Go-Ahead/Keolis joint venture scoops new mega-franchise for southern England

The mega-franchise covers a vast area from King`s Lynn in Norfolk and Milton Keynes to Portsmouth and Hastings on the coast

The mega-franchise covers a vast area from King`s Lynn in Norfolk and Milton Keynes to Portsmouth and Hastings on the coast

Go-via, the joint venture of Go-Ahead and Keolis, has been awarded the new Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise, the largest ever in terms of passenger numbers.

The Government hailed three new state-of the-art electric train fleets of 1,400 carriages to provide 50% more capacity, opening up new routes across London and adding 10,000 seats into central London in the morning-peak. Govia saw off FirstGroup, Stagecoach, Dutch-owned Abellion and Hong Kong-listed MTR to win the deal.

The new rolling stock will take advantage of the £6.5bn upgrade of the line, which includes new tunnels linking Peterborough and Cambridge to the existing Thameslink route providing easy access across London. 

A new fleet of 108 carriages will be ordered to replace the 25-year-old trains on the Gatwick Express service and 150 new carriages to replace the 40-year-old trains  currently operating between Moorgate, north London and Hertfordshire. 

The TSGN franchise will replace the existing Thameslink and Great Northern franchise operated as First Capital Connect from September this year and will include the South Central franchise when that expires in July 2015. The current franchises provide around 273 million passenger journeys each year. 

Shares in Go-Ahead closed nine per cent higher on Friday at £21.13.