Crawley Fastway - History

History

Phase 1 (Service 10) commenced in September 2003 between Bewbush and Gatwick, £50,000 over budget and four months behind schedule. The opening was attended by Tony McNulty MP, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport, and local dignitaries. The service was extended from 21 to 24-hour operation in May 2004 and now runs every 7 minutes during the day and every 20–30 minutes in the early morning, evening and Sunday.

In July 2005 the project was more than £6 million over budget. An independent inquiry was launched to investigate the losses, led by a task force from East Sussex County Council. The results of the inquiry were published in December 2005. ESCC concluded West Sussex had shown a pattern of "ineffective accountability, complacency, ineffective risk management and a lack of clear ownership of the financial management responsibilities".

On 27 August 2005 Fastway service 20 was introduced, running between Broadfield, Three Bridges, Manor Royal, Gatwick Airport, Horley and Langshott. On Mondays to Saturdays it runs every 20 minutes during the day, and every 30 minutes in the early morning and late evening and Sunday.

As a result of Phase 1 of Surrey County Council's Bus Review, routes 20 and 100 were slightly revised from 28 August 2010. Route 20 was extended at Langshott to the new housing development, The Acres. The route stopped serving Gatwick Airport North terminal but was diverted to serve Horley railway station interchange, as well as operating via a circular route at Broadfield. These changes enabled the route to be run with one less bus, and thus save money. Route 100 was extended to serve the Park 25 housing development in Redhill. The timetables were revised on both routes. The new timetable on route 20 was not very reliable, and so a new timetable was introduced from 12 February 2010. To save time, the route stopped serving Horley station interchange. There had also been problems with illegally parked cars blocking access and usage being lower than expected. Train passengers are not adversely affected as the route serves the main station entrance anyway.

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