Gatwick Express 12 carriage trains - a statement from Gatwick Express

Gatwick Express started the introduction of a new fleet of trains in February. These trains are much better for passengers with Wi-Fi, more space for luggage and full accessibility for disabled passengers, including those using mobility scooters who can’t use the older trains.

To provide sufficient capacity on our busiest services, 12-carriage trains will gradually be phased in over the coming weeks. By June, many weekday peak Gatwick Express services will be formed of 12 carriages, offering a more comfortable travelling environment for passengers.

However, train drivers' Union, ASLEF has said it is opposed to the introduction of 12-carriage trains because they object to any extension of “driver-only-operation” (i.e., trains without a conductor operating the doors). Gatwick Express trains have been driver-only for many years, but ASLEF considers 12-carriage trains on the Gatwick Express route to be an “extension”, as the current trains run as 10 carriages. Because each carriage on the new trains are slightly shorter than the current trains, they are in fact only 14m (or about half-a carriage) longer than the ones they replace.

On Friday, ASLEF wrote to Gatwick Express announcing intention to ballot for strike against operation of the 12-carriage trains. This is despite the fact that the exact same trains already run without Conductors as Thameslink services on the exact same infrastructure from Gatwick. It's the same train, the same number of carriages (12), running on the same infrastructure.

At 05:30 on Saturday 9 April, the first 12 carriage train was brought into service. The driver refused to drive the train with passengers on board and the service had to be cancelled. The 30 passengers had to be transferred to the following service which left seven minutes later.

New, more reliable trains with better facilities are a key part of the solution to improving the rail service for passengers, and we are disappointed and confused that ASLEF has taken this position.

We urge ASLEF to put our passengers first and drive these trains as they come into service. We remain available and open to discussions with ASLEF on this issue.