South Eastern Franchise Agreement

„Go-Ahead`s Board of Directors regrets having to announce that the Department of Transportation has decided to appoint the Operator of Last Resort (OLR) to take over the provision of services to southeastern franchise passengers effective October 18, 2021, the expiry date of our existing agreement. Although the company is of course disappointed by this, the decision only concerns Southeastern. Our other rail business, GTR, is not affected. These documents are part of the public register of franchise agreements. Please email your questions about franchise agreements to rail.publicregister@dft.gov.uk. The South Eastern franchise was established in 1994 as a ghost franchise in the run-up to the privatisation of British Rail, which took over Network SouthEast`s services from Blackfriars, Cannon Street, Charing Cross, London Bridge and London Victoria in Kent. The government will resume operations of southeast rail services following a „serious breach“ of its franchise agreement, Transportation Secretary Grant Shapps said Tuesday. Originally operating as South Eastern, Connex South Eastern began operating the franchise on 13 October 1996, after surpassing bids from a Consortium Management/FirstBus, GB Railways and Stagecoach. [1] [2] [3] On November 9, 2003, South Eastern Trains, a subsidiary of SRA, took over the franchise for a planned period of 18 months. He took over all the leased rolling stock and most of Connex`s employees, including management. In this case, it took more than two years to re-lease the franchise to a private company.

Go-Ahead Group said in a statement: „Although the independent review has not yet been completed and the contracts in question are very complex, the Group acknowledges that mistakes have been made with respect to the franchise. Southeastern is the third railway concession to be placed under the control of the Last Resort operator, after London North Eastern Railway and Northern were previously placed under government administration. In June 2017, the DfT announced a shortlist of: Abellio/East Japan Railway Company/Mitsui Consortium; Govia in place; diligence; and Trenitalia for the next franchise, which was again called the Southeast franchise. [24] [25] In August 2017, Trenitalia withdrew on the grounds that it was focusing its resources on its partnership offering on the West Coast. [26] In February 2018, it was announced that Alstom would acquire a 20% stake in Stagecoach. [27] In April 2019, Stagecoach was excluded from the call for tenders because it did not meet the pension requirements. [28] One of Southeastern`s high-speed trains at Ashford International station in Kent „Based on the available evidence, we consider this to be a material breach of the duty of good faith under the franchise agreement and we will not renew any further contract with LSER. The decision to place Southeastern under government control comes at a time when the DfT wants to implement its major overhaul of Britain`s railways, which was described in Williams-Shapps magazine published in May. The government will withdraw rail traffic from the south-east from private operator Go-Ahead after revealing that £25 million was missing in an allegedly „serious“ breach of the franchise agreement. In addition to Southeastern, the Govia joint venture between keolis and Go-Ahead also owns the franchise, which covers Thameslink, Southern, Great Northern and Gatwick Express services – a network that stretches from Norfolk to Hampshire and covers much of the south coast.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said an investigation had found that since 2014, Southeastern had not declared more than £25 million in historic taxpayers` money that should have been returned, describing this as a serious breach of the „good faith“ obligation of the franchise agreement. Southeastern is led by Govia, a joint venture with France`s Keolis, dominated by Go-Ahead with a 65% stake. At its pre-pandemic peak, Southeastern was carrying approximately 640,000 passengers per day on commuter lines between London, Kent and Sussex, including fast connections on high-speed line 1. Go-Ahead has again postponed its annual financial results, which had been postponed from September 1 to this Thursday. The group`s chief financial officer, Elodie Brian, resigned after two years in the position and 13 years with the company. Previously, she was Southeastern`s Director of Finance and Contracts. DfT said the London and South Eastern Railway, which operates services under the Southeastern brand between London, Kent and part of East Sussex, was liable for a „serious breach“ of its franchise agreement for failing to return more than £25 million in taxpayers` money. This follows an investigation by the London & South Eastern Railway (LSER) franchise which reportedly shows that more than £25 million of taxpayers` money has not been reported by the company over a seven-year period. The government takes over the operation of railway operator Southeastern after a £25 million breach of its franchise agreement. .