UK: A pair of Southern Class 319 EMUs near Gatwick Airport on a northbound service towards London.

UK: A pair of Southern Class 319 EMUs are seen near Gatwick Airport on a northbound service towards London. Recorded 4 March 2005.
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Southern is the brand name used by the Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) train operating company on the Southern routes of the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise in England. It is a subsidiary of Govia, a joint venture between transport groups Go-Ahead and Keolis, and has operated the South Central franchise since August 2001 and the Gatwick Express service since June 2008. When the passenger rail franchise was subsumed into GTR, Southern was split from Gatwick Express and the two became separate brands, alongside the Thameslink and Great Northern brands.
Southern operates the majority of commuter services from its Central London terminals at London Bridge and London Victoria to South London, East and West Sussex, as well as regional services in parts of Hampshire, Kent and Surrey. It also provides services between Watford Junction and Croydon via the West London line.
Major destinations served include Beckenham Junction, Bexhill, Bognor Regis, Brighton, Caterham, Chichester, Crawley, Eastbourne, East Croydon, East Grinstead, Epsom, Epsom Downs, Gatwick Airport, Horsham, Mitcham Junction, Leatherhead, Littlehampton, Portsmouth Harbour, Redhill, Southampton Central, Sutton, Tattenham Corner, Uckfield and Worthing. The company also operates services from Eastbourne to Ashford, Brighton to Ore, Brighton to Seaford, Brighton to Southampton and Clapham Junction to Watford Junction.
For three consecutive years from 2016 to 2018, Southern came last on passenger satisfaction in surveys conducted by the consumer group Which?, scoring low for value for money, reliability, and punctuality in 2018. In 2022, Southern was ranked second-worst on overall passenger satisfaction in a survey conducted by Transport Focus.
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The British Rail Class 319 is an electric multiple unit passenger train built by British Rail Engineering Limited's Holgate Road carriage works for use on north-south cross-London services. These dual-voltage trains are capable of operating on 25 kV 50 Hz from AC overhead wires or 750 V DC from a third rail.
Built in two batches in 1987-88 and 1990, the units were primarily used on the then-new Thameslink service from Bedford to Brighton and various other destinations south of London. The majority of the fleet remained in use on the Thameslink route after its reshaping and privatisation in 1997. Some of the fleet was also used by Connex South Central and latterly Southern on various services operating out of London Victoria, including flagship expresses to Brighton.
A total of 44 sets were converted to Class 769s which is a mixture of Bi-mode multiple units (BMU) and Tri-mode multiple units. Two Class 319s have been converted to a tri-mode Class 799 which runs on hydrogen and electricity with the 25 kV AC and 750 V DC equipment retained.
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