SouthEastern franchise direct award through to 1 April 2020 (& franchise competition terminated)

Hughqq said:

Does anyone know if a franchise award will happen in August for SE?

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ForTheLoveOf said:

The Operator of Last Resort, a consortium appointed by the DfT to ensure continuity of service in the event of franchise terminations before a new competition can be held.

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HH said:

Could possibly happen, but I doubt we'll see an announcement before September. Chances are we'll have a new SoS in a few days...

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Hughqq said:

Does anyone know if a franchise award will happen in August for SE?

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Alteran Ancient said:

In short, it's likely that nobody really knows. We can make educated guesses and assumptions, but now that BoJo is the new PM-elect, we have no idea if he's going to face (or win) a vote of confidence, and if he does, who he'll appoint to be his Transport secretary.

Right now, the current extension ends in November. If we hear nothing by mid-September, then chances are we're in for yet another extension to April. The DfT's strategy is to kick the can down the road for as long as possible until the Williams review is complete. Because apparently, after ignoring most of Gibb's report, we clearly needed to commission another review(!)

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greatescape said:

Will anything happen by around August 10?

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Jorge Da Silva said:

Why August 10?

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ScotGG said:

Stagnation as usual I guess. SE will lose capacity on busy routes from 2019 with 466s not able to run on branch lines this taking 3/4 car stock. Nothin planned to alleviate that?

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ScotGG said:

Stagnation as usual I guess. SE will lose capacity on busy routes from 2019 with 466s not able to run on branch lines this taking 3/4 car stock. Nothin planned to alleviate that?

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DynamicSpirit said:

Uh? What's that about? Why won't stock be able to run on branch lines?

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adrock1976 said:

I believe ScotGG means that the 466s cannot run by themselves as they will not be receiving the Persons of Reduced Mobility (PRM) modifications.

They can remain in service unmodified with the caveat that they are always coupled to a 465 which will be receiving the PRM modifications.

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ainsworth74 said:

But who pays for it? The TOC won't as they could be gone by November or April next year. The ROSCO will be unlikely to do so either as they will be worried that their expensively modified units could be without a home within a short period of time depending on what the new franchisee does.

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hwl said:

The tender basically implies binning them...

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ainsworth74 said:

Which makes the chances of the ROSCO stumping up the money basically zero I'd suggest!

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Go-Ahead Group has confirmed it will run the Southeastern rail franchise until 1 April 2020, rather than the previous end date of 10 November this year.

The FTSE 250 transport giant had originally been given the option to extend the contract to allow the government more time to choose a winner for the next contract. It said this morning competition for the next Southeastern franchise has been terminated.

Go-Ahead also operates the Govia Thameslink railway, and runs a fleet of around 5,000 buses across the UK.


Go-Ahead chief executive David Brown said: “A lot of hard work was put into a strong bid that would have built upon the achievements of Southeastern in recent years in improving performance and customer satisfaction, delivering more capacity and investment.

“Whilst we’re disappointed that our original bid is not being taken forward, we will engage with the DfT on next steps.”

David Statham, Southeastern’s Managing Director, said: “We’re proud to have delivered more than £80m of improvements for passengers since we began a new direct award contract in 2014.

“Punctuality has improved by nearly 10 per cent in two years, we’ve introduced free Wi-Fi on our trains and boosted capacity on board with 5,000 extra seats”.

“Over this next extension period, our focus remains squarely on our passengers, delivering more improvements and continuing to improve the punctuality and reliability of our services.”

The extension comes after the government lost a bid to strike out legal challenges from three rail firms that are contesting its handling of controversial franchise bids.

Last week The High Court gave Virgin, Stagecoach and Arriva Trains the green light to challenge former transport secretary Chris Grayling’s decision to ban them from bidding for the East Midlands, West Coast and South Eastern franchises.

The three firms were excluded from the competition for their refusal to accept open-ended pension liabilities with the government.

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greatescape said:

Go-Ahead Group confirms Southeastern rail franchise extension until April 2020
Wednesday 7 August 2019
https://www.cityam.com/go-ahead-group-extends-southeastern-rail-franchise-until-april/



"It said this morning competition for the next Southeastern franchise has been terminated".
？？？Does this mean that it has completely returned to 0?

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Scrapped: Government cancels bidding for Southeastern rail franchise as fresh search for operator begins

The government has scrapped the bidding process for the Southeastern rail franchise, making it the latest botched procurement by the Department for Transport (DfT).

Officials will now have until 1 April 2020 to run a fresh procurement process from scratch to find the next operator.

Read more: Government loses bid to throw out legal challenges against franchise snubs

Go-Ahead Group, which currently operates the railway, will run Southeastern for four months longer than planned to give Whitehall the chance to choose the next operator.


The DfT said it had cancelled the competition because it was costing the taxpayer too much.

A spokesperson said: “We have taken the decision to cancel the Southeastern franchise competition.

“This follows significant concerns that continuing the competition process would lead to additional costs incurred to the taxpayer, with no certainty that this would deliver envisaged benefits for passengers in a timely fashion.

“The department will use this period to develop a solution that delivers the capacity and performance benefits that passengers are expecting, and ensure that the recommendations of the Williams Review can be implemented.”

Go-Ahead chief executive David Brown this morning said he was “disappointed” the process had been cancelled.

Read more: UK rail franchising system has ‘had its day’, says review head

“A lot of hard work was put into a strong bid that would have built upon the achievements of Southeastern in recent years in improving performance and customer satisfaction, delivering more capacity and investment.”



He said the firm would work with the department on the next steps in choosing the next operator.

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hwl said:

They will be getting all the mods except replacing the current toilet with a disabled one.

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The competition to operate rail services between London, Kent and parts of East Sussex has been cancelled, the government has said.

The current incumbent, Southeastern, has been given a five-month extension to run the route until April 2020.

Southeastern is operated by Go-Ahead, which won the franchise in 2006.

Go-Ahead chief executive David Brown said he was disappointed the original bid was not being taken forward by the Department for Transport.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: "We have taken the decision to cancel the South Eastern franchise competition.

"This follows significant concerns that continuing the competition process would lead to additional costs incurred to the taxpayer, with no certainty that this would deliver envisaged benefits for passengers in a timely fashion."

He said the department would "use this period to develop a solution that delivers the capacity and performance benefits that passengers are expecting".

It will also allow the government to ensure that the recommendations of the review being conducted by the former boss of British Airways, Keith Williams, in to the railways, are taken into account.

His Williams Review will be published in the autumn but he has previously told the BBC government involvement should be limited to overall policy and budget decisions, and the Department for Transport should not manage the system.

David Statham, Southeastern's managing director, said: "Over this next extension period, our focus remains squarely on our passengers, delivering more improvements and continuing to improve the punctuality and reliability of our services."

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Wilts Wanderer said:

What this latest development shows is that we currently have the most extraordinarily incompetent government, and of course the Transport portfolio is the worst of the lot.

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