Southeastern trains will be taken over by Government after a probe
discovered that millions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash had gone undeclared.Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said that since October 2014, the company has not declared more than £25 million of historic taxpayer funding which should have been returned.
He described this as a ‘significant breach’ of the franchise agreement.
Fares, tickets and services will be unchanged for millions of commuters who use the service when the Government’s Operator of Last Resort (OLR) takes over.
Mr Shapps said: ‘There is clear, compelling and serious evidence that for years, LSER have breached the trust that is absolutely fundamental to the success of our railways. When trust is broken, we will act decisively.
‘The decision to take control of services makes unequivocally clear that we will not accept anything less from the private sector than a total commitment to their passengers and absolute transparency with taxpayer support.’
Further investigations are being conducted and the Government said it will consider options for more action, including financial penalties.
Southeastern is run by Govia and operates services across south-east England, covering London, Kent, East Sussex and the High Speed 1 Lines.
Unions have called for the entire railway system to be nationalised in light of southeastern’s collapse, which comes after Northern Rail returned to public ownership last year.
Manuel Cortes, general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association said: ‘The days of rail franchising must now be well and truly over. Time and time again we see the private sector fail and taxpayers ride to the rescue.
‘We need the Government to dump the failed franchise system, end the profiteering of the train operating companies and take over the whole thing, lock stock and rails.
‘There’s no time to wait for the implementation of the half-baked Williams-Shapps plan, or so-called Great British Railways pie in the sky from this Tory Government.’
Rail, Maritime and Transport union general secretary Mick Lynch said: ‘This latest public sector rescue of a privately operated rail service should kill off the risky and expensive nonsense of rail privatisation once and for all.
‘It appears that this collapse is all about Govia playing fast and loose with their financial commitments and raises serious questions about the viability of their other operations including the busy Thameslink services.
‘It’s time to put the rest of Britain’s failing private rail operations out of their misery, cut out the middleman and build a public railway that’s fit for a green, post-Covid future.’
Ministers stressed the announcement will have no impact on frontline staff, who they said have been at the frontline of delivering services throughout the Covid pandemic.
The Department for transport (DfT) said the decision ‘is no reflection on their professionalism and dedication and will not affect jobs’.
A brief statement on Southeastern’s website said: ‘Our passengers will see no change in our day-to-day operations.
‘All tickets will remain valid after transfer and new tickets can continue to be purchased in the usual way.’
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