Southeastern heads for public ownership after financial misreporting
The Department of Transport revealed on September 28 that the Government’s Operator of Last Resort (to be known as SE Trains) will take over the running of Southeastern services from Govia on October 17, when the TOC’s current direct award contract expires.
While an extension until March 2022 was originally a possibility and new operating contracts have been agreed with other operators, the DfT claimed that financial irregularities that led to the non-declaration of £25 million of taxpayer funding had caused a serious breach of the franchise
Formerly operating on SWR routes out of London Waterloo, Southeastern vinylled ‘City Beam’ No. 707010 stands at London Cannon Street on September 2, during driver training, around three-anda-half weeks before the start of normal passenger services. Southeastern agreement’s ‘good faith’ obligations.
Although the money has since been reclaimed by the public sector, the
DfT has chosen to take on operation of Southeastern in the same way that it currently runs Northern and LNER. Passengers and frontline staff have been told they will be unaffected.
Outgoing operator Govia, a joint venture between Go-Ahead Group and Keolis, has just started passenger operation of a fleet of 30 Class 707 electric multiple units which are transferring over from SWR. It is unclear whether their new branding as ‘City Beam’ will be adopted by the public sector operator – see Units, page 28. In June, the DfT extended the Emergency Recovery Measures Agreement with Govia on the operator’s other UK rail franchise – GTR, which operates the Thameslink, Southern, Great Northern and Gatwick Express brands – until March 2022.