Revised transportation question

This is the link I'll use to keep up with planned works -- https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/status-and-disruptions/

There's nothing listed yet so unlikely. In any event there are two main routes from central London to Gatwick - Southern and Thameslink and at least one should be working.
Don't bother with the Gatwick Express if you travel from Victoria - the ordinary Southern trains are only a few minutes slower and hugely cheaper.

Short answer no engineering work.

A taxi will always take at least twice as long as a train due to the nature of the roads. Also it is a public holiday weekend- could be a lot of traffic heading for the Surrey Hills and the Coast.

The Gatwick Express is only £2.60 more each (that day and that direction) than Southern in Standard and has more room for your luggage. So I see no reason not to use GX.

Your 2T railcard is also valid on GX all day.

If you have 2T it is only £7.50 extra each to upgrade to 1st class for even more room. In Standard class that is half the cost of 2T back in one journey, in 1st £24 of the £30 cost of the card.

Stuart - won't the cheaper Express tickets be Advance ones? Whilst the OP can no doubt fix on a particular train being able to just rock up and take any train would take some stress away from the process. The contactless fare on a regular Southern train is only £10.10 and those trains are not going to be busy leaving the city on a Sunday morning, so plenty of room for luggage.

Have PM'd the OP- having issues posting a response. Or not, problems there as well. I have other things to do this evening than fault trace.

Don't know why this post is being awkward to me, but I have a couple of hours work to do yet tonight, and was up until after 3am this morning on a Zoom call to Seattle, so need my bed tonight.

Gatwick Express does not do advance tickets that I have ever heard of. If so they sure weren't showing up yesterday. All their fares are walk up.

I don't know, and nor does John, if there are events happening that day, a Bank Holiday Sunday, in the Surrey Hills or at Brighton or on the coast. If it's a nice day people will just decide to travel, events or not, so bluntly no-one knows how busy the Southern trains will be.

I don't have a reputation of spending people's money for them, but of being tight fisted. This case is rare and unusual. I know that the OP fully intended to make the journey to Glasgow by train, and has been seriously thwarted by engineering work.

Flying is a last ditch option for her. Given that the flight itself and pre flight processes are never pleasant, and the OP has stated above "We will have luggage of course so looking for easy, not necessarily economical ways to get to our destination." So in this very specific instance I believe that it is justified to splurge that little bit and use Gatwick Express. That is an exception to general rule.

I don't want to get into an argument with Stuart. We have given two different options to the OP and I'm sure she can choose whichever.

But, if there are no Advance fares on the Gatwick Express, which I'm sure that Stuart will be correct about, then the GEX at £20.50 is double the price of the ordinary Southern train, which can be got for £10.10 with contactless payment at any time.

It’s all good information for anyone else reading the forum. Always useful to have all the options and then people can make their own decisions.

Everyone.
Thanks again for the useful information. I like the idea of an all day ticket instead of advance buying for a specific time. Gatwick Express appears to be more appropriate for our needs this time but I can see where comparison shopping is a good idea for other situations.
Have a great weekend
Sharon