Go-Ahead gets another Southeastern franchise extension as govt scraps bid process

The Department for Transport has granted FTSE 250 transport operator Go-Ahead a further extension to its Southeastern franchise and cancelled the competition process for running the London-Kent trainline.

The franchise will now run until 1 April next year rather than expiring on 10 November 2019. In addition, the company said the DfT has ditched the competition process for the next South Eastern franchise.

David Statham, Southeastern's managing director, said: "Over this next extension period, our focus remains squarely on our passengers, delivering more improvements and continuing to improve the punctuality and reliability of our services."

A DfT spokesman said the decision to cancel the franchise competition "follows significant concerns that continuing the competition process would lead to additional costs incurred to the taxpayer, with no certainty that this would deliver envisaged benefits for passengers in a timely fashion".

Go-Ahead chief executive David Brown said: "A lot of hard work was put into a strong bid that would have built upon the achievements of Southeastern in recent years in improving performance and customer satisfaction, delivering more capacity and investment.

"Whilst we're disappointed that our original bid is not being taken forward, we will engage with the DfT on next steps."

At 0900 BST, the shares were up 0.1% at 2,056p.