The Gatwick Airport Station upgrade project will transform passenger experience at the station, making the journey from train to plane and plane to train easier for all passengers. 
In recent weeks, new customer screens and a new gateline have been installed to provide passengers with more space and clearer information about train departures.
A significant miletsone in the track works has been reached, ready for the wider and improved platforms 5 & 6 to re-open to passengers in January, with new lifts and escalators.
Take a look at the latest timeplase video
You can find out more about the Gatwick station upgrade project on the Network Rail website.

New information screens and better information for passengers 

To make the passenger journey through the staiton easier, a bank of 12 new customer information screens have just been installed. The new screens provide a much better quality of display and show the next fastest train, platform number, stopping pattern and train operator.

Track improvements will speed up journeys for rail passengers 

A new track layout on Gatwick's fast lines will allow faster journeys and provide future capacity benefits for passengers travelling between London and Brighton.

Over the first weekend in September, teams installed a new set of points (the moveable rails that allow trains to switch from one track to another) that will enable faster line speeds and better operational flexibility through Gatwick.

Thanks to a huge team effort from Network Rail, Costain, OSL and Volker Rail, working with two engineering trains, a 1200 Kirow crane and four road rail vehicles as well as many others in our supply chain, we were able to complete this part of the project on time.

These are the last set of switches and crossings to be installed on the project and are a vital step towards the completion of works to enable platforms 5 & 6 to open on time in January.

New gateline opens

The new gateline

A new additional gateline in the station entrance was entered into service with Govia Thameslink Railway on Monday 22 August.

This additional gateline has been installed within the station entrance to improve passenger flow when entering the station. The three barriers are wide access gates, which will improve the travel experience for passengers of reduced mobility as well as those with luggage, wheelchairs and pushchairs.

New staff accommodation building is nearing completion

Works taking place inside the new building

Works on the new building that will provide staff offices and facilities as well as the new home for the station control room is in its final stages, prior to opening on 9 November. The staff building used to be situated on the station concourse but this was demolished to give more space for passengers.

The raised flooring and glazing have now been completed on both floors and the rooms are being fitted with vinyl flooring and ceiling tiles. Desks are being put in place in the control room and in the team leaders' reception area.

The additional lift located in the back of the building is nearing completion. This will allow easy movement of staff between floors as well as the transporting of goods between the ground level and the station concourse and vice versa.

Donating to the local community

Members of the team delivering planters to a local school.

The project uses low carbon concrete for construction activities and any leftover concrete (which would normally end up as waste) is used to create planters. These are then donated to local schools and hospices - over 200 have been donated so far.

Members of the team recently delivered some planters to St.Wilfred's Catholic primary school in Burgess Hill. The planters were added to the children's prayer garden where they will make a great addition for the children's surroundings.

Using the latest technology to keep track of equipment

An Air Tag being used on a red lamp on track

The project is constantly looking for ways to embed best practice into its processes. A recent example of this is the use of Air Tags to locate equipment that is used on the track.

This helps to prevent equipment accidentally being left out on the track - for example if a red lamp was left out on or near the track it may be interpreted by a driver as a red signal, causing them to stop unnecessarily. The Air Tags send a notification to the iPad or iPhone that they're synced to and will relay their accurate location.

When a conductor rail is isolated during a possession there may still be current in some pieces of track, these parts are known as floaters. Where this risk of current flowing through floaters is identified, blue lamps are put out as a visual warning. Air Tags are also being put on these blue lamps to ensure they're all collected at the end of the shift.

Plant safety

Plant machinery being used on the project

The project involves extensive civils work and as a result uses a range of different plant machinery. It's a priority to ensure that we have suitable mitigations in place to prevent an incident occurring. We've worked with the project's plant supplier M O'Brien and have implemented two control measures.

The first measure is an automatic cut off device held by the plant marshal - when the button is pressed the machine instantly becomes isolated. The second is a sensor fitted to the plant operators' seat. When the operator isn't sitting on the seat the machine automatically cuts out. This means that the operator is only able to use the machine when they're sitting in the correct position.