Crawley station users invited to find out more about plans to make their railway station accessible for all passengers: CGI 02

Friday 3 Jan 2020

Crawley station users invited to find out more about plans to make their railway station accessible for all passengers

Region & Route:
Southern

Passengers and residents in the Crawley area are invited to a drop-in session to find out more about the upcoming Access for All station improvement project.

Network Rail is investing £3.9m at Crawley station to install a new footbridge and two new lifts, making access between the station entrance, ticket office and both platforms much easier for customers with reduced mobility, as well as those with children, heavy luggage or shopping. The existing footbridge at the station will be removed as part of this project.

Work will start on 27 January 2020, with the project finishing in Autumn 2020. The main impact of this work during construction will be a significant reduction in the number of car parking spaces available at Crawley station, with the area being used for storage and welfare areas for the duration of the project. There will be around 50 fewer spaces available for station users during this time.

A public information session will be held in the main station building at Crawley between 16:30 and 19:30 on 15 January 2020. Anyone with any questions about the project and how it will impact the local area is welcome to attend.

Hodan Hassan, project sponsor for Network Rail, said: “Step-free access at Crawley will benefit the thousands of passengers who use the station each day and we’re really pleased to be getting started with the delivery of this important project. We look forward to meeting as many passengers and residents as possible at our public event, so they can find out how our work may affect them.”

Southern and Gatwick Express managing director Angie Doll, added: “We are committed to making our services accessible to everyone, so we are delighted that these improvements will make journeys to and from Crawley easier, especially for passengers with mobility issues, luggage or a pushchair.

“This will be the first stage of a major transformation for the station. There are plans in the pipeline including a more spacious concourse, more ticket gates and a new waiting room that will create a much-improved facility for the local community.”

Crawley station sits on the Arun Valley line, between Three Bridges and Horsham, and serves over 1.7 million passengers per year. Currently passengers with mobility issues need to travel to Three Bridges, the nearest accessible station.

More information on the project is available at www.networkrail.co.uk/crawley.

The work is part of the Department for Transport backed ‘Access for All’ programme which aims to provide obstacle free, accessible routes to and between platforms. More than £300m has been secured to continue with the Access for All Programme over the next five years.

Notes to Editors

Dates and times of work

Work will take place from 27 January 2020 with the project finishing in Autumn 2020.

Most of our work will take place Monday to Friday during daytime hours (07:00 - 19:00)

Public information session

To help inform passengers and local residents about the work, its benefits and some temporary changes in and around the station as a result of the project, we are holding a drop-in session on 15 January 2020.

Representatives from the project team will be available to discuss our plans from 16:00 until 19:00 in the station ticket hall.

Posters will also be displayed in and around the station to provide further information on this work. These will include artists impressions and diagrams of how the station will look upon completion.

Station car park part closure

From January until the end of the project we will require a part closure of the station car park. A total of 50 spaces will be out of action for the duration of the work.

This is to allow us to establish a welfare and storage compound and to maintain the safety of both members of the public and our contractor working on site.

Changes to walking routes

For the duration of the project there will be closures of the areas of both platforms where we are installing new staircases and lift shafts. These areas of the platform will be closed to passengers, including the walking route to the Arora Hotel via Platform 2.

Impact on rail services

There will be no direct impact on rail services as a result of this project. Any jobs that can’t be completed while trains are running will take place at times when the railway is already closed for work elsewhere.

Passengers should check before they travel by visiting the Thameslink, Southern, or the National Rail Enquiries' website.

The Access for All programme

Funding for this programme has been provided as part of the Department for Transport backed “Access for All” programme which aims to provide obstacle free, accessible routes to and between platforms. More than £300m has been secured to continue with the Access for All programme over the next five years.

For more information visit our Access for All page.

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Liam Farrell
Liam.Farrell@networkrail.co.uk

About Network Rail

We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.

Follow us on Twitter: @networkrail
Visit our online newsroom: www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk