Important rail services across the South East, South West and South Wales will continue running thanks to new contracts between the Government and Great Western Railway and Southeastern.
The new agreements with Govia and FirstGroup will also ensure that jobs are protected during the coronavirus crisis.
In the longer-term, passengers will benefit from improvements including increased capacity at peak times, more front-line staff and more fare trials. The direct awards will allow services to be increased when the rail network returns to normal.
Major improvements to be delivered by Great Western Railway include the planned introduction of more capacity in the Bristol and Exeter areas.
Southeastern passengers will see space for thousands of extra passengers during the morning and evening peak times.
The deals announced will guarantee vital trains services through the coronavirus crisis, and improvements in the long term.
These agreements will run alongside the emergency measures announced last week, which will see the government temporarily take on revenue and cost risk associated with the franchises.
Great Western Railway has been awarded a direct award for 3 years, extendable to 4. Southeastern has been awarded a direct award for up to 2 years.
What did the officials say?
Rail Minister, Chris Heaton-Harris, said:
We are taking decisive action across the board to ensure vital rail services continue, allowing those people who cannot work at home to get to work – particularly our NHS, emergency services and other vital industries.
These contracts will keep services running in the short-term but also are positive news for passengers in the future, focusing on more reliable services, extra capacity and improvements to the stations they use every day.
These are unprecedented times and the rail network is central to our national resilience.
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Responses
The 377 are of to Southern, so they won’t have extra stock in the long run.
Then Southeastern will not need to inherit extra rolling stocks (ie Class 707) because they got enough rolling stocks. Including Class 375, Class 376 and Class 377/5 Electrostars. Class 465 and Class 466 Networkers and Class 395 Javelins. Which Southeastern operates all services in Kent, East Sussex and Southeast London. Including serving Stratford International in East London.