GO-VIA, the Go-Ahead Group's rail division, has agreed to pay the Government £677 million during the next six years — and to improve punctuality to 93.1 per cent by March 2014 — for its subsidiary company, Southern Railways Ltd, to continue to operate the South Central franchise.

Simultaneously, Southern announced its best ever punctuality performance for a singles day with just over 97 per cent of all its trains reaching their destinations ‘on time’ on 8 June.

Southern's managing director, Chris Burchell, praised the staff responsible. He said: “All the hard work put in by everyone at Southern at the beginning of the year is now paying dividends. I am delighted for our passengers as they are now getting the levels of service provision they expect and deserve.”

The new franchise will start on 20 September this year and requires Southern to introduce longer suburban trains at peak times and more trains on key lines during evenings and weekends.

Passengers will also be able to travel more safely on the network thanks to a significant increase in the number of stations staffed at night and the introduction of CCTV on all trains, according to Lord Andrew Adonis, the new Secretary of State for Transport — who recently identified problems at stations as a key concern during a week-long tour of the rail network.

Lord Adonis said: “This new franchise provides more regular trains, more services at busy times and more station and train security for passengers across London and the South East. It will greatly improve the quality of service and give passengers better value for money.

“We have worked closely with rail user groups such as Passenger Focus to ensure that this new franchise works for passengers. We have had four candidates entering bids for the franchise, showing that there is still a strong level of interest from private firms in running rail services.”

The three other bidders were Stagecoach, National Express and NedRailways.

The Government has required Southern to set targets for passenger satisfaction and provide additional investment if these targets are not achieved.

But watchdog Passenger Focus said: “Unfortunately [the new franchise] does not require Southern to publish performance on a route by route basis. Passenger Focus will be pushing for this as well as a commitment to actively monitor ticket queuing times, providing toilets at Coastway and Metro stations and more details on how they plan to deliver an improved service to disabled people via the Assisted Passenger Reservation Service (APRS).”

Anthony Smith, Passenger Focus chief executive, said: “Passengers will welcome the continuity and opportunity this realistic franchise deal offers. Passengers told us they wanted more seats, more trains on time, more weekend and evening trains, visible staff and more information. Passenger Focus helped build these priorities into the contract and this franchise delivers a lot of these. However, Passenger Focus will continue to keep a close eye on off peak, unregulated fares and peak time overcrowding.”

Key train service enhancements in the new franchise will include:

* Longer suburban services made up of ten car trains, with delivery starting in 2011 and being completed by 2013.


* Four trains per hour on most routes in South London until around 2300 Monday to Saturday and new late night services in South London on Friday and Saturday nights with most routes running trains until 0030.

* Additional services in South London on Sundays with four trains per hour on most routes.


* A new hourly Brighton to Southampton service on Sundays and additional late night services from Brighton to Worthing.


* Later services on the London to Uckfield route.


* A new service to Southampton Airport and an additional Gatwick Express service from Brighton at peak times.

Under the new franchise agreement, all stations and trains on the South Central network will be fitted with CCTV by June 2011 and all stations across the franchise will be required to maintain or increase the presence of customer-facing staff, leading to a safer and improved passenger-friendly experience.

In addition, new ticket gates will be installed at 22 stations (on top of the 14 South London stations being gated prior to the new franchise) and almost all South London stations will be staffed from the first to last service of the day.

The Department for Transport said the new franchise will also deliver at least 1,000 extra car parking spaces and 1,500 additional secure bicycle spaces.

Every station across the network will be cleaned and refreshed, while there will also be enhancements to 34 stations in the region, including major refurbishments at Brighton, Haywards Heath, Hove, Lewes, Redhill, Three Bridges and Worthing.