Tens of millions of rail passengers travelling to and from Gatwick Airport will benefit from improved accessibility and swifter journeys, after the Department for Transport (DfT) announced a £150 million scheme to upgrade the station.

The renovation will reduce train delays caused by platform overcrowding and congestion, while also improving passenger experience by providing easier connections to other destinations.

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Planned upgrades will include doubling the size of the station concourse, adding 5 new lifts and 8 escalators to improve passenger flow, and widening 2 platforms to reduce overcrowding.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said:

With 46 million people now using Gatwick Airport every year and 20 million coming by train, it is vital that we make the station more accessible and customer friendly for those travelling through it. The UK’s second largest airport has direct rail links to more than 120 destinations and is an important public transport hub.

We want to see Gatwick Airport’s success continue to flourish and ensure that it is ready for even more passengers in the future. Through this £150 million investment, we will deliver vital upgrades to boost the station’s capacity and provide better, seamless journeys for all.

Stewart Wingate, Chief Executive Officer, Gatwick Airport said:

Gatwick has been transformed in recent years and the redesigned train station will take the airport’s redevelopment to the next level by providing a seamless transition between the airport and the station, more lifts, escalators and a doubling in the size of the concourse.

The new station will complement the huge improvements to rail services at the airport, which include new fleets of Gatwick Express and Thameslink trains and services that now leave the airport for London every 3 minutes – as frequently as services on the tube.

The project is a fantastic example of the public and private sector working together to deliver a world-class transport hub that will comfortably manage the expected growth in air passengers and also encourage people to switch to rail as part of our push to get more people to travel to the airport by public transport.

The number of people using Gatwick Airport station each year has grown by 6 million since 2010. Currently the station is not designed for the high volume of daily passengers, often carrying bulky luggage.

The renovation will be managed by Network Rail, in partnership with DfT. Gatwick Airport Ltd and Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership are co-funding the project with £37 million and £10 million respectively.

Paul Harwood, Director of Investment for Network Rail, said:

The transformational enhancement to Gatwick Airport station will provide passengers with a much smoother and more pleasant experience and also reduce train delays.

Along with the recent improvements on the Brighton Main Line and our record £4.3 billion funding settlement for maintaining, operating and renewing the railway over the next five years, this investment is excellent news for passengers, businesses and the economy.

Patrick Verwer, Chief Executive Officer of Govia Thameslink Railway, said:

This much-needed scheme will deliver real benefits for passengers thanks to enhanced platforms, new lifts and a larger concourse. At such a busy station these upgraded facilities will significantly contribute to the smooth running of our services for travellers getting to and from the airport.

Jonathan Sharrock, Chief Executive at Coast to Capital said:

If our economy is to grow, we need a transport network that supports faster, more reliable, and less polluting journeys for business, leisure and freight travel. Gatwick airport is an international destination and its station is a gateway to London and the wider Coast to Capital area.

This plan will greatly improve the interchange for commuters, visitors and business which will support the sustainable growth of the area with Gatwick airport at its heart.

We are delighted to have contributed £10 million and look forward to working with partners to deliver a better experience for passengers.

The improvement works will start in spring 2020 and will take around 2 years to complete. The works will be sequenced to ensure minimum disruption.

The government is investing a record £48 billion to modernise the country’s rail network and deliver significant improvements in performance, punctuality and capacity.

It is a great pleasure to attend today’s official launch of the WISH2ACTION project: a major new initiative supported by the UK’s Department for International Development and implemented by a consortium of partners including Marie Stopes Madagascar, Development Media International, Humanity and Inclusion, and Options.

This is part of a major new investment by the UK in Women’s Integrated Sexual Health across Africa. £200 million will be spent in 27 countries to ensure millions of couples can reliably gain access to life-saving voluntary contraception in some of the world’s poorest nations. In Madagascar we are investing 10 million Euro over three years in WISH2ACTION. And this will prioritise the poorest and most in need, particularly young, disabled and marginalised women.

Why is the UK doing this? We believe that good voluntary family planning, with women’s choice at the centre, contributes to development in every sector and every community. Rapid population growth – and it is currently at 2.5% a year in Madagascar – will undermine development if infrastructure, healthcare, education and job creation cannot keep up. But addressing fertility rates and empowering women will unlock economic growth and prosperity.

And it is the right thing to do. Ten Malagasy women die every day following pregnancy and birth complications. And this death rate has barely changed during the last 20 years, and remains one of the highest in the world. Despite this, maternal and newborn health have seen a decline in donor and international interest. This is a mistake. Improvements in maternal health will have far-reaching impacts on the achievement of Universal Health Coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals.

My wife and I were lucky enough to celebrate the birth of our first child a few months ago. We were even luckier, as we received excellent care both here in Madagascar and in the UK. But it is the sad truth that most Malagasy women, especially in rural areas, cannot aspire to even a basic level of care. And this is something that urgently needs to be addressed.

The UK’s vision is of a world where everyone can fully exercise their sexual and reproductive health rights. Where the quality services, supplies and information needed for this are available to all. Where no mother or baby dies needlessly before, during or after birth. Where the AIDS epidemic is at an end. Where all girls and women live with dignity, free from stigma, violence and harmful social norms.

We believe that women and girls have the fundamental right to make their own informed decisions about sex and childbearing, to avoid unwanted sexual contact, to decide when and how many children to have, and to face fewer risks in the course of pregnancy and childbirth.

So we are using our political leadership to make the case for protecting and supporting reproductive rights. And we’re supporting countries to ensure those rights, especially for the most left behind, are a key element of their efforts to tackle poverty. That is why the UK is the largest donor to the UNFPA, and the world’s second largest bilateral donor for family planning.

This WISH2ACTION programme therefore seeks to improve access to sexual health and reproductive services to couples across Madagascar. Running until September 2021, it will form a major part of the UK’s effort to improve and increase the development cooperation between our two islands. And to ensure sustainability beyond the life of the programme, we will work with the government of Madagascar to bolster its own capacity to provide longer-term services. This project is in line with the Malagasy government’s Family Planning 2020 goals and will support the demographic dividend. National ownership at the end of the project is key.

We welcome the passing of the new family planning law in 2017, and I would like to underline the importance of implementing it by health providers at the field level to ensure access to services by adolescents.

In addition, a key part of the WISH2ACTION approach is to provide contraceptive advice and products. By necessity, these are imported, and those distributed by Marie Stopes are subject to import taxes. It would be wonderful as a next step if thought could be given, Mr Director-General, to ways in which exemptions on the taxation of family planning products could be provided. This move would be of great support to both this programme and the overall Plan Emergence Madagascar objectives. Even better would be greater engagement by the Government of Madagascar in the supply of family planning products itself.

I’d like to thank you, Mr Director-General, for all your support so far, and I look forward to continuing our work together. And I’d like to thank Marie Stopes and all the other partners for their inspiring work and enthusiasm for this programme. It is their complementing expertise that makes me so confident that this will be the beginning of a partnership in Madagascar that has genuine impact, delivers real results, and makes a strong contribution to a brighter future for this wonderful country.