The station at Gatwick Airport reopened fully on Tuesday 21 November 2023, introducing a new, second concourse and airport entrance, doubling the space available to the millions of passengers who use the station each year. Jordan Gill, principal architect with Systra, led the design and engineering team. He describes some of the thinking behind the new features
The design of Gatwick Airport station has been through a number of iterations in the eight years that Systra has been involved. In fact, various designs had been formulated even before that, but none of them came to fruition.
However, this time something really had to be done as congestion was causing real problems. So, with funding from Network Rail, Gatwick Airport and the Department for Transport, principal contractor Costain commissioned Systra to formulate the design and we set about formulating a plan.
We established a stakeholder working group that included the airport, Network Rail and train operator GTR. They all had different focuses. Network Rail was most concerned about capacity issues and the safety of passengers on the narrow platforms 5, 6 and 7 and congestion at the bottom of the escalators. GTR obviously focused on station operations and the bottleneck on the existing concourse caused by counter flows and a complete mismatch of pedestrians, while Gatwick Airport’s focus was on the complete passenger experience – welcome to the airport and welcome to the UK.
So, we had three stakeholders, all with different requirements. Safety naturally took priority, but the other aspects were important too. Working with the stakeholders, and with the principal contractor Costain, we came up with a complete station redesign that met everybody’s needs but was, frankly, unaffordable. Compromise was needed, so we removed much of the work on Platforms 1 to 4, which were less critical, particularly with the planned movement of the high-capacity trains to platforms 5, 6 and 7.
The revised scheme moved the track on platform 6 towards platform 7 – fortunately there was plenty of space – and that allowed us to widen platforms 5 and 6. We installed extra escalators so there are now two sets on each platform, and we installed high-capacity lifts that each hold 46 people and have doors on both sides so travellers with luggage can enter and leave them easily.
But the big change was that we built a second concourse that runs above all the tracks parallel to the existing one. This allows us to operate what is, in effect, a one-way system – passengers leave the station for the airport from one concourse and arrive from the airport into the other. There are some interchange flows, but those are easily manageable.
The effect on capacity and the ease of passenger flow is huge. We used dynamic modelling to show how people would move around the airport and station. We made the ‘space for people’ larger than normal, as they would have suitcases, and to move more slowly than normal as they get their bearings in a strange environment and gather up their children.
That was all accounted for and, as a result, the station can now meet all of Gatwick Airport’s passenger forecasts up until 2036.
Having established the fundamentals of the design, the Systra team set about filling in the detail. Roof panels are made from inflated ETFE triple-skin ‘balloons’ – that’s the same material as was used for the Eden Project and the atrium roof at Birmingham New Street. It is light, transparent and the triple skins provide insulation too.
Interior beams and structures are clad in sound-absorbing material. We used neutral colours – greys and blues with gold detailing – so there was nothing that will look ‘aged’ in a few years’ time and conflict with the airport branding.
Network Rail agreed that we could use Gatwick’s yellow-on-black style for the wayfinding, so passengers arriving in the UK and a bit lost could follow consistent signage from the arrivals hall to the train, without having to deal with a confusing change in style once they enter the station.
All of the lighting is positioned at a low level or on the lift shafts, so maintenance teams will have no need to work at a great hight to replace bulbs and maintain the fixtures.
With the old concourse refurbished to match the new one, the whole station looks smart and modern. The airport’s ambition of having a great passenger experience has been met with wide passageways, eight new escalators, five new lifts, four new stairways and widened platforms helping passengers move between the trains and planes as quickly and easily as possible.
The result is a great station and gateway to Gatwick Airport. And, all this was done in a challenging live station and airport environment – with trains and passengers continuing to move through the space 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
I am really proud of what the team from Systra, working with Costain, Network Rail, Gatwick Airport and GTR, has achieved.
Photo credit: Network Rail
