Integrated Kent Franchise

The Integrated Kent Franchise (IKF) is the successor passenger rail franchise to the South Eastern Franchise (SEF) to incorporate domestic passenger services from east Kent to London via High Speed One (HS1). The franchise was awarded to Govia (a joint venture between Go-Ahead Group and Keolis) by the Department for Transport (DfT) on 30 November 2005, for operations to commence on 1 April 2006. The original Invitation to Tender (ITT) was issued by the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) in January 2005, following earlier consultation. Govia accordingly operates the current services, under the brand name Southeastern.

There were four parties involved in the bid for IKF:

• South Eastern Railways Ltd (a joint venture between DSB International and Stagecoach Group)
• First Kent Integrated Railways Ltd (FirstGroup plc)
• Great South Eastern Railway Limited (a joint venture between GNER Holdings and MTR Corporation)
• London & South Eastern Railway Ltd (Govia).

The SEF provided (and the IKF continues to provide) services throughout Kent, parts of East Sussex and South East London; its previous incumbents were the private-sector Connex and, on their loss of the franchise from on 9 November 2003, the wholly owned subsidiary of the SRA South Eastern Trains.

The IKF contract was for an initial 8 years with the final 2 years dependent on service performance achieving preset targets. The total subsidy for IKF is £585m over 8 years. The DfT stated that the franchise area had already benefited from almost £700 million in investment on new rolling stock and improved infrastructure, and that given investment in the region the new operator will increase fares by 3% above inflation from January 2007 for five years to ensure there is a fair balance in cost between the taxpayer and fare paying passenger.

According to DfT Govia committed to:

• Invest around £76 million in passenger and staff facilities
• Oversee the construction of two depots in East Kent to maintain the new and existing fleet of trains
• Improve performance with all day PPM train performance of 91.6% by March 2010 and 93.74% by March 2014
• Provide services which are additional to the base line DfT asked for in the Invitation to Tender
• Run services to Dover if safety concerns at Shakespeare Tunnels could be overcome.

High-speed commuter services to/from St Pancras International via High Speed 1 are due to begin from December 2009, and a preview service starting on 29 June from Ashford and Ebbsfleet to St Pancras. £250 million was due to be invested on new high speed trains.

On 5 May 2010 BBC Radio Kent reported from 6pm that further substantial taxpayer support had been given to Govia in respect of the Southeastern franchise, although the BBC web pages for Kent failed to simultaneously reflect the news item.