00:00 - Absolutely, passengers with GoVitamin Railways,
00:03 so that's our Tenlink, Southern, and Gatwick Express,
00:06 are gonna just find a fabulous new station on the 23rd.
00:10 And that's because, well, up until now,
00:13 the platforms have been really quite congested,
00:15 and we've had one concourse,
00:16 and we've had a limited number of lifts and escalators,
00:19 so it's been quite cramped and difficult
00:20 for people to get on and off the trains.
00:23 So that's had two outcomes, really.
00:25 It's meant that if you're a passenger with us,
00:26 it's not been the best experience.
00:29 If you're a foreign visitor arriving in the country,
00:31 again, not the best of introductions.
00:34 And if you're a commuter or another traveller
00:35 passing through the station on one of our trains,
00:38 likelihood is you're gonna be held up
00:40 by people trying to get on and off those platforms
00:43 with their big wheelie bags, et cetera.
00:45 So this is really gonna transform people's experience,
00:49 we hope.
00:50 I mean, what's gonna happen is
00:51 they'll arrive here on the 21st,
00:53 and then they'll go up some escalators,
00:56 nice, lovely new escalators, or brand new concourse,
00:58 dedicated for people arriving at the railway station.
01:01 And then if they're leaving the plane in the other direction,
01:04 they go through the recently refurbished,
01:07 former existing concourse.
01:09 So it just separates the two flows out,
01:12 it's smarter, it's brighter, literally,
01:14 it's got LED lights and everything,
01:16 and it's just better.
01:17 Yeah, it's really good.
01:18 - So that's a lot of it's been about
01:20 the passenger experience, hasn't it?
01:21 - Oh yes, completely.
01:22 And so we've been working closely with,
01:25 so Network Rail delivered this,
01:26 it's been funded by DFT, Coastal Capital,
01:29 the whole 12, Gatwick Airport too.
01:34 I mean, what we're trying to do
01:35 with all of our industry partners
01:37 is encourage more people to use the train
01:40 to come to the airport, it's a sustainable choice.
01:43 Electric train, V3, is the form of public transit going.
01:46 We want more people to use them to come here to Gatwick.
01:50 And why Gatwick?
01:51 Because Gatwick supports the region of the continent,
01:54 it's the single biggest driver of economic growth
01:57 in the southern region.
01:58 The number of overnight stays that it generates
02:02 on the South Coast, based on Brighton,
02:05 there is a stat somewhere that I can't tell you,
02:07 but it's not in my head, but it's a large number,
02:09 and we're talking billions in terms of the actual injection
02:12 of money effectively, and jobs as well.
02:16 So many jobs are generated by Gatwick.
02:18 So it's really, really important.
02:20 But for us, it's ultimately,
02:21 it's always about the passenger.
02:22 We want passengers to have a better journey,
02:25 a fabulous time, and really, fabulous time?
02:28 Yeah, I think so.
02:29 I think when they get on the 21st,
02:30 they'll be really impressed.
02:31 - Yeah, and obviously, Gatwick,
02:32 they're going through their consultation
02:34 at the moment for the extra runway.
02:35 We're gonna get more and more passengers here
02:37 in the future, so this project is sort of
02:39 laying the basis and foundation for that.
02:41 - Well, certainly, the station itself
02:43 will be able to accommodate many more people
02:45 in the years ahead, including those coming
02:48 to use that extra runway, if that were to go ahead.
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