Press Release
London Gatwick Airport says farewell to the transit
16 October 2009
London Gatwick Airport says farewell to the transit
16 October 2009
London Gatwick Airport said good bye to the inter-terminal transit train this week as the system’s carriages were removed from the track.
In an operation, planned with military precision, the six carriages were lifted by heavy crane on to lorries to begin their final journey to a recycling plant in Berkshire. In the last twenty-one years the carriages have carried in the region of one hundred million passengers between the airport’s two terminals.
The inter-terminal transit system is being replaced in a £45 million project, part of an overall investment programme of nearly £1 billion over five years, to improve the passenger experience. A bus replacement service was introduced at the end of September while work is underway on the new shuttle service which will be introduced from April next year, with the entire system fully operational by August 2010.
“Our inter-terminal transit system has served us well over twenty-one years,” David Brewer, London Gatwick Airport’s Development Director said. “It has travelled two and a half million miles, the equivalent of five round trips to the moon. It was state-of-the-art when we introduced it, but modern technology will enable us to have a more reliable, more efficient and more comfortable system for the Gatwick of the future.”
Some of the carriages are to be used to make training aids for the engineers who will keep the new system running efficiently whilst most of the equipment will be professionally recycled.
