Southeastern has announced that the Department for Transport has awarded a Direct Award Contract to Govia to continue operating the Southeastern franchise.
Govia is made up of the Go Ahead Group (65%) and Keolis (35%).
The new contract starts on 1 April 2020 and will run until 16 October 2021, with the option to extend until 31 March 2022.
In the short term, Southeastern will be focusing on providing train services for key workers during the Coronavirus outbreak.
Into the future, Southeastern will be looking to make a number of passenger improvements including boosting capacity as more trains become available.
The new arrangement is a management contract, which was announced in the DfT's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, announced on 23 March 2020.
What did the officials say?
David Statham, Southeastern Managing Director, said:
“We continue to work with our industry partners to ensure that services are available to get people working in healthcare, food and other vital public services where they need to be. When customers are able to begin travelling as normal, we look forward to reconnecting our communities and further improving capacity, performance and customer satisfaction”.
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Given how Govia will extend the Southeastern franchise for another 1-2 years. They may not want to inherit or import extra carriages because they got enough rolling stocks working across Kent, East Sussex and Southeast London.
Suppose that Govia Thameslink Railway might extend their franchise. Or to split and separate with Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern to operate as separate train operators and Gatwick Express to remain as part of the Southern Trains franchise.
By saying about Southern. They could inherit the Class 458/5 from South Western Railway to replace the Class 313 on the East Coastway and West Coastway services. Or perhaps Southern to order new trains to replace the Class 455 used on the South London suburban routes and Class 313 on the Coastway services.
As Great Northern have replaced the Class 313 on the Moorgate Line and Hertford Loop Line with the Class 717. And Gatwick Express to inherit the Class 387/3 from c2c to add more capacity and to send 387105 back to Great Northern.