New three-year management contract for GTR

Govia Thameslink Railway has been awarded a National Rail Contract by the Department for Transport to continue operating Britain’s largest franchise for at least another three years.

The new management contract commenced on April 1 and will run until April 1 2025, with an option for a further three years at the Transport Secretary’s discretion.

GTR confirmed that it will earn a fee of £8.8 million per annum (equivalent to a margin of 0.5% of the operator’s cost base) to deliver the NRC, with an additional performance fee of up to £22.9m a year (equivalent to an additional 1.35% margin).

The latter will be subject to the achievement of performance targets set by the DfT, but means the maximum fee receivable by

GTR will therefore be £31.7m a year (equivalent to a margin of approximately 1.85%).

Rail Minister Wendy Morton said: “GTR will play a key role in helping the Government continue delivering our Plan for Rail. With their plans for improving the punctuality, reliability and accessibility of their services through close collaboration with Network Rail, we are proud to partner with GTR.”

GTR CEO Patrick Verwer added: “I’m delighted that GTR’s longstanding experience in running the UK’s largest train network, our focus on improving the customer experience, and our strong local community relationships, have been recognised.”

GTR has operated services for Great Northern, Southern,

Thameslink and Gatwick Express since 2014. It manages 235 stations in London and south-east England and employs 7,400 people.

GTR is itself operated by Govia (a joint venture 65% owned by the Go-Ahead Group and 35% by Keolis), which also held the Southeastern franchise until it was stripped of this in October 2021 following a failure to declare and repay more than £60m in public money owed to the taxpayer (see pages 30-31).

“Awarding a contract to Govia less than six months after they were stripped of their Southeastern contract for concealing taxpayer funding is a clear signal that [Transport Secretary] Grant Shapps is throwing good money after bad,” said TSSA Leader Manuel Cortes.