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Southern〔(Companies House extract company no 6574965 ) Southern Railway Limited〕 is the brand name used by the Govia Thameslink Railway train operating company on the Southern routes of the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise. It is a subsidiary of Govia, a joint venture between transport groups Go-Ahead and Keolis, and operated the South Central rail franchise since August 2001 and the Gatwick Express service since June 2008. On 26 July 2015, the franchisee was subsumed into Govia Thameslink Railway, but the existing Southern and Gatwick Express brand identities have been retained alongside those of Thameslink and Great Northern. Southern operates the majority of commuter services from its Central London terminals at London Bridge and London Victoria to South London and Sussex as well as regional services in parts of Hampshire, Kent and Surrey. It is also provides services between Milton Keynes and Croydon via the West London Line. Major destinations served include Banstead, Beckenham Junction, Epsom Downs, Epsom, Leatherhead, East Croydon, Mitcham Junction, Sutton, East Grinstead, Uckfield, Caterham, Tattenham Corner, Redhill, , Crawley, Horsham, Littlehampton, Bognor Regis, Southampton, Portsmouth, Brighton, Eastbourne and Ore. It also operates services from Brighton to Ashford, Brighton to Seaford, Brighton to Southampton and South Croydon to Milton Keynes. ==History== Connex South Central was awarded the Network SouthCentral franchise by the Director of Passenger Rail Franchising. Operations began on 26 May 1996. In March 2000, the Shadow Strategic Rail Authority (SSRA) announced its intention to relet the franchise from May 2003 with Connex and Govia the shortlisted bidders. In October 2000 the SSRA announced that Govia had been awarded the franchise and would operate it from May 2003. Govia negotiated a deal with Connex to buy out the remainder of its franchise, and this was completed in August 2001.〔(Proposed acquisition by Govia Limited of Connex South Central Limited ). Office of Fair Trading. 16 August 2001.〕〔(Annual Accounts 2001 ). Go-Ahead Group. 30 June 2001.〕 Govia trading as SouthCentral〔(Companies House extract company no 3010919 ). New Southern Railway Limited formerly South Central Limited.〕 took over operations on 26 August 2001. The franchise was originally to run for twenty years but in 2002 the Strategic Rail Authority changed the way it wanted investment funded, and Govia was awarded a seven-and-a-half-year franchise until December 2009.〔〔''Rail'' (Peterborough). Issue 444. 18 September 2002. p. 6.〕 In May 2004 the franchise was rebranded as Southern in a recall of the pre-nationalisation Southern Railway, using a green roundel logo with ''Southern'' in yellow in a green bar. In April 2007 the Department for Transport (DfT) announced that the Gatwick Express franchise was to be incorporated into the South Central franchise.〔((DFT) Agreement signed to amend Gatwick Express and Southern franchises ). whitehallpages〕 This was part of a plan to increase capacity on the Brighton Main Line, involving the extension of peak-hour services from Gatwick to Brighton and Eastbourne from December 2008. This doubled the number of London to Brighton express trains during those periods. In December 2008, Southern took over the services on the Redhill to Tonbridge Line from Southeastern.〔(December 2008 timetable change ). Southeastern News. 4 December 2008.〕 The South Central franchise end date was brought forward to September 2009 upon the integration of the Gatwick Express service, to allow the new operator to be in place during major changes to the timetable in and around South London in December 2009. In the run-up to the bidding process for the franchise, reports emerged suggesting that Transport for London, the operator of the London Overground service, wished to take control of all overground services in South London, including the 'Metro' area of the South Central franchise. However, such a transfer never took place and the DfT put out the entire franchise for tender. In August 2008 the DfT shortlisted Abellio, Govia, National Express, NedRail and Stagecoach for the new South Central franchise.〔http://www.whitehallpages.net/news/archive/127489〕 In June 2009 the DfT announced that Govia had retained the franchise, to start on 20 September 2009. At the conclusion of the Southern franchise in July 2015, the South Central franchise was merged into the Govia Thameslink Railway franchise.〔(Official Journal of the European Union Notice ). Department for Transport. 19 December 2011.〕〔(Consultation on the Combined Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise ). Department for Transport. May 2012.〕 However the Southern brand was retained.〔(Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise ) Go-Ahead Group〕 In March 2012 the Department for Transport announced that Abellio, FirstGroup, Govia, MTR and Stagecoach had been shortlisted for the new Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise. The Invitation to Tender was to be issued in October 2012, with the successful bidder announced in spring 2013. However, in the wake of the collapse of the InterCity West Coast refranchising process, the government announced in October 2012 that the process would be put on hold pending the results of a review. In December 2012, Southern's to via service ceased, being partially replaced by London Overground's new to service. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Southern (Govia Thameslink Railway)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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