London Gatwick Airport to Crawley & Three Bridges
Three Bridges is a single stop from Gatwick, about five to eight minutes by train. Fastway buses 10 and 20 link the terminals to Crawley town centre and Manor Royal, with route 10 running 24 hours.
The town the airport grew into. Crawley holds most of Gatwick's hotel stock and the Manor Royal business estate, and Three Bridges is its railway station — one stop down the Brighton line, close enough that people walk it in good weather.
Every way to get there
Our verdict: for Crawley & Three Bridges, a private transfer is the easiest door-to-door option (from £28). Travelling light on a budget? The bus is cheapest (from £3) but slower, with a change in the city.
What it costs for your group
The bus is charged per person, while a taxi or private transfer is one price for the whole car — so the more of you there are, the better door-to-door value looks.
| Group | Bus (per person) | Private transfer | Best value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo · 1 traveller | £3 | £28 | Bus |
| Couple · 2 travellers | £6 | £28 | Bus |
| Family of 4 · 4 travellers | £12 | £28 | Bus |
Which option should you choose?
| If your priority is… | Our pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest price | Bus | From £3, though slower with a change in the city. |
| Speed & comfort | Private transfer | Door-to-door, fixed price, a driver waiting for you. |
| A group of 3–4 | Transfer or taxi | One flat fare splits cheaper than several bus tickets. |
| A late-night arrival | Transfer or taxi | Both run 24/7 when buses and the tram have stopped. |
By transport mode
Train
The shortest journey on this page. Three Bridges is a ten-minute walk or a short bus ride from most of the chain hotels; Crawley's own station is one further stop.
Where to catch it: Gatwick Airport station, South Terminal — southbound platform, one stop towards Brighton.
Best for budget travellers near a stationBus / shuttle
Runs around the clock, which is what makes it useful — a 3am arrival still has a bus to the hotel. It links the rail stations, the town centre, Manor Royal and the leisure park. Fares are not published per journey; pay the driver or use the Metrobus app (~£3-5 for this hop).
Where to catch it: Airport bus stands at the terminals; the Fastway uses its own guided sections through Crawley so it is not stuck in the town traffic.
Best for solo & budget travellersBus / shuttle
The eastern loop — Horley in one direction, Three Bridges station, Manor Royal, City Place, Broadfield and Pease Pottage in the other. The right bus for the business parks rather than the town centre. Fare ~£3-5, unpublished per journey.
Where to catch it: Airport bus stands, signposted from arrivals.
Best for solo & budget travellersTaxi
Short enough that the fare stays modest, and many Gatwick hotels run their own free shuttles anyway — check your booking before paying for a cab you do not need.
Where to catch it: Rank outside arrivals on the ground floor.
Best for small groups in a hurryCar rental
Only worth it if Crawley is a base for the Sussex countryside. For a one-night airport hotel stay the car will sit in a car park you are paying for twice.
Where to catch it: Rental village, shuttle from either terminal.
Best for travellers who want to exploreGetting from LGW to Crawley & Three Bridges
The town the runway grew into
Crawley existed before the airport, as a Sussex market town on the London–Brighton road, and then Gatwick arrived and rewrote it. Today the two are effectively one economic unit: most of the airport's hotel stock sits here, the Manor Royal estate next door employs a large share of the workforce, and the distance from the terminal to the town centre is six kilometres. Nobody flies here for a holiday. Plenty of people need to get here at half past two in the morning.
Three Bridges, one stop down the line
Three Bridges is Crawley's main railway station and it is a single stop south from Gatwick — five to eight minutes on a Southern or Thameslink service, with something leaving every few minutes through the day. Fares sit around £4 to £7. Southbound platform, the same direction as Brighton, which is the opposite way to most of the crowd on the concourse.
From the station, most of the chain hotels are a ten-minute walk or a short bus ride, and Crawley's own station is one further stop down. It is the fastest way into the town, and by some distance the cheapest.
The buses that run when nothing else does
Metrobus operates two Fastway routes that matter here, and the useful thing about them is the hours they keep.
Fastway 10 runs up to every six to eight minutes and operates twenty-four hours a day. It links the airport with both rail stations, the town centre, the main business district and the leisure complex, and it uses its own guided sections through Crawley so it does not sit in the town's traffic. For an arrival at three in the morning — of which Gatwick has many — this is the only public option on the board.
Fastway 20 runs up to every twenty minutes and takes the eastern loop: Horley and its station in one direction, then Three Bridges station, Manor Royal, City Place, Broadfield and Pease Pottage in the other. If you are heading for the business parks rather than the town centre, this is the right bus.
Fares are not published as a simple per-journey figure; pay the driver or use the Metrobus app, and reckon on roughly £3 to £5 for the hop from the airport.
Check your hotel before paying for anything
This is the single most useful line on the page. A large share of Gatwick-area hotels run their own free shuttle buses to and from the terminals, included in the room rate, and a good number of guests pay for a taxi without ever checking. Look at the booking confirmation before you join the rank. If there is a shuttle, find out where it collects from and how often it runs — some are on demand and need a phone call from the terminal.
When a taxi is the sensible answer anyway
The distance is short enough that the fare stays modest — a cab from the official rank comes to about £18 to £30 for a twelve-minute drive. Arranging one in advance costs much the same.
That is a reasonable price for a very late arrival with luggage and a hotel that turns out not to have a shuttle, or for anyone heading somewhere in Crawley's residential sprawl rather than the centre. It is a poor deal at two in the afternoon when a train covers the same ground in eight minutes for £5.
The parking trap for early flights
A common plan is to stay in Crawley the night before a dawn departure and drive to the terminal in the morning. It works, but price it properly. The forecourt drop-off at Gatwick costs £10 for ten minutes as of 6 January 2026, up from £7, with £1 for each further ten minutes. Airport parking for the duration of a trip adds up quickly on top of the hotel.
The alternative most people settle on is a hotel with a park-and-fly package, where the room includes leaving the car for a week or two, or simply taking the Fastway 10 at whatever hour the flight demands. Hiring a car at Gatwick to reach a Crawley hotel makes no sense at all — you would be paying for a vehicle to sit in a car park you are also paying for.
Short version
Check for a hotel shuttle first, because it is often free. If there is none, take the train one stop to Three Bridges by day or the round-the-clock Fastway 10 at any hour. Keep the taxi for a genuinely awkward address or a genuinely awkward time, and do not hire a car to travel six kilometres.