Media centre

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.