As we all know, Southeastern was Cancelled last month after severely violating Contract Rules after holding the Franchise for half a quarter of a Century (in easy language, 15 years). Let's look back on Southeastern: History In 2006, Southeastern was announced to be the Winner of the Integrated Kent Franchise to succeed South East Trains, which formed after the Stripping of Connex South Eastern in 2003 (quote if wrong). The Service began on April Fools Day 2006 and was originally let for 8 Years. In 2007, HS1 opened, to St Pancras, which freed paths previously used by Eurostar for higher service rates. At the end of 2008, the Agreement for the Tonbridge-Redhill line was passed to Southern. Near to the end of 2009, Southeastern launched a Brand of Trains called Southeastern High Speed, which ran services along the HS1 from Dover and Margate and more to St Pancras International. It holds the record for the Fastest Domestic Train Service in the UK and the 2nd Fastest train service in the UK, with Eurostar coming in First (Pun not intended). By early 2011, the Original Franchise was 1 year from the End. Having met the Performance Criteria set in 2006, DtF extended the Franchise by 2 Years to extend the Contract to March 2014. After the 2012 InterCity West Coast Relet Cancelation, Southeastern's Franchise was extended to 2018. Amidst a background of ongoing rail strikes nationwide, in September 2017, Southeastern cleaning staff, outsourced to employment agency Wettons, voted to stage industrial action in a dispute over pay and working conditions. The first strike by RMT-affiliated Wettons cleaning staff at Southeastern took place for 24 hours from 2030–2030 on 19–20 October 2017. There was no further industrial action, although negotiations between the RMT, Southeastern and Wettons remained ongoing. [Source: Wikipedia] As part of the 2018 Thameslink Program, several of the routes formerly operated by Southeastern changed into Thameslink routes, including services to Sevenoaks and Gillingham. These services using Class 700 now run from Bedford through the London Core via London Bridge and on to the Kent Main Line or the North Kent Line. [Source: Also Wikipedia] By the End of the Franchise, Southeastern was one of the most Dominant Operators in South East London and Kent (2nd only to possibly Southern and later London Overground). Map of some Southeastern lines from c2018. Part 2: Demise and Eventul Termination In January 2016, Transport for London announced its intention to take over the London suburban parts of the franchise from 2018, integrating the routes into a proposed metro network. However, in December 2016, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling rejected this plan. In June 2017, the Department for Transport announced an Abellio/East Japan Railway Company/Mitsui consortium, incumbent Govia, Stagecoach and Trenitalia had been shortlisted to bid for the next South Eastern franchise. On 10 August 2017, Trenitalia withdrew its interest in the franchise. Alstom joined Stagecoach's bid in February 2018. The Invitation to Tender for the next franchise was issued in November 2017. There have been several extensions to the current franchise since then. The franchise competition was cancelled on 7 August 2019 and the DfT instead took up a further extension and the operator was to run services until 31 March 2020. However, a new contract was then agreed on 30 March 2020, running up to 16 October 2021, with a possible extension (which due to reasons below, did to come) to 31 March 2022. In September 2021, it was announced that an operator of last resort, SE Trains would take over services effective 17 October 2021, due to a £25 Million Breach of the franchise agreement. [Source: Wikipedia] Southeastern had a Large Amount of Stock at the end, having 112 Class 375 Electrostar Units, 36 Class 376 Electrostar Units, 25 Class 377 Electrostar Units, 29 Class 395 Units, 147 Class 465 Networker Units, 43 Class 466 Networker Units, and most recently, 8 Class 707 Units, which recently transferred from South Western Railway/South West Trains. They called at 180 Stations, 164 of which were managed by Southeastern and had a Total of 400 Train Units, all of which are EMUs. Until 2008, they had Operated Class 508 Units, all of which were Scrapped in favour of Class 465/466 Networker Units except 508201 and 508208, which were retained for Departmental Use. And there it was, a History of Southeastern from 2006 to their end in 2021. My sources are Wikipedia
I mean, seemingly (from a Scots point of view) it's just the OLR taking over the Southeastern franchise, replacing Govia. So far there aren't any substantial changes (that I've noticed), so it's not much for me. My awnser to the poll would be "meh."
I think it's worth expanding on that last line there - it wasn't just a breach of an agreement, it was in essence embezzlement (accidental, the firm say) of 25 million from the UK public. Long story short, they (in the government's words) failed to declare, or (according to Go-Ahead themselves) made errors of accounting - in any case they didn't share profits with the Treasury in the way they were supposed to, and therefore at best their incompetence has cost them it. Hopefully their other franchises will soon follow back into public ownership.
As far as the public are concerned nothing will have changed. You pay for your ticket the same, the price is the same, the routes are the same, the trains are the same, the times are the same... The only people who might have noticed something different are the staff, and only then if the payslips start saying a different company on them. (I live about 100 yards from Gillingham (Kent) Station and haven't seen anything different between last week and this)
The major problem is that Governments of all persuasions have an obsession with selling to the lowest bidder, regardless of their ability to fulfil it. Then they wonder why things go wrong. Companies are so frightened of not getting the franchise that they bid artificially low to get the contract then, once they get it, they cut corners to the bone in order to make a profit. I’ve seen this in real life, having been outsourced from a Government Department to a company that specialises in outsourcing. When I worked for them, the resource allocated to the contract was as little as they could get away with, while the real resource was concentrated on winning new contracts.
LNER Did change theirs a bit VTEC livery LNER livery (Not my pictures) Although to be fair it wasn’t that hard considering the IETs weren’t all delivered yet