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

[brad465]

Maybe I've only just noticed it but today rather a few Metro carriages didn't have Southeastern logos/lettering on the side. Possibly the lettering just fell off or they didn't renew it as they expected stock to be replaced which of course will not happen now anytime soon.

Potentially, but I feel like the reason is SE were not sure they would be running the franchise by this point, so didn't expect to have to renew it.
While the stock will ultimately get replaced, that will likely take 3 years at least; SWR still don't have Aventras in operation, having ordered 750 carriages worth in mid-2017. 376+465+466 comprise 854 carriages if I've calculated correctly, and one would hope a proper franchise award would see a larger carriage order than that made to improve capacity.

 

[Horizon22]

Potentially, but I feel like the reason is SE were not sure they would be running the franchise by this point, so didn't expect to have to have to renew it.

This is part of it - you can only apply sticking plasters for so long. This has a lot of parallels with the old London Midland franchise that was constantly extended. It's not much good for staff morale (some managers might like it though) and continuously puts of necessary investment decisions.