History
Connex South Central was awarded the Network SouthCentral franchise by the Director of Passenger Rail Franchising with operations commencing on 26 May 1996.
In March 2000 the Shadow Strategic Rail Authority announced its intention to relet the franchise from May 2003 with Connex and Govia the shortlisted bidders. In October 2000 the Shadow Strategic Rail Authority announced that Govia had been awarded the franchise and would operate it from May 2003. Govia negotiated a deal with Connex to buy out the remainder of its franchise with the transaction completed in August 2001. Govia trading as SouthCentral took over operations on 26 August 2001.
The franchise was originally to run for twenty years but in 2002 the Strategic Rail Authority changed the way it wanted investment funded and Govia was awarded a seven and a half year franchise until December 2009.
In May 2004 the franchise was rebranded as Southern in a deliberate recall of the pre-nationalisation Southern Railway with a green roundel logo with Southern written in yellow in a green bar.
In April 2007 the Department for Transport announced that the Gatwick Express franchise was to be incorporated into the South Central franchise. This was part of a plan by the Department for Transport to increase capacity on the Brighton Main Line that saw peak hour services extended from Gatwick to Brighton and Eastbourne from December 2008. This doubled the number of London to Brighton express trains during those periods.
In December 2008 took over the services on the Redhill to Tonbridge Line were transferred from Southeastern.
The South Central franchise end date was brought forward to September 2009 upon the integration of the Gatwick Express service, in order to allow the new operator to be in place during major changes to the timetable in and around South London in December 2009. In the run up to the bidding process for the South Central/Gatwick Express combined franchise, reports emerged suggesting that Transport for London, the operator of the London Overground service, wished to take control of all overground services in South London, including the 'Metro' area of the South Central franchise, however such a transfer never took place and the entire franchise was put forward for tender by the Department for Transport.
In August 2008 the Department for Transport shortlisted Abellio, Govia, National Express, NedRail and Stagecoach for the new South Central franchise.
In June 2009 the Department for Transport announced that Govia had retained the franchise commencing on 20 September 2009.
The Department for Transport has announced that at the conclusion of the Southern franchise in July 2015, the South Central franchise will be merged into the Thameslink Great Northern franchise.
In March 2012 the Department for Transport announced Abellio, FirstGroup, Govia, MTR and Stagecoach have been shortlisted for the new Thameslink Southern Great Northern franchise. The Invitation to Tender was be issued in October 2012, with the successful bidder announced in Spring 2013. However in the wake of the InterCity West Coast refranchising process collapsing, the government announced in October 2012 that the process would be put on hold pending the results of a review.
Read more about this topic: Southern (train Operating Company)
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