Southeastern (train operating company)

Southeastern is a train operating company in south-east England. On 1 April 2006 it became the franchisee for the new Integrated Kent Franchise (IKF), replacing the publicly-owned South Eastern Trains on the former South East Franchise. It serves the commuter routes to south-east London, most of Kent, and parts of East Sussex.

Overview
Southeastern serves the main London stations of Charing Cross, Victoria, Blackfriars, Cannon Street, London Bridge, Waterloo East and recently St Pancras. The Southeastern network has a route mileage of 540, with 179 stations. About 70% of its services run to and from London.

It is owned by Govia, a joint venture between Go-Ahead Group and Keolis, which also operates the neighbouring Southern franchise, which overlaps with Southeastern in some areas. The company's formal name, under which it mounted its bid for the franchise, is London and South Eastern Railway (LSER). Although it continued to use the logo and livery of its predecessor for its first year of operations, a new company logo was adopted early in 2007; stations and some trains have been repainted in the new corporate colour scheme. The managing director is Charles Horton, formerly MD of sister company Southern.

History of the franchise
Since the privatisation of British Rail, the franchise to run trains in this area has been held by three different companies. The first company to win the South-Eastern Franchise, on 14 October 1996, was Connex, which operated it under the name Connex South Eastern. Connex gained a reputation for unreliable services, but it was for "poor financial management" that its franchise was cut short by the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) on 9 November 2003. Train services were then taken over by South Eastern Trains, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the SRA/Department for Transport created for the purpose, until bidding for a new franchise was due. This would see the existing South-Eastern franchise combined with the new high-speed services to be operated on High Speed 1 (formerly known as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link) to form a new Integrated Kent Franchise (IKF).

The opening of the second phase of High Speed 1 in November 2007 made available train paths on the traditional network previously used by Eurostar, allowing Southeastern to increase certain services in December 2007. In December 2008, as part of the franchise agreement, responsibility for the Redhill to Tonbridge Line was handed over to Southern. Southeastern high-speed services began full service on 14 December 2009.

In March 2009 the bay platforms at London Blackfriars closed for reconstruction as part of the Thameslink Programme. Southeastern services previously terminating at Blackfriars, mostly from via the Catford loop, were extended to Kentish Town, St Albans, Luton or Bedford. As a result of this change, Southeastern now operates these services jointly with First Capital Connect using 20 dual-voltage Class 319 sets (which remain in FCC livery) as well as newly built Class 377 Electrostars.

Southeastern sub-areas
Southeastern has named parts of its network either Highspeed (grey), Mainline (green) or Metro (pink) and coloured its network map accordingly.

Highspeed
Southeastern introduced a full timetable of domestic high-speed services branded Southeastern Highspeed over High Speed 1 between London St Pancras and Ashford International on 13 December 2009, although public preview services had been running since 29 June 2009. High-speed trains use High Speed 1 calling at Stratford International and Ebbsfleet International. Trains from London to the Medway towns and Faversham leave the high-speed line at Ebbsfleet and continue via the North Kent line and Chatham Main Line. Trains for Dover Priory and Margate via Ashford International leave the high-speed line at Ashford.

When bidding for the franchise, Southeastern made a point of advertising part-owner SNCF's experience operating integrated high-speed train services on the French TGV network. A fleet of 29 six-coach Shinkansen-derived high-speed 'A-trains' were built in Japan by Hitachi for this route. Known as Class 395, this was Hitachi's first train sale in Britain. The colour scheme for the high-speed trains is dark blue. The services are marketed as Southeastern Highspeed and the trains will be named after British personalities associated with speed.

At the same time there was the largest change to the timetable in the area in 40 years. With the fast trains now travelling over High Speed 1, the Charing Cross to Ashford stopping service was extended to Dover, Canterbury and Ramsgate.

Mainline
Southeastern is the key operator for Kent, and also serves East Sussex. 'Mainline' services connect central London with Dover, Folkestone, Hastings, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Ramsgate, Chatham, Maidstone and Canterbury. The backbone fleet on these services is the Electrostar, although the /9 is also used.

In December 2009 Southeastern saw 'Highspeed' trains stopping at 'Mainline' stations, and some longer timings on 'Mainline' services as trains called at more stations. Services to Tonbridge were maintained at six trains per hour off-peak, two per hour going forward to Ashford and beyond, two per hour to Hastings, and two per hour to Tunbridge Wells. With high-speed services reaching Faversham, the half-hourly Victoria to Faversham stopping service was replaced with an hourly service to Gillingham and additional stops on the "fast" services to London Victoria. On the Maidstone East Line, services from London Cannon Street to Ashford International via Maidstone East and from London Victoria to Maidstone East and to Canterbury West via Ashford were replaced by a half-hourly Victoria to Ashford service. The Strood to Paddock Wood service was extended to Tonbridge.

Metro
Southeastern serves south-east and south London, its central stations being London Blackfriars, London Bridge, London Charing Cross, London Cannon Street, London Victoria and Waterloo East. 'Metro' trains serve Greenwich, New Cross, Lewisham, Dartford, Gravesend, Hayes, Peckham Rye, Bromley South, Orpington and Sevenoaks, and also run a joint service with First Capital Connect Thameslink route with a service from Sevenoaks via Catford to Kentish Town or further north. Trains change company operation at London Blackfriars. Southeastern runs Electrostar,  &  Networkers for 'Metro' services, although a Class 375 Electrostar is used on occasion.

On New Year's Eve, some Metro services operate all through the night.

Current routes
Current off-peak services. Originating from central London, these services are:


 * Kentish Town, calling at St Pancras, Farringdon, City Thameslink and Blackfriars[1] to:
 * Sevenoaks stopping service via Catford and Swanley - 2tph


 * Cannon Street to:
 * Loop service via Sidcup to Crayford, then return via Woolwich Arsenal and Greenwich - 2tph
 * Loop service via Greenwich and Woolwich Arsenal to Slade Green then return via Sidcup - 2tph
 * Slade Green via Greenwich and Woolwich Arsenal - 2tph
 * Dartford via Greenwich and Woolwich Arsenal - 2tph
 * Barnehurst via Bexleyheath - 2tph
 * Hayes via Lewisham - 2tph
 * Orpington via Grove Park - 2tph


 * Charing Cross to:
 * Dartford via Bexleyheath - 2tph
 * Hayes bypassing Lewisham - 2tph
 * Gravesend via Sidcup - 2tph
 * Gillingham (Kent) via Lewisham and Woolwich Arsenal - 2tph
 * Sevenoaks via Lewisham - 2tph
 * Hastings via Tunbridge Wells - 2tph
 * Tunbridge Wells via Orpington - 2tph
 * Dover and Canterbury West, dividing at Ashford International - 1tph
 * Ramsgate via Dover and Canterbury West, dividing at Ashford International - 1tph


 * St Pancras International to:
 * Faversham via Ebbsfleet and Chatham - 2tph
 * Dover via Ebbsfleet and Ashford - 1tph
 * Margate via Ebbsfleet, Ashford and Canterbury West - 1tph


 * Victoria to:
 * Orpington via Beckenham Junction - 4tph
 * Dartford via Bexleyheath - 2tph
 * Ramsgate and Dover via Bromley South, dividing at Faversham - 2tph
 * Gillingham via Bromley South - 1tph
 * Ashford via Maidstone East - 2tph

Other services include;


 * Grove Park to Bromley North shuttle - 2tph
 * Sittingbourne to Sheerness - 2tph
 * Tonbridge to Strood via Maidstone West - 1tph
 * Maidstone West to Strood - 1tph

In addition to the above, there are peak-only routes, including:


 * St Pancras International to Broadstairs via Chatham


 * Bedford to Ashford International[1]

Notes
 * 1) Worked north of Blackfriars by First Capital Connect. Weekend trains terminate at Victoria instead.

Olympic Javelin Shuttle
The Olympic Javelin or Javelin is a planned high-speed train shuttle service announced as part of the successful London 2012 Olympic bid. It is an integral part of the plan to improve public transport in London in readiness for the 2012 Summer Olympics, an area of the bid that was initially regarded as being poor by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The service will run for the duration of the games, between St Pancras International station and Ebbsfleet International station, via Stratford International station, which is within the planned Olympic Park. The British Olympic Association applied to register Javelin as a UK trademark on 19 July 2005 and this was granted on 2 June 2006. The service is to be operated by Southeastern on High Speed 1 using the fleet of Class 395 trains, and because of this the class is sometimes referred to as the Javelin.

With a train every six minutes, the journey from St Pancras will take seven minutes. At St Pancras there will be interchange with the Underground and with trains to/from the Midlands, Scotland, and the North of England. For track capacity reasons, Eurostar trains, which have never called at Stratford, will continue not to do so during the games, so spectators arriving from the Continent will change at Ebbsfleet. The planned suspension of Southeastern Highspeed services during the Games is to be reviewed. It is expected that over 80% of Olympic spectators will travel to and from the venues by rail. Services to the Olympic Park are planned to have a total capacity of 240,000 travellers per hour, some 25,000 of which will use the Javelin service.

Thameslink Programme
By the conclusion of the Thameslink Programme in 2015, it is planned that the current off-peak services from Sevenoaks via Bat and Ball will be joined by trains from Orpington together with trains from Maidstone East and Paddock Wood via London Bridge. Services to Dartford are currently discounted due to timetabling reasons. Peak-hour trains are planned from Tunbridge Wells and Paddock Wood via London Bridge together with trains from Maidstone East, Sevenoaks and Orpington via the Catford Loop.

Ticketing
Oyster PAYG is now available from all of its Zones 1-6 stations, apart from journeys on High Speed 1 between St Pancras International and Stratford International.

Performance
Figures released by the ORR rate punctuality at 86.0% (PPM) over the fourth quarter of financial year 2009/10, and 89.5% moving annual average (MAA) for the 12 months up to 31 March 2010.

Rolling stock
Southeastern operates a fleet of about 322 trains, all of which are electrical multiple units.

Current fleet
Southeastern has, from the 22 March 2009 timetable change, started to operate Class 319 dual-voltage units shared with First Capital Connect (FCC) to operate most services via London Blackfriars as part of the Thameslink programme. Southeastern operates the service south of Blackfriars, FCC taking over their operation north thereof. This restored services that initially operated when the Thameslink route was opened in the late 1980s. Southeastern will also share some of the 23 new dual-voltage Class 377 units bound for the Thameslink route.

Past fleet
The arrangement with First Capital Connect for the services via Thameslink, coupled with the transfer of some routes to Southern, has allowed Southeastern to withdraw its small fleet of Class 508 EMUs and replace them with Networker stock cascaded from other services.