User:Hassocks5489/CrawleyTransport

Crawley, a postwar New Town with borough status in West Sussex, England, has a large transport network in which extensive and carefully planned 20th-century infrastructure has been added to a core of major roads and railways. The choice of Crawley as a New Town in the 1940s was based partly on its excellent north–south and east–west rail and road links and its position as a long-established stopping place between London and Brighton. A system of ring roads, radial routes and dual carriageways was added in the next few decades, augmented by a link to Britain's motorway network from 1974. Four railway stations serve the area, and there is a major railway junction at Three Bridges—although one former line from there closed in 1967. Since 1974, Gatwick Airport—one of the world's busiest international airports—has been within the borough boundaries. In its early incarnation as a private aerodrome across the Surrey border, it was expected to have little influence on Crawley's development; ...

Background
One reason why Crawley was chosen as the site of a postwar New Town was its excellent transport links. Two major A-roads, the A23 (London–Brighton) and A264 (Royal Tunbridge Wells–Horsham), met in the area; there were two B-roads, the B2125 (the old Brighton Road, forming Crawley High Street) and the B2036 (Balcombe–Horley); railway connections were provided by the London to Brighton railway line and the Arun Valley line, with four stations already extant in the area designated for New Town development; and Gatwick Airport was just outside the designated area. It was also expected that a motorway, then known as the "Brighton Radial", would be built on the east side of Crawley by 1963 and would form the new "primary approach route" from London.

Road
In 1964, President of the Board of Trade Douglas Jay stated that siting the new town on the main London–Brighton road was a "mistake" which had "damage[d] both of them".

The A23 and A264 respectively form the main north–south and east–west routes through the town. Although a bypass was built for the A23 in the 1930s, taking the main road away from the High Street, through traffic remained a problem. The masterplan for the development of the New Town recognised that the "two streams of through traffic" would have a negative effect on Crawley until the planned "Brighton Radial" motorway was built, and efforts were made to keep the traffic away from shopping and housing areas as far as possible. The masterplan therefore designed the New Town as a series of neighbourhoods separated by wide main roads (all named "Avenue" for consistency) and with one main access road (always named "Drive") leading through it and connecting with the Avenues.

Although the "Brighton Radial" motorway was expected to have been completed in 1963, work only started on it in 1971–72. The motorway opened in 1974 and was designated the M23. A link road (Crawley Avenue, designated the A2011) was built between the motorway and the A23 in 1975. Nine years later it was extended eastwards to Copthorne, and this section now forms part of the primary route between the towns of East Grinstead and Horsham.

Level crossings between the major roads and the busy railway lines in the area were considered unacceptable by Crawley Development Corporation and the local authorities, so a series of new bridges had to be planned and built. The existing level crossing at the bottom of Crawley High Street was also intended to be replaced by an overbridge, but the government rejected the proposal put forward in the masterplan. This level crossing had been a notorious source of congestion in the town since the interwar period, which saw a significant growth in road traffic in the Crawley area. Traffic continued to get heavier after World War II, and despite the bypass the High Street continued to be a bottleneck. As early as 1949, it was recognised that this caused difficulties in planning the layout and development of the town centre, which was an integral part of the New Town. The original intention to encircle the entire town centre with a ring road was changed, and the western and northern sections were omitted. This left space between the the West Green and Northgate residential neighbourhoods and the town centre and allowed those areas to grow organically in the future.

The A23, which had already been diverted to the west of its original course through the town in the 1930s with the opening of the bypass, was diverted again in 1956 when Gatwick Airport was rebuilt into an international airport. Having previously continued north in a straight line from Lowfield Heath towards Horley, it now turned off to the east at Lowfield Heath and looped around the south and east sides of the expanded airport.

Bus
The main bus operator in Crawley is Metrobus, whose headquarters and main garage are in the town. Local routes serving the neighbourhoods and the town centre run frequently. Route 1 connects Broadfield, Southgate and the town centre; route 2 serves Ifield, West Green, the town centre, Furnace Green and Tilgate; route 3 connects the new Forge Wood neighbourhood to Crawley town centre, Three Bridges, West Green, Gossops Green, Bewbush and Gatwick Airport; and routes 4 and 5 run between Pound Hill and Gatwick Airport via Three Bridges, the town centre and Langley Green.

In conjunction with Crawley Borough Council, West Sussex and Surrey County Councils and Gatwick Airport, Metrobus also operates the Fastway guided busway service. Three routes numbered 10, 20 and 100 serve, between them, the town centre, the Manor Royal business district and Gatwick Airport, the neighbourhoods of Bewbush, Broadfield, Maidenbower, Northgate and Three Bridges, and the Surrey towns of Horley, Salfords and Redhill. Several longer-distance Metrobus services start from or pass through Crawley, offering journeys to towns and villages across southeast England. Regular routes serve Caterham, Dorking, Epsom, Godstone, Holmbury St Mary, Leatherhead, Lingfield, Redhill and Reigate in Surrey; Burgess Hill, East Grinstead, Haywards Heath, Horsham and Worthing in West Sussex; Brighton in East Sussex; and Royal Tunbridge Wells in Kent.

Two other bus operators run services via Crawley. Southdown PSV runs two circular routes serving Redhill, Reigate, Horley, Gatwick Airport, Manor Royal, Forge Wood, Tinsley Green, Copthorne and Smallfield; and Compass Travel operates an irregular weekday service to Haywards Heath via the villages of Balcombe and Cuckfield. The same company also runs weekday-only services between Crawley bus station and the Asda supermarket off the High Street, and between the bus station, Langley Green, Ifield, Gossops Green and the Sainsbury's supermarket in West Green.

In September 2011, West Sussex County Council reduced the subsidies it paid to bus companies in the county to support commercially unviable services and free travel for holders of English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS) passes. In Crawley, the start time for free weekday travel for ENCTS pass holders changed from 9.00am to 9.30am; and Metrobus route 7, which ran between Maidenbower and Gatwick Airport, was withdrawn. The newly introduced route 400 covers part of the former route. Subsidies were reduced further from September 2012, resulting in the cessation of route 24 and two school routes and a reduction in evening services on route 200.

History
The 405 ran from West Croydon to Crawley Bus Station via Purley, Coulsdon, Merstham, Redhill, Earlswood, Horley, Gatwick Airport and Lowfield Heath. An extension to Horsham was withdrawn before London Country took over. Its 405B variant (withdrawn in 1977) started from Redhill, travelled via the Manor Royal industrial estate and also served the Tilgate and Furnace Green neighbourhoods. For a short time from 1971, the 405A provided extra journeys between Merstham and Crawley. The "relatively infrequent" 426 was a circular service which ran to and from Crawley Bus Station in both directions, serving Three Bridges, Tinsley Green, Horley, Povey Cross, Charlwood and Ifield. More regular was the 426A, a cross-town (east–west) route between Ifield railway station and Pound Hill. Route 434 connected Edenbridge and Horsham: it was extended from its former terminus of Crawley Bus Station just before London Country took over. Places served included Dormansland, East Grinstead, Turners Hill, Crawley Down, Copthorne and Faygate. Crawley and East Grinstead were also connected by the irregular weekday routes 438, 438A and 438C, which all ran via Copthorne and Felbridge but which served various parts of Crawley such as Manor Royal and Tinsley Green, and by occasional route 473 services which started from Dormansland and terminated variously at The George Hotel in Crawley, Manor Royal or Horsham. Route 476 ran from Ifield via Langley Green and Crawley Bus Station to Southgate, then returned after running on a loop through Furnace Green and Tilgate. It was cut back to Langley Green in the mid-1970s. Its variant the 476A ran at peak hours on weekdays between Ifield and Pound Hill via Manor Royal. Pound Hill was also served by the route 478 to Three Bridges, Crawley Bus Station, Southgate and Broadfield; and Ifield was on circular routes 479 and 479A, which also served Gossops Green on their way to and from Crawley Bus Station.

From 1 July 1978, London Country services in Crawley were reorganised and improved. Routes C1 to C8 inclusive replaced the existing services; three direct peak-hour services (C15, C16 and C17) were introduced from various neighbourhoods to Manor Royal; flat fares of £0.20 applied across the network; some neighbourhoods received their first ever Sunday services; and season tickets valid across the borough were launched. London Country bought 24 newly built Leyland Atlantean double-decker buses to provide the services, which were branded "C-Line".

London Country announced in 1974 that "negotiations were proceeding with the New Town Commissioners at Crawley" to provide a central workshop and servicing facility for its entire fleet. Tasks undertaken at the Crawley Works at Tinsley Lane in Tinsley Green, which opened in January 1976, included storage, repairs, repainting, mechanical and engineering work, the ordering and distribution of parts and stock to the company's Area Stores offices, When bus serves were deregulated in October 1986, London Country formed a limited company (Gatwick Engineering Ltd) to own and operate Crawley Works. http://www.arrivabus.co.uk/content.aspx?id=13207 http://www.busandcoach.com/newspage.aspx?id=7357&categoryid=0 http://www.busandcoach.com/newspage.aspx?id=6916&categoryid=3 http://archive.commercialmotor.com/article/9th-july-1976/22/u-di-for-london-country

Green Line coaches
Route 727, which commenced on 13 May 1967, ran hourly every day between Crawley and Luton railway station in Bedfordshire. Places served intermediately included Reigate, Epsom, Kingston upon Thames, Heathrow Airport, Uxbridge, Watford and St Albans. Luton Airport was served from 20 March 1971, and between 21 May 1977 and 30 September 1977 extra services were introduced to Heathrow Airport. From 20 May 1978, the route was curtailed at Heathrow and ran half-hourly. Although not one of the busiest routes, the 727 was popular enough to generate a profit each month—whereas some Green Line routes were only seasonally profitable or ran at a constant loss when their contribution against company overheads was calculated.

Rail
There are four railway stations within the borough boundaries. All existed by 1907, although two have been resited. The good provision of stations was cited in the master plan as an important reason for the government's choice of Crawley as a New Town. Three Bridges railway station opened on 12 July 1841 on the London to Brighton main line. The five-platform station was provided with extensive goods facilities ... A halt was opened in the countryside west of Crawley station on 1 June 1907. Named Lyons Crossing Halt at first, it was soon renamed Ifield Halt and took its present name of Ifield railway station in 1930. It was surrounded by housing from the 1960s: the Ifield neighbourhood was built to the north and Gossops Green developed to the south.

There are two CCTV-controlled level crossings a short distance west of Crawley station: the Arun Valley line crosses the old London–Brighton Road near the bottom of Crawley High Street (the A2219, formerly the A23), and further west meets the Horsham Road (the A2220, formerly the A278) in West Green. In a parliamentary debate in March 1935, Minister of Transport Leslie Hore-Belisha discussed the Government's intention to pay £90,000 towards a bypass which would bridge the line further to the west and take through traffic away from the two roads. Both level crossings remain in use for local traffic, though. Tinsley Lane used to cross the London–Brighton main line at Tinsley Green; it was downgraded to a footpath, and on 8 November 1960 the Urban District Council submitted The Crawley Urban District (Tinsley Green) Public Path Extinguishment Order to remove the right of way permanently. The Order was passed in August 1961 and the path was stopped up, severing Tinsley Lane. Similarly, Ifield Drive originally crossed the Arun Valley Line on the level at the west end of Ifield station. The level crossing was stopped up in 1971 and replaced by a footbridge and road overbridge, and the road south of the line (in the Gossops Green neighbourhood) was renamed Craigans after a historic house which used to stand nearby.

Cycle
Crawley is at the junction of two National Cycle Routes (NCRs). NCR 20 runs from the town to Brighton, and is being extended northwards to Wandsworth on the banks of the River Thames in South London. NCR 21 connects Greenwich in London with Eastbourne on the East Sussex coast. Along with a section of NCR 2, these routes form part of the Downs and Weald long-distance ride. NCR 21 also forms a section of the international Avenue Verte (Greenway), which connects London and Paris via the Newhaven–Dieppe ferry.

In September 2011, the Sustrans organisation appointed a "Bike It" officer for schools in Crawley in order to encourage children to cycle. Based at the town's K2 leisure centre, the officer works with several primary schools and the Oriel High School in Maidenbower.

Air
Gatwick Airport is the world's busiest single-runway airport. In August 2014, there were 906 aircraft movements on one day—a record for a single-airport runway.

Between June 1978 and February 1986, a helicopter shuttle service called Airlink operated between Gatwick and Heathrow airports. The joint venture between BAA, British Caledonian and British Airways Helicopters carried about 600,000 passengers in its eight years of operation. From the start, it was only granted a licence on a temporary basis, until the southern section of the M25 motorway was completed. A Sikorsky S-61N helicopter was used for the service, which consisted of ten return flights each day.

URLs

 * 1949: moaning about bypass
 * 1979: Gatwick and its effect on Crawley
 * 1939: £162K for Crawley Bypass
 * 1957: A23 widening Handcross–Crawley Part 1
 * 1961: A23 widening Handcross–Crawley Part 2
 * 1939: general moaning
 * Stuff about Dial-a-Ride/Crawley Community Transport
 * Fastway
 * Bus stuff
 * Stopping-up and construction of highways: