Department for Transport

Department for Transport announces winner of Integrated Kent franchise
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date 30 November 2005 16:07
source Department for Transport
type Press release

The Department for Transport today announced that Govia has been awarded the contract to run the Integrated Kent franchise (IKF) from 01 April 2006.

The IKF will include routes on the national rail network currently operated by South Eastern Trains throughout Kent, parts of East Sussex and South East London.

It will also include new high speed commuter services from St Pancras making use of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) in 2009. This is the first high speed commuter service this country has seen.

Journey times for passengers travelling from Ramsgate and East Kent through the Medway towns and Thames Gateway to the centre of London reduced by up to 35 minutes. CTRL will help support new housing and economic opportunities in the Thames Gateway area and beyond.

In 2012 Govia will provide the flagship 'Olympic Javelin' rail service that helped London secure the Olympic Games, linking St Pancras and Stratford in less than 8 minutes.

Govia has also committed to:
* Invest around £76 million in passenger and staff facilities
* Oversee the construction of two depots in East Kent to maintain the new and existing fleet of trains
* Provide services which are additional to the base line DfT asked for in the ITT, including a strengthened half-hourly service to Beckenham Junction to Victoria, an additional peak service between Faversham and Cannon Street, two additional peak trains between Ashford and Charing Cross and some extra mid-evening and late evening trains to suburban and Kent destinations from London.
* Improved performance and reliability so that more than 9 out of 10 trains run on time by 2010.
* Run CTRL domestic services to Dover if safety concerns at the Shakespeare Tunnel can be overcome.

There will be overall improvements to services from 2009, including:

* Arrivals in London in the morning peak 3 hours go up from 171 to 188 (by 10%). * Off-peak services improve from 39 to 46 trains every hour during the daytime. The off peak improvements are spread between inner and outer suburban services, the winners being the Bexleyheath Line (+2 trains per hour (tph)), Orpington/Sevenoaks via Grove Park (+2 tph), the Herne Hill route (+2 tph west of Beckenham Junction) and the Hastings Line around the Tunbridge Wells area (+2 tph)

Transport Secretary Alistair Darling said:

"This contract represents very good value for the taxpayer. It will bring about more improvements in the quality of services passengers receive, building on around £700 million of investment already invested in new rolling stock and improved infrastructure in Kent.

"Passengers will benefit from the first high speed commuter service this country has seen, which will reduce journey times to and from London. The franchise will also provide extra investment in facilities and staff training, improved reliability and additional off-peak services."

The total subsidy for IKF is £585 m over 8 years. The franchise has already benefited from nearly £700 million in investment on new rolling stock and improved infrastructure. £250 million will be invested in on the new high speed trains.

The franchise contract is for 8 years with the final 2 years dependent on service performance achieving preset targets.

ENDS

Notes to editors

1. The incumbent operator is South Eastern Trains (SET), a subsidiary of the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA). Following the termination of the Connex South Eastern Franchise on 9 November 2003, SET has run services across the region.

2. The four parties invited to bid for IKF were South Eastern Railways Ltd (a joint venture between DSB International and Stagecoach Group); First Kent Integrated Railways Ltd (FirstGroup plc); Great South Eastern Railway Limited (a joint venture between GNER Holdings and MTR Corporation) and London & South Eastern Railway Ltd (a joint venture between Go-Ahead Group and Keolis).

3. On 27 October 2004, Alistair Darling announced Hitachi as the Preferred Manufacturer to build new high speed trains to operate on the IFT. The order is expected to be for 28 6-carriage trains to be introduced in 2009.

4. Stations served by CTRL domestic services are:

St Pancras Stratford International Ebbsfleet Gravesend Higham Strood Rochester Chatham Gillingham Rainham Sittingbourne Faversham Ashford International Sandling Folkestone West Folkestone Central Dover Priory (conditional upon achieving an affordable solution to emergency passenger evacuation in Shakespeare Tunnels) Wye Canterbury West Sturry Minster Ramsgate Broadstairs Margate Birchington-on-Sea Herne Bay Whitstable

Railhub Archive ::: 2005-11-30 DfT-001