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Southern Railway is to be dragged into the 21st century under a new franchise which will increase the length of trains from the stockbroker belt into Victoria and, in a victory for the Evening Standard, will see all south London stations manned around the clock.
Go-Ahead, the transport group, was today re-awarded the contract to run Southern Railway until 2015. It was first awarded the franchise in 2001 after the sacking of the loathed French operator Connex.
However, under a significantly tougher new Department for Transport regime, the previously heavily subsidised Southern Railway will have to pay £534 million in excess profits back to the Treasury over the next six years.
That is likely to set alarm bells ringing for some after the fiasco at King's Cross, where National Express may have to walk away from the East Coast Main Line franchise just two years after signing an ambitious £1 billion payback contract.
Go-Ahead chief executive Keith Ludeman insisted the new contract will work. “This is deliverable,” he said.
While passenger growth on Southern is falling at 2% a year in the current recession and not expected to recover until 2012, Ludeman says Southern can increase revenues by 4% a year and, after paying back money to the Treasury, make a 3% profit margin rising to 5% in later years.
That, he said, will not come from fare rises, pegged annually at just 1% over inflation, but from running 10% more services using better timetabling and longer trains.
“Extending trains from eight cars to ten cars and in some cases 12 cars will release pent-up demand at peak times,” he said. “Whenever we put on more capacity it gets filled.”
He said the company will also make more money from clamping down on fare-evaders through more manned and gated stations and adding 1000 car parking spaces.
Southern is pledging to put CCTV on all stations and trains and to man its London stations from first to last trains.
“Everything in the Evening Standard's Safer Stations campaign is being implemented,” said Ludeman.
The Standard has campaigned for better security at London stations after the 2006 murder of lawyer Tom ap Rhys Pryce after he left Kensal Green station.
Reader views (4)
Paul B should check his facts, The units on loan from LM are to cover for units loaned out to FCC who are the ones with a shortage - All of this is pretty much out of the hands of the operators who have suffered due to supplier problems. From someone who remembers too well the greed of Connex, I believe that Southern quite rightly retained the franchise - here's to another 5+ years of improvements and to getting home on time day after day!
- Steve Lee, Lancing, ENGLAND, 10/06/2009 23:55
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I sincerely hope that manning the stations is motivated by concentrating on passenger service and protection and not just fare collection.
- John Davie, Redbourn, Herts, 09/06/2009 16:01
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Nothing different here then. These new trains should have already been delivered but were delayed due to problems with UK suppliers delivering on time. Southern have had to borrow trains from London Midland to make up some of the shortfall. First and London Overgrond have a similar problem.
Lets see if this, or any other excuse, is how they wiggle out of the £534 million rebate.
- Paul B, London, 09/06/2009 14:55
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I wonder if Konrad "Keith" Ludeman is planning to use similar posters to the ones meant to deter fare-dodging on the now defunct Thameslink service, and one which was every bit as loathed as Connex. I know that the current franchise holder First Capital Connect serving the Brighton to Bedford route has its faults, but whoever awarded this Southern Railway franchise to a guy whose approach to "revenue protection" was routinely depicting his client-base as criminals locked up behind bars must be certifiable.
- Richard, Madrid, Spain, 09/06/2009 13:08
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