London St Pancras Internationalto Gatwick Airport
Our pickTrainThameslink44–62 min£10.70–£19.20Take a direct Thameslink train from St Pancras International, allowing 44 minutes on the fastest daytime services and about an hour overnight, when departures thin out to roughly one an hour. Tap in before 16:00 on a weekday if you can, because from then until 19:00, as in the morning peak, the contactless fare rises from £10.70 to £19.20.
Compare 6 ways
Bars share one scale on this page. Hours are first and last departures as recorded; the ochre mark is the time now in London. Paying by contactless has its own rules at Gatwick: read the contactless guide. checked on the date in each option's details · not yet confirmed against a second source.
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Data: National Rail Enquiries
Which should I pick?
Early flight
TrainThameslinkThameslink direct
For a first-wave departure, the 03:32 and 04:32 from St Pancras reached Gatwick at 04:30 and 05:31 on the weeknight we checked, so you can plan on a known train instead of hoping a driver turns up on time.
Lots of luggage
TrainThameslinkThameslink direct
Coming off a Eurostar or the tube, you stay inside the St Pancras complex and take a lift down to the Thameslink platforms, and the direct train spares you wheeling cases through the Victoria interchange; board outside the 16:00 to 19:00 weekday peak if you can.
Group or family
Private transferPre-booked private hire (2 firms)Pre-booked 6-seat MPV from St Pancras
Five or six travellers with suitcases can have a 5-seat MPV collect them for £138 or a 6-seat one for £162 in one firm's list; the train is cheaper, but the car removes the walk to the platforms with children.
After midnight
TrainThameslinkThameslink direct
Leaving after midnight for an early flight, the hourly trains at 01:32, 02:32 and 03:32 each take 58 minutes, which makes the arrival time easy to plan.
Route notes
Thameslink trains from St Pancras all run into the station at the South Terminal. If you have come off a Eurostar, check the terminal on your onward booking before boarding: easyJet, Emirates and Qatar Airways are among the airlines listed at the North Terminal, which adds the free shuttle and its wait to the journey.
At St Pancras, ignore the long high-level platforms used by Eurostar and the Midland main line. Thameslink has its own platforms on a lower level, and National Rail rates the station step-free to every platform. If you arrive by Eurostar, you are already in the right building; if you come by tube, you surface inside the same complex.
Contactless peaks are wider in this direction than from Gatwick: the £19.20 fare applies when you touch in on a weekday from 06:30 to 09:30 and again from 16:00 to 19:00. Outside those windows it is £10.70. An evening flight is the obvious case where leaving before four both saves money and gives you a less crowded train.
Late at night the service thins out. After the 23:54 and the half-hourly trains that follow, departures on the weeknight we checked settled into 01:32, 02:32 and 03:32, each taking 58 minutes, then 04:32 and 04:52. Weekend engineering can close the line through central London, so check the night before.
If Thameslink is disrupted, ride the Victoria line from King's Cross St Pancras to Victoria and change for Southern; at midday that took about 51 minutes from the tube platform to Gatwick. A pre-booked car took no less than 70 minutes in the quotes we found.
Guides for this route
Questions
Is there a train from St Pancras to Gatwick in the middle of the night?
On the weeknight we checked, yes: Thameslink trains left St Pancras at 01:32, 02:32 and 03:32, each reaching Gatwick 58 minutes later. Weekend engineering work can remove this service, so check before you set out.
Which Gatwick terminal does the train from St Pancras arrive at?
The South Terminal, where the railway station is. For a North Terminal flight, take the free inter-terminal shuttle, which the airport says takes two minutes.