The Government’s Operator of Last Resort took over running of Southeastern from Govia on 17 October. The move followed an investigation which found more than £25 million of taxpayers’ money had not been declared by Southeastern.
The business is known as SE Trains Ltd, and the OLR business says it will relentlessly focus on improving the service and bringing more customers to the railway. In a move planned before the announcement of the change of ownership, Steve White took over as Managing Director a week before the change, moving from Govia Thameslink Railway, where he was previously Chief Operating Officer.
The intention had been for Southeastern to transfer to a new National Rail Contract starting on 17 October, meaning it would have become the sixth operator to do so. Southeastern had been operating under an Emergency Measures Agreement (EMA) running concurrent with a direct award franchise which began on 1 April 2020. DfT had an option to extend the direct award until 31 March 2022.
Profit share payment
The first reference to the matter appears to have been in Go-Ahead’s financial results for the year to 27 June 2020, published in September that year. A note on contingent liabilities explains that on 31 March 2020 the Secr…
