SOUTHEASTERN (TRAIN OPERATING COMPANY)

'Southeastern' is a train operating company in the United Kingdom. It began operations in south-east England on 1 April 2006, replacing the former publicly-owned operator South Eastern Trains and serves Kent, parts of East Sussex, and operate south-east London commuter routes. The London termini of its services are Charing Cross, Blackfriars, Cannon Street, and Victoria. Southeastern operate on 773 miles (1237 km) of track, with 182 stations. 82% of its train services run into London.
It is owned by Govia, which is itself jointly owned by Go-Ahead Group and Keolis, who also operate the neighbouring Southern operating company which overlaps with Southeastern in some areas. The company’s formal name, under which it mounted its bid for the franchise, is 'London and South Eastern Railway'. Although it continued to use the logo and livery of its predecessor for its first year of operations, a new company logo was adopted early in 2007 and stations, beginning with Waterloo East, have begun to be re-painted under the new corporate colour scheme. In August 2007, a Class 508 train was painted in a new trial livery, although the company has stated that the exact design is yet to be finalised ^[1].

Contents

History of the franchise

Current routes

Main lines

Suburban lines

Rural lines

The Future

Future expansion

CTRL-DS and Olympic Javelin

"Traditional" Network

Ticketing

Rolling stock

References

See also

External links

History of the franchise

Since the privatisation of British Rail, the franchise to run trains in this area has changed hands three times. The first company to win the franchise on 14th October 1996 was Connex, who operated it under the name Connex South Eastern. The company gained bad publicity, and their franchise was cut short on 9th November 2003. Train services were then taken over by South Eastern Trains, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Strategic Rail Authority/Department for Transport, until an alternative bidder could be found.

Current routes

Main lines

From London termini (Victoria, London Bridge, Waterloo East, Charing Cross, Blackfriars, and Cannon Street) unless otherwise stated;

★ North Kent Line: services via Dartford to Gillingham

★ Chatham Main Line - services to the Kent Coast via Bromley South and Chatham, dividing at Faversham to Ramsgate and Dover

★ Swanley to Ashford (via Maidstone East) Line

★ South Eastern Main Line - services the Kent Coast via Ashford and Sevenoaks

★
★ Ashford to Ramsgate (via Canterbury West) line

★
★ Kent Coast Line: Ashford to Ramsgate (via Folkestone and Dover)

★ Hastings Line (Hastings via Tunbridge Wells)

★ London Bridge to Tunbridge Wells (via Redhill and East Croydon) — uses part of the Brighton Main Line

Suburban lines

The suburban services run to:

★ Sevenoaks: two services — one via Grove Park to Charing Cross, and one via Swanley and Bromley South to Blackfriars (Catford Loop Line).

★ Hayes line to Charing Cross

★ Orpington

★
★ via Lewisham to Charing Cross (South Eastern Main Line)

★
★ via Bromley South to Victoria (Chatham Main Line)

★ Dartford via: North Kent Line, the Bexleyheath Line, and the Dartford Loop Line to Charing Cross.

★ Bromley North Line

Rural lines

★ Medway Valley Line, some services extend to Tunbridge Wells, and occasionally to Gatwick Airport and Three Bridges

★ Sheerness Line

★ Horsham to Tunbridge Wells (via Gatwick and Redhill) — uses part of the Brighton Main Line and Redhill to Tonbridge Line (to be transferred to Southern during 2009).

The Future

Future expansion

CTRL-DS and Olympic Javelin

Following the completion of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (also known as "High-Speed 1" or HS1), Southeastern will operate high-speed domestic services on it, including the Olympic Javelin service that is to run during London's 2012 Summer Olympics.
A fleet of twenty-nine six-carriage Shinkansen-derived high-speed ‘A-trains’ have already been ordered from Hitachi for this route.^[2] This is Hitachi’s first train sale in Britain. They will be known as Class 395 when in service.
High-speed services are expected to begin in December 2009, but the first four trains are to be delivered in 2007 for testing and driver training.^[3]
The new company have made a point of advertising part-owner SNCF’s experience operating and integrated high-speed train services on the French TGV network.
The first train will be named after Dame Kelly Holmes, a British gold-medal athlete, with further trains to be named after British personalities associated with speed.
The colour scheme for the high speed trains will be dark blue - using the same corporate colour as their logo.
Current plans call for the company to operate up to ten high-speed trains per hour at peak times, with four trains per hour off-peak^[4]. These trains will only be allowed to run at high speed on the CTRL itself; at some point each will switch over to conventional track and need to run at reduced speeds alongside conventional trains. In the table below, stations falling on the high-speed portion of the trip are boldfaced.

Peak hours
Route	Frequency	Stations called
London – Ebbsfleet	2 tph	'London St Pancras', 'Stratford', 'Ebbsfleet'
London – Rochester	3 tph	'London St Pancras', 'Stratford', Gravesend, Higham, Strood, Rochester
London – Broadstairs	3 tph	'London St Pancras', 'Stratford', 'Ebbsfleet', Chatham, Gillingham, Rainham, Sittingbourne, Faversham, Whitstable, Herne Bay, Birchington on Sea, Margate, Broadstairs
London – Folkestone/Margate	2 tph	'London St Pancras', 'Ebbsfleet', 'Ashford International' (train divides)	Wye, Canterbury West, Sturry, Minster, Ramsgate, Broadstairs, Margate
			Sandling, Folkestone West, Folkestone Central
Off-peak hours
Route	Frequency	Stations called
London – Sittingbourne	2 tph	'London St Pancras', 'Stratford', 'Ebbsfleet', Gravesend, Higham, Strood, Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham, Rainham, Sittingbourne
London – Margate	1 tph	'London St Pancras', 'Ashford International', Wye, Canterbury West, Sturry, Minster, Ramsgate, Broadstairs, Margate
London – Folkestone	1 tph	'London St Pancras', 'Ashford International', Sandling, Folkestone West, Folkestone Central

However, these plans remain open to adjustment. For example, in July 2006 it was announced that the Shakespeare Tunnels would be upgraded by Network Rail to allow high speed trains to reach Dover ^[5]; this is not reflected in the table above.

"Traditional" Network

Due to the opening of the second phase of the CTRL in November 2007, improvments to the services provided are scheduled to begin from December 2007, due to train paths becoming avaliable. ^[6]

★ An additional evening peak train from Charing Cross to Tunbridge Wells;

★ An additional evening service from Cannon Street to Faversham with connections to the Thanet coast;

★ Improved frequency of services between Beckenham Junction and Victoria and Orpington and Victoria, improving links to Bromley South;

★ Contra peak improvements on many Metro routes and on the main line via Tonbridge; and

★ Improvements made to Saturday services so they mirror, where possible, the Monday to Friday off peak pattern

Ticketing

Like its sister franchise Southern, Southeastern is committed to introducing Oyster Pay As You Go (PAYG) on its London routes.

Rolling stock

Southeastern operate a fleet of about four hundred trains, all of which are electrical multiple units.

Class	Image	Top speed		Number	Cars per set	Seat layout	Number of seats	Routes operated	Built
		mph	km/h
Class 375/3 ''Express Electrostar''		100	160	10	3	2+2	176 seats (164 std + 12 first)	Outer suburban and Express routes.	2001-2002
Class 375/6 ''Express Electrostar''		100	160	30	4	2+2	242 seats (218 std + 24 first)	Outer suburban and Express routes.	1999-2001
Class 375/7 ''Express Electrostar''		100	160	15	4	2+2	242 seats (218 std + 24 first)	Outer suburban and Express routes.	2001-2002
Class 375/8 ''Express Electrostar''		100	160	30	4	2+2	242 seats (218 std + 24 first)	Outer suburban and Express routes.	2004-2005
Class 375/9 ''Express Electrostar''		100	160	27	4	2+3	277 seats (253 std + 24 first)	Outer suburban and Express routes.	2003-2004
Class 376 ''Suburban Electrostar''		75	120	36	5	2+2	344 seats (216 std + 12 tip-up + 116 perch)	Metro routes	2004-2005
Class 465/0 ''Networker''		75	120	50	4	3+2 (except 465014, which is 2+2)	344	Metro routes only	1991-1993
Class 465/1 ''Networker''		75	120	47	4	3+2	344	Metro routes only	1993
Class 465/2 ''Networker''		75	120	15	4	3+2	344	Metro routes only	1993
Class 465/9 ''Networker''		90	145	34	4	3+2	344	Outer suburban routes only	2005-2006 Converted from Class 465/2
Class 466 ''Networker''		75	120	43	2	3+2 (except 466017, which is 2+2)	168	With 465/0, 465/1, 465/2 and 466 Metro routes only. With 465/9, Outer suburban routes only.	1993-1994
Class 508		75	120	6	3	3+2	230	Medway Valley Line and extension on to Tonbridge, and Gatwick Airport / Horsham, Sheerness Line	1979-1980
Class 395 (Building)		140	225	29 (building)	6	2+2	354 (one class)	CTRL-DS services	2006-2009

References

1. Southeastern Website
2. £250 Million Contract Signed for New High Speed Train Fleet for Kent SRA, 1/6/05
3. The Channel Tunnel Rail Link Countdown to 2009 Govia, 2005.
4. Southeastern Newsletter Summer 2006
5. BBC News
6. Southeastern July 18th Newsletter

See also

★ Olympic Javelin

★ South Eastern Trains

★ Connex South Eastern

★ Network SouthEast

★ Southern Region of British Railways

★ Southern Railway

★ South Eastern and Chatham Railway

★ South Eastern Railway

★ London, Chatham and Dover Railway

External links

★ Southeastern official web site

★ alwaystouchout.com on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (includes information about the planned domestic services)