operator is keen to achieve. Gatwick supports this improvement, which
would benefit both passengers and staff, and is lobbying Network Rail to
release the train paths to allow it to happen as soon as possible. In the
longer term we have an aspiration, shared by GWR, to go further, taking
advantage of the remodelling at Reading station, to extend services to
Oxford. We also support the future use of hybrid or fully electric trains on
the North Downs Line, which would provide faster journey times as well as
reduced emissions.
A study for the Gatwick Growth Board, on the connectivity priorities for
road and rail that would both support growth at Gatwick and contribute
wider economic benefits to the region, identifies the critical importance of
upgrading the Brighton Main Line as the single most important investment
for the region. The upgrade includes removing bottlenecks around the
Croydon area (at Windmill Bridge Junction and East Croydon station) and
will help deliver the full benefits of the Thameslink Programme, due for
completion in 2018. Gatwick is supporting the Coast to Capital LEP, and
stakeholders along the corridor under the Brighton Mainline Alliance, to
lobby Government to secure a commitment to these improvements at the
earliest opportunity.
Trips between London and Gatwick can now be made using Oyster or contactless payment (Image: Govia Thameslink Railway)
GATWICK AIRPORT RAILWAY STATION
Since the last ASAS a seventh platform has been built at the railway
station, providing extra capacity and improving track layout and
performance. It has also allowed Gatwick Express to be scheduled to
dedicated platforms for most of the day. This greatly improves the
passenger experience.
GAL has worked closely with GTR, who as Station Facility Owner manage
the running of the station on behalf of Network Rail, to implement further
improvements. Following the introduction of ticket barriers in 2011 efforts
to de-clutter the concourse have seen the wholescale replacement of the
ticket machines with new units that are quicker and easier to use. A
dedicated Gatwick Express window in the ticket office has been introduced
along with a new Gatwick Express portal, waiting area and first class
lounge, making better use of under-utilised space closer to their dedicated
platforms. The introduction of Oyster and contactless fare payment,
launched in February 2016, now accounts for over a quarter of ticket sales
and, with mobile, online and pre-purchase channels also increasing the
proportion of rail journeys that are made on a traditional paper ticket has
declined to only around half of those to and from Gatwick.
However, the growth in rail use means we are outgrowing our station,
which was not designed around the current levels of demand. A key
challenge is the capacity of the existing station concourse and platforms
and the efficiency and safety of moving passengers by lifts, stairs and
escalators between the two. Added to this was the introduction of ticket
barriers at the end of 2011 and greater numbers of passengers accessing
the concourse. This has meant that the passenger experience has
suffered at peak times with significant crowding experienced.
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Gatwick is working with Network Rail, Department for Transport and GTR
on a transformational project to create a much bigger station, with
enhanced passenger facilities, considerably more capacity and better
circulation between platforms and concourse. The scheme will see more
stairs, escalators and lifts provided for the busiest platforms (Platforms 3-
7) leading to a new concourse located between the two pedestrian
overbridges leading from the South Terminal to the multi-storey car parks
and forecourt area. This new concourse will allow a better flow of
passengers entering and exiting the station and will remove the conflicts
that currently exist either side of the ticket barriers in the station.
Associated with the improvements are a series of measures to declutter
platforms and concourse, including the removal of ticket barriers, though
there will still be card-readers for Oyster/contactless ticketing. A new roof
will be constructed over the new concourse and the additional vertical
circulation capacity will help distribute passengers along the platforms,
which will have extended canopies to protect against the weather.
The new station concourse will transform our 60 year old station (Image: Network Rail)
The project reached a key milestone to fix the scope of the works in
October 2017 in preparation for developing the detailed design (up to
Network Rail’s GRIP 4 level) during 2018 and a parallel planning process
to enable the necessary permissions to build. The project should begin on
site in late 2019 and be completed in 2022/23.
The station improvement brings a number of important benefits, especially for non-airport related journeys to and from the local area (Image: Network Rail)
IMPACT ON RAIL MODE SHARE
Allowing for the above changes in rail accessibility and connectivity we
estimate that Gatwick will see a sustained increase in rail mode share over
the next 10-15 years. The rate of change will depend on a number of
factors, not least the maintenance of a reliable and punctual service.
There are also several uncertainties, which could influence the pace of
change.
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The new Gatwick Express fleet operated by GTR has trains configured for use by airport
passengers
A number of the factors that will affect mode share are a direct result of
planned and committed investment. During 2018 there will be an increase
in service frequency on the Brighton Main Line, leading to a train every 3
minutes to and from London by the end of the year. At the same time,
there will be a significant expansion of our catchment covered by direct rail
services, with Thameslink trains from Peterborough and Cambridge to
Gatwick. The significant increase in population within already well-
connected catchments across London will also have a disproportionate
impact on rail mode share. The scale of impact of these changes are
illustrated in Figure 5.
There are also a number of projects and policies that will impact on mode
share. Completion of the Gatwick Airport railway station project will
improve the attractiveness of rail and supports wider marketing and
promotion campaigns by GAL and its partners. This will be further
strengthened by our continued efforts to reduce those journeys by road
that have the greatest environmental impact (drop off/pick up journeys or
“kiss and fly”). This illustrates our ability to build on our excellent rail
connectivity and continue to raise rail mode share without new capacity
being required.
Figure 5: Estimated impact on rail mode share from planned and committed
changes
In the short term, rail mode share may increase at a slightly faster rate
than expected, due to the increased road journey times expected during
the M23 Smart Motorway construction. We have not factored this into
account as we expect the effect to be temporary. Neither have we allowed
for the potential for disruption during the railway station project
construction to affect mode share, again as a temporary condition.
The overall picture is an optimistic one for rail, with some certainty over the
positive impacts of improvements coming in the near future.
30
The M23 is the main route serving Gatwick, supporting most of our staff and passenger car journeys. Starting in summer 2018 the M23 Smart Motorway Project will add capacity and reliability
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GATWICK BY ROAD THE GATWICK ROAD NETWORK
As the UK’s second busiest airport, Gatwick relies on its excellent road
and rail links to get passengers and staff efficiently to and from the airport.
Our local road network, and access to the M23 motorway are critical
elements to the successful and safe operation of the airport. On an
average summer day, 47,000 vehicles enter the airport via its two main
road access points, at South Terminal “Welcome” Roundabout and North
Terminal Roundabout, with a similar number exiting. Gatwick is open for
business 24 hours a day, seven days a week and this traffic is spread over
the full day, rather than in traditional morning and evening peaks. For
example, due to shift patterns, approximately half of the staff employed on
the airport regularly start work before 0700 in the morning. Most of this
traffic uses the M23 via Junction 9, which connects to the M25 and rest of
the UK network.
Gatwick Airport is the designated traffic authority for approximately 27
miles of roads in and around the airport. These make up Gatwick’s internal
road network, which distributes traffic to and from the forecourts, car parks
and on-airport hotels. It also includes access for operational vehicles,
transport operators, supplies and emergency services, some of which are
subject to access restrictions for authorised vehicles. In all cases Gatwick
follows UK regulation, guidance and good practice for safe operations,
with an operations team on site 24 hours a day responding to incidents
and keeping our roads clear.
Good traffic management, coupled with forward planning to cope with new
airport developments and passenger growth, are essential to manage
demand, respond to incidents and minimise vehicle queues. We use traffic
data and simulation models to identify solutions to current and future traffic
scenarios, including the impact of new developments and infrastructure
schemes.
We work closely with our neighbouring highway authorities, West Sussex
CC, Surrey CC and Highways England, as well as Crawley Borough
Council as the planning authority, to manage and maintain our roads and
deal with any planned or unplanned disruption. Gatwick shares operational
information with these key stakeholders and receives information that we
can pass on to our staff and passengers in a timely manner when there is
the potential for travel disruption.
FUTURE DEMAND FOR ROAD TRAVEL
As a result of airport growth, we expect increased demand for all forms of
transport to and from the airport. However, the improvements in public
transport mode share will reduce the relative impact of growth in airport-
related road trips. In recent years the rate of growth in airport rail trips has
been considerably higher than the increase in road trips and we expect
this trend to continue.
As well as monitoring road traffic around Gatwick we also model the impacts of future growth
32
The impacts of airport growth have been modelled to determine if, and
where, extra capacity is required to meet the needs of passengers and
staff and in order to keep congestion to a manageable level. Gatwick is
only one contributor to road traffic demand, and the needs of airport and
non-airport traffic must be balanced. As a result, we proactively engage
with other stakeholders and set our approach to road capacity within an
overarching goal for promoting sustainable travel.
We estimate that, despite approximately 30% growth in annual airport
demand since 2012, the amount of road traffic associated with Gatwick’s
operation has increased by less than 15%. This has been achieved by
promoting sustainable alternatives to travelling by road, and discouraging
those trips with a disproportionate impact – so called “kiss and fly” trips
that involve two return journeys by car (to drop off and pick up). Allowing
for meeting the targets contained in this ASAS and building on sustainable
growth, we estimate that daily road traffic from air passengers will increase
by no more than 1% per year as we continue to achieve a shift towards
public transport and active travel.
Additionally, a higher percentage of future car journeys will be made by
zero or low emission vehicles as a direct result of initiatives led by
Gatwick. Currently taxis account for a 16% mode share of journeys and an
agreement with our on-airport taxi provider will see them convert 100% of
their fleet to fully electric or hybrid vehicles by 2020, with the aim of them
being able to operate an “emission-free” zone of up to 10km around the
airport. We have also introduced an all-electric car share scheme, a first
for a UK airport, in partnership with BlueCity.
For staff, we are investing in facilities to support the use of sustainable
modes and encouraging employees to avoid single-occupancy car trips by
car sharing or using an alternative travel mode. Our 2016 Staff Travel
Survey provides valuable data with which to target initiatives for higher
mode shares by train, bus, cycling and walking. This allows us to target
the high proportion of trips less than 10 miles long or that start from
locations close to a railway station with easy or direct services to Gatwick.
ROAD TRAFFIC MODELLING AND JUNCTION CAPACITIES
Since 2012 we have completely updated our road traffic models. New data
has been incorporated to provide robust and accurate models suitable for
capacity planning and analysis. We now have 24 hour models for each
terminal and the local road network built using the VISSIM microsimulation
software. The network model includes the following junctions and the links
between them:
Longbridge Roundabout (A23/A217/Povey Cross Road)
M23 Junction 9
South Terminal Roundabout (M23 Junction 9A)
North Terminal Roundabout
Beehive Roundabout (A23/Gatwick Road)
Lowfield Heath Roundabout (A23/Old Brighton Road)
Our traffic modelling covers a full 24 hrs, ensuring we understand the impacts of airport
related traffic at all times of the day, including during peaks in background traffic
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The model has been accurately calibrated to 2016 traffic flows (see Table
2) and conditions by comparing it to a large number of traffic counts,
queue lengths and journey times. The model has around 60 different
destinations around the highway network and airport roads, including
forecourts, car parks and junctions, to distribute vehicles. Traffic is split
based on class of vehicle and journey purpose, allowing staff, passenger,
non-airport traffic and goods vehicles to be separately identified.
Table 2: 2016 Traffic Flows around Gatwick
Location 24 hour flow
Gatwick % of traffic
AM peak hour flow
Gatwick % of traffic
PM peak hour flow
Gatwick % of traffic
M23 Jn 9 – 8 N/B 70,700 34% 4,000 20% 4,300 25%
M23 Jn 8 – 9 S/B 70,300 33% 4,200 25% 4,400 20%
M23 Jn 10 – 9 N/B 55,000 15% 4,100 14% 3,600 11%
M23 Jn 9 – 10 S/B 55,600 12% 3,400 8% 4,400 12%
M23 Spur E/B 41,200 75% 1,700 62% 2,600 61%
M23 Spur W/B 40,100 78% 2,600 61% 1,800 68%
Airport Way E/B 34,400 72% 1,400 62% 2,300 57%
Airport Way W/B 33,200 76% 2,100 56% 1,600 68%
A23 London Rd N/B 22,300 31% 1,600 17% 1,800 24%
A23 London Rd S/B 23,000 25% 1,800 19% 1,600 19%
A23 Brighton Rd N/B 17,100 25% 1,100 15% 1,400 21%
A23 Brighton Rd S/B 17,500 22% 1,300 14% 1,200 17%
Ring Road South 24,700 100% 1,200 100% 1,200 100%
Ring Road North 24,800 100% 1,000 100% 1,200 100%
North Term. Approach 21,400 100% 900 100% 800 100%
Northway 21,200 100% 900 100% 800 100%
We have used the model to test future road traffic demand at the airport up
to 2040 representative of a range of different levels of airport growth,
including parking, mode share and development assumptions, and
background traffic growth. Committed highway improvements, such as the
Highways England M23 Smart Motorway scheme, are included and
network performance is assessed with or without further improvements
designed to mitigate the impacts of congestion. This modelling is used to
test the capacity and performance of our network and provides input into
some of our environmental assessment work, such as on air quality and
carbon.
Based on these assessments, we are currently drawing up a roads
strategy that includes proposals for improvements at North Terminal
Roundabout and South Terminal Roundabout. The principles of the
improvements are as follows:
Signalisation of North Terminal and South Terminal roundabouts with queue detection
Increase in circulating capacity at North Terminal Roundabout
Widening on approaches and exit lanes to increase capacity
Revisions to lane marking and signs
Dedicated “free-flow” lanes where required
The proposals retain the permanent adoption of the temporary scheme
that provides a free flowing slip lane from Airport Way into the North
Terminal, by closing the Gatwick Way entry on to the roundabout. This has
been in place for almost five years as a temporary scheme and, because
of its success, will be retained.
We are in the process of discussing these measures with Highways
England, West Sussex County Council and Surrey County Council to
develop the detailed design and programme for implementation.
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The M23 Smart Motorway Project will improve traffic flow and add extra capacity on this vital
corridor for the region. Gatwick is working with Highways England and other stakeholders to
help minimise disruption during the construction phase (Image: Highways England).
M23 SMART MOTORWAY SCHEME
As part of Highways England’s Road Investment Strategy, works to
provide a fourth lane on the M23 between the M25 (M23 Junction 8) and
Crawley (M23 Junction 10) will begin construction in June 2018. Gatwick
and other stakeholders have been consulted on elements of the planning
and design of the scheme. It includes a series of accompanying
improvements to M23 Junction 9 for Gatwick and the M23 Spur road to
Junction 9a (South Terminal “Welcome” Roundabout). The proposed
scheme will deliver important capacity that will benefit a wide area across
Surrey and Sussex and is comprised of the following elements:
Widening of both carriageways to permanent four lane “all lane running”, with lane drop/lane gain at M23 Junction 9
Adoption of Smart Motorway dynamic lane speed/incident control, with the latest technology for monitoring traffic conditions
Widening to three lanes westbound on the M23 Gatwick Spur between Junction 9 and Junction 9a
Provision of a dedicated northbound off-slip lane at Junction 9, and removal of signal control for free flow traffic movement exiting towards Gatwick
Improved signage and use of variable message signs to instruct drivers of traffic conditions ahead and other relevant information
Gatwick is currently working with Highways England and West Sussex
County Council to determine the optimum approach to integrating the
above works to North Terminal and South Terminal roundabouts with the
expected outcome of the M23 Smart Motorway project. This includes the
possibility of a co-ordinated programme. This would allow an efficient
package scheme to be implemented that sees improvements in both
directions between M23 Junction 9 and Longbridge Roundabout
(A23/A217/Povey Cross Road junction) south of Horley.
35
The Gatwick Spur (M23 Junction 9 to Junction 9a) is included in the M23 Smart Motorway
Project and the westbound carriageway, towards Gatwick, will be widened to three lanes,
including a free-flow lane for northbound traffic exiting the motorway and travelling towards
the airport
FORECOURTS
Gatwick’s forecourts have remained constrained following the substantial
changes made over a decade ago to comply with new security standards.
For North Terminal a new drop-off forecourt, Northway, was constructed
between the multi-storey car parks and the hotels. This area is now
struggling to accommodate the demand created by expansion of the
terminal facilities, which have supported air passenger growth since 2010.
Over the early part of 2018 improvement works have taken place to
improve the efficiency of Northway, whilst at the same time delivering
better, safer pedestrian crossing facilities. The improvement works have
resulted in creating an extra lane for traffic entering Northway, reducing
the possibility of cars manoeuvring at the southern end of the drop off lane
blocking access to the remainder of spaces. We estimate that this will
increase the efficiency of this space by up to 30% as well as reducing
queue delays. Work was completed in March 2018 and monitoring of
vehicle movements before and after implementation will continue.
The change to Northway has resulted in safer and more efficient use of our drop-off forecourt
36
Gatwick is looking at ways that reduce the need for car travel, but we
recognise that for some passengers access by car is the most effective, or
only option. During this ASAS period we will undertake a complete review
of our forecourt capacity, including how access is managed or controlled,
in order to match future demand with available road space whilst
continuing to drive down the percentage of journeys by car (Action 12).
BUS AND COACH
To encourage people to travel to Gatwick by bus or coach, we aim to
provide excellent facilities at the airport for those choosing these modes of
transport. In recent years, competition from other modes and challenging
operating conditions have resulted in Gatwick’s bus and coach mode
shares remaining flat despite initiatives to grow the route network. We
recognise that we currently have a lower mode share for bus and coach
than many of our competitor airports. Despite this, we continue to provide
facilities close to the entrances to both South Terminal and North
Terminal.
An important priority, and a specific action within this ASAS, is to promote
an increased mode share through an expanded network and more
frequent services on popular routes (Action 13). We are already engaged
in discussions with several operators, including National Express, to
explore measures to promote bus and coach travel. We introduced two
new operators to the airport during 2017, Megabus and Crew Flyer, aimed
at both the passenger and staff market. Our options include established,
large scale operators with a national presence and smaller operators,
providing more targeted and bespoke services, which we will combine to
get the optimum blend of service provision. To some degree we will be
able to provide financial support to kick-start these services through our
Passenger Transport Levy. We will further develop such initiatives as part
of our ASAS Action Plan in consultation with operators, our Transport
Forum Steering Group and other stakeholders.
Our local bus operator, Metrobus, develops service enhancements to improve airport access
To improve the customer experience at the airport, we have completed a
new waiting area at South Terminal for bus and coach passengers.
Following a review of feedback, which has initially been very positive, we
will look at options for a similar area at North Terminal. We have already
increased the stand capacity at Furlong Way, which has also incorporated
access for articulated buses serving our long stay and staff car parks, as a
short term measure to reduce congestion. We are currently investigating
how to increase the capacity of our bus and coach facilities on Furlong
Way at the North Terminal by up to 40%. This would allow us to support
future demand and increased services as well as tailor our facilities to
meet the demands of different operators and passenger groups.
A key part of our provision of sustainable travel choices for staff is the
extensive, 24 hour local bus network around Gatwick, provided by
Metrobus. Gatwick has invested heavily in the ‘Fastway’ network for over
15 years, and will continue to financially support route development
through our Passenger Transport Levy. 2017 saw the introduction of
another 24 hour service stopping at both terminals, and the extension of
other routes to serve the airport directly. These improve accessibility and
reduce journey times for staff and passengers from the Crawley, Horley
and Horsham areas.
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We have used data from our 2016 Staff Travel Survey to target the most
effective and sustainable service improvements to maximise the
opportunity for routes to become commercially sustainable. This has
identified a further three potential enhancements that we have proposed to
our Transport Forum Steering Group, which are confirmed for funding
starting in 2018. This includes services to parts of Crawley, Horsham,
Horley, Salfords and Redhill. We will work with Metrobus to analyse
passenger data so that we can show how well these services are being
used over time.
An important part of our focus on supporting local services is ensuring as
many staff as possible have access to public transport for whenever their
shift starts. This has led us to review the opportunities for evening and
overnight bus services to overlay some rail connections that are not
available from late evening to early morning. This level of integration
provides greater certainty to staff and is complemented by the introduction
of the KeyGo card, which allows contactless travel on local bus and train
services across the Metrobus and GTR networks in a similar way to an
Oyster card in London.
CAR RENTAL
We maintain a car rental offer for passengers through on-site facilities with
five leading suppliers (Avis, Enterprise, Europcar, Hertz and Sixt), which
account for around 2% mode share of onward passenger journeys. When
MSCP6 at North Terminal was closed for refurbishment all car rental
facilities operated from South Terminal. We will shortly complete a project
to reintroduce facilities at North Terminal, which will be followed by
changes at South Terminal to accommodate site access for the Gatwick
Railway Station Project. In developing these projects we are seeking to
optimise quality and choice of the passenger experience within the
facilities provided. To support these changes, Gatwick is working closely
with our car rental companies to renew their commercial contracts.
We are re-tendering our car rental contracts and they will move to new locations in 2018
ELECTRIC VEHICLES AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Alongside encouraging the use of sustainable modes we also provide
support for those that may have no alternative to travel by car. This can be
done by providing incentives and options for reducing emissions. As part
of our Decade of Change sustainability strategy, Gatwick has recently
completed a detailed survey of the Low Emission Vehicle Infrastructure
needed to support greater uptake across all aspects of Airport operations,
staff and passengers over the next five to seven years. Our current and
near-term initiatives include the following projects:
The UK’s first 100% electric airport car share scheme in partnership with BlueCity
Extending the Gatwick Airport Cars electric and hybrid taxi fleet, to 100% of registered vehicles within three years, with the aim of enabling zero emissions from Airport taxis within a defined zone around the airport
Upgrading the electric charging points in short-stay car parks, alongside trials of mobile electric charging technology and a potential rapid charging point trial for Airport staff.
Developing a zero emission bus pilot project with Metrobus using either electric or hydrogen fuel cell technology
Choosing low emission vehicles, including electric/hybrid vehicles when functionally suitable, when replacing operational vehicles and supporting Airside partners with charging infrastructure for electric ground services equipment.
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In 2016 Gatwick announced plans with BlueCity to bring its 100% electric
point-to-point car sharing service to the airport in 2017. The first of its kind
for a UK airport, the scheme will provide a further sustainable and
convenient transport choice for passengers to travel in the local area or
access London, with its wide network of charging points. To support
expansion of the BlueCity network in the local area, Gatwick is facilitating
engagement with local authorities and other key stakeholders in the
region.
Our fully electric point to point car-sharing scheme, in partnership with BlueCity, offers a zero
emission “turn up and book” option for passengers, linking to a wide network of charging
points across London. We are also working with stakeholders to extend the scheme through
the local area
We signed a ground-breaking contract agreement in 2016 with our on-
airport taxi provider, Airport Cars, to reduce emissions by 75% per journey
by 2020, saving an estimated 2,000 tonnes of CO2 a year. This will be
achieved by introducing both fully electric and hybrid vehicles, which
began with the roll-out of state-of-the-art Teslas in early 2017. Airport
Cars carry over 1 million passengers every year, so this initiative presents
a real opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint and emissions. An
innovative aspect of the agreement could see vehicles switch to electric
operations within a 10 mile radius of the airport, creating an emission-free
zone for Airport Cars’ operation.
The introduction of Tesla electric vehicles to our Airport Cars fleet signals our intention to
promote solutions that reduce emissions from road traffic around Gatwick
These measures will help to drive down the emissions from road traffic
and contribute to our carbon and air quality emission reduction targets. In
addition, we are working with local bus operators to support their low-
emission fuel initiatives embracing the latest, cleanest technology.
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CAR PARKING Gatwick’s approach to parking is closely linked to our Section 106
agreement with West Sussex County Council and Crawley Borough
Council, specifically in regard to accommodating future demand growth
on-airport in accordance with the Crawley Local plan policy GAT 3.
Gatwick has increased capacity in recent years, to cater for growth, and
will continue to do so over the next five years.
We have a number of ongoing projects to improve our long stay car parks, including
introducing decked car parks to optimise the utilisation of available space and help meet our
planning obligations
Public car parking spaces located on-airport include long-stay (self-park)
products, long-stay (block-park) products, valet parking, and short-stay
parking. Our focus is to provide a parking strategy taking into account the
relationship over time between passenger numbers, mode share, and
parking capacity (provided on and off-airport) to ensure adequate capacity
and choice is provided while working to achieve our mode share targets.
We will also regularly review the choice of parking products available to
our passengers, ensuring we take advantage of technology to improve
efficiency and customer service.
The last Gatwick Car Parking Strategy was produced at the end of 2012,
based on a full year of passenger and car parking data from 2011. Since
then, Gatwick has published an Interim Car Parking Strategy. At the start
of 2011 there were 32,640 public spaces available on airport. By summer
2017, this had risen to over 39,200, growth of 20%. The key changes
during this period were as follows:
Introduction of MSCP6, opened in March 2011 (1,175 spaces)
The closure of Long Stay Plus and Holiday Parking as a separate product with the re-allocation of spaces to Valet storage and some reconfiguration of spaces (overall reduction of approx. 500 spaces).
Introduction of a new facility (MA01) for valet storage in phases between 2014 and 2016 (5,444 spaces).
Re-allocation of spaces from staff parking to public parking capacity due to more efficient management of the staff parking estate (570 spaces).
We have also made some smaller efficiency changes from re-marking storage areas, converting some block-park storage areas to self-park, re-allocation of parking spaces between car parks and the car rental companies operating at the airport and other, smaller operational changes
Alongside this increase in on-airport capacity there has been some
increase in authorised off-airport spaces and we can compare the change
in overall supply against growth in demand. Taking account of passenger
numbers and the mode share for parking, which has remained broadly
stable at around 20% of passengers for the last five years, we can
estimate growth in parking demand of 16% against an increase of over
10,000 spaces or 20% capacity growth.
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Planning parking capacity for the future takes account of expected
passenger growth as set out in the Capital Investment Plan, which expects
a rise to nearly 47 million passengers per year by 2022. This assumes
more passenger growth in off-peak months and less in peak months,
which is taken into account in our capacity planning.
We have assumed that the percentage of non-transfer passengers and the
parking mode share remain broadly constant and no additional off-airport
capacity is provided beyond currently approved sites (an additional 1,500
spaces are being provided at Wakeham’s Green, close to the M23
Junction 10 and are due to be available from 2018). Finally, we have
assumed that unauthorised spaces are gradually reduced and that we
cater for this demand on-airport.
There are a number of specifically identified projects that Gatwick is
intending to bring forward to deliver increased on-airport parking capacity
over the next five years. These are:
1,000 spaces of decking to be delivered on the current Long Stay South site
1,800 spaces delivered in Phase 1 of a new MSCP in North Terminal (“MSCP 7”).
A further 1,200 spaces in Phase 2 of MSCP 7.
3,000 spaces delivered by consolidation of our long-stay self-park product into one site.
1,500 spaces delivered by a new MSCP in South Terminal (on the site between MSCP 3 and the ST Short-Stay exit barriers)
In combination, these projects deliver a combined 8,500 extra spaces
throughout the period, or an increase of 22% vs 2016/17 capacity.
This investment will ensure that enough parking is provided at the airport
to meet the forecast increases in demand that are expected as passenger
numbers grow, as well as making provision for additional parking on the
assumption that unauthorised off airport car parking sites will close during
this 5 year period.
We are also considering a number of initiatives to increase the utilisation
of existing spaces without increasing the number of spaces on offer.
Examples include using pricing to achieve higher levels of capacity
utilisation by incentivising long-stay parking outside peak weekend days,
and more active promotion of car-sharing for airport staff and passengers.
We provide online booking for all of our parking products, allowing passengers to choose the
service that best suits their needs
STAFF PARKING
Historically, Gatwick provided around 7,200 spaces for staff. However, as
staff car mode share has decreased, we have taken steps to reduce this
by over 1,000 spaces in the last five years to under 6,200 spaces (a 15%
reduction). Some of these are provided within walking distance of the
terminals and main workplaces, others are linked via shuttle buses. We
are currently reviewing the optimum allocation of spaces and location for
these staff spaces, taking into account an increase in staff numbers and
changing work patterns but alongside promoting use of more sustainable
travel to work, including car sharing. Overall, and even allowing for a larger
workforce, we will continue to reduce the total number of spaces provided
per 1,000 employees across the airport.
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Our new staff car sharing service, which will launch in 2018, allows us to
provide tangible incentives for our staff to car share on their journey to
work. We will be able to monitor actual car share take up, rather than just
registrations, in order to more accurately represent the true impacts in
terms of reduced vehicle movements. Staff using the scheme will have
preferential parking and reserved spaces as well as the opportunity for
“loyalty rewards” based on regular use. Based on unvalidated responses
to our 2016 Staff Travel Survey the current rate of car share may vary
between 2% and 6% of journeys. We will be able to validate this response
with the actual uptake of the new scheme, allowing us to be confident in
adding car sharing into our sustainable staff travel targets.
INNOVATION
Car parking is an important and integral part of surface access. Through
proactive management of our capacity and accurate monitoring of
demand, GAL is able to consider trials and early adoption of innovative
ways to enhance the customer experience or adopt new technology.
One example is the partnership with Car and Away, which provides a
peer-to-peer car rental scheme between departing passengers parking at
the airport and arriving passengers needing access to a car. The car is
“rented” out for up to the whole duration of the planned parking period and
the rental income is used to reduce the normal parking charges. In
addition, the vehicle undergoes a thorough check for condition and
roadworthiness and is fully cleaned and valeted. The scheme was
launched in early 2018 and we are currently evaluating the take up and
feedback.
Peer to peer car rental, in partnership with Car & Away is one of a number of innovations
being adopted or trialled at Gatwick to introduce new mobility options for passengers
A further initiative being considered for future parking requirements is the
degree to which automation can assist with using our space more
efficiently and providing an excellent passenger experience. So called
“robotic” parking options, use of technology for personalised products and
the use of autonomous vehicles are all under consideration and
evaluation. These could be trialled during the course of this ASAS in order
to inform future car parking provision. Gatwick is trialling autonomous
vehicles to transport staff between terminal airside areas and the Surface
Transport Team will be evaluating any lessons learnt to apply this to
landside areas.
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The area around Gatwick includes a variety of designated cycling and walking routes, including woodland footpaths adjacent to, and to the airport, providing a valued resource
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CYCLING AND PEDESTRIAN ACCESS Whilst representing only a small percentage of the passenger and staff
journeys by mode share, active travel modes of cycling and walking are
still very important in terms of accessibility. We also take considerable
care to manage all of our walking routes between landside facilities, bus
stops, car parks and other access points into and between our terminals.
Gatwick is located close to the residential areas of Crawley and Horley.
There is a designated cycling and walking route serving Gatwick, Crawley
and Horley, forming part of National Cycling Route 21 (NCN21, London to
Brighton), which offers a safe and sustainable travel option, particularly for
airport-based staff. In addition there are a number of designated and
permitted rights of way that link the airport into the surrounding area,
taking advantage of accessible paths, bridleways and woodland trails.
Walking and cycling is an attractive and realistic option for only a small
number of our passengers, and some of our staff who live locally.
However, these routes provide important connectivity with our local
communities, as well as access routes to neighbouring business areas in
City Place and Manor Royal. They also support staff wellbeing by offering
leisure routes for those working at the airport to take a break.
As well as providing new cycle facilities on-airport, we are improving our existing ones
We maintain pedestrian routes across the airport and ensure safe
footways and pedestrian crossing facilities where these are required to
access different areas and buildings. Aside from NCN21 we do not
provide dedicated cycle routes on the airport, but ensure safe access to
secure cycle parking facilities close to both terminals and access to
locker/changing rooms and showers under our Staff Travel Plan.
We saw a decline in cycling to the airport in the first half of this decade,
which we have been working hard to reverse. By replacing and enhancing
the facilities we provide at each terminal we are starting to reverse the
previous trend and encourage more of our staff to cycle to work. We have
already implemented improvements to increase the capacity of secure
cycle storage, particularly at South Terminal and located where it is most
needed. We have introduced a dedicated changing room with lockers at
South Terminal and access to showers accessible at each workplace.
From the measures introduced during 2017 we have seen a very rapid
uptake of these facilities, and we are evaluating options for more such
facilities in response to demand. This includes mirroring the new facilities
at South Terminal with equivalent provision at North Terminal, which we
hope to confirm for completion in 2018/19. Cycling remains an essential
part of our Travel to Work strategy and we are committed to supporting all
sustainable modes in common with our Decade of Change objectives.
As well as promoting active travel in respect of sustainability and staff
wellbeing, we are conscious of our responsibility to maintain safe
pedestrian access routes across our campus. In 2016 we initiated a
project to audit safe pedestrian routes across the whole of our landside
areas in an effort to identify any improvements that would support safe
behaviour for staff and passengers using routes a short distance away
from our terminals. This audit approach yielded a prioritised set of
improvements, particularly small-scale interventions to ensure safe access
and crossing facilities are provided along pedestrian desire lines. In 2017
we completed the first set of these improvements and we are continuing to
implement further phases of this work over 2018 and 2019.