Isabel Dedring, vice chair of TfL and deputy mayor for transport, said they would be bidding later this year to take over the Anglia & Southeastern franchises.
Both franchises will be awarded by the Department for Transport and TfL is hoping to beat commercial train operators in order to bring the London Overground experience to the routes.
Set up in 2007 and controlled by TfL, London Overground frequently tops the UK’s rail performance league tables and offers integrated Oyster fares.
A major investment programme has seen the network benefit from new trains and refurbished stations and platforms.
Labour’s Val Shawcross, deputy chair of the Assembly’s transport committee, said TfL enjoyed “cross party support” for the bids.
Jon B says
Sorry, but as I understand it the franchise bidding process is longer and onerous, costing bidders large amounts of money. As a fare payer I do not want my money spent on this. TfL should have control over sensible stretches of route in and around London e.g. to Shenfield, Welwyn Garden City and Epsom to run as it sees fit, but not whole tranches of lines in East Anglia and Kent and Sussex.
Robin says
Bearing in mind Jubilee and Central Line recent as this weeks Signal breakdowns, Tories and Labour,Lib-dems will Hike tickets further,NOT Enough investment HS2 is pants, Connect Airports ???
Fred says
Is this “take over” in the sense of becoming a train operator – spending millions to bid against First, National Express, Stagecoach, DB, SNCF etc – or is this “take over” in the sense of replacing DfT as the body which *awards* the contract (as is the case with London Overground, which is run by a joint venture of companies owned by the governments of Germany and Hong Kong)?
The Overground experience sounds like a bad idea – London to Norwich would be a long way with few seats and no bogs!
Douglas Sutton says
London Overground is free any time for Freedom Pass Holders, but curiously the train companies – using the same stretches of track in some cases – ban free travel for Freedom Pass holders until 9.30 am. and consequently I was then overcharged for a peak time Oyster Card journey from Queens Road Peckham to Clapham Junction despite using the readers correctly at both stations.
These practises must be stopped.
Charles Osiecki says
Charlton SE7 leading to areas such as eltham , welling and falconwood really need a better transport system. Can there be a reconsideration of the DLR in this area.
Can Boris please make a firm decision on the Blackwall Tunnel. The roads are always conjested in the approach to the tunnell.
The cable car is wonderful but will not help relieve the congestion. Also more construction in the greenwich peninsular means more people and more cars so please please can the major of london help to solve these problems
Thanks
Dan says
Wow! Can’t believe the negative comments re tfl here. The transformation of the north London line under tfl has been the most dramatic improvement of any aspect of public infrastructure I have seen in my life!
How can anyone who supports good public transport favour the John Major franchise model over the fantastic management and investment from TfL?
You folks deserve the rail system you’ve got….
Ray1066 says
One of the biggest challenges of the South Eastern franchise is access to Hastings which is just 40 miles from the boundaries of zone 6 yet it takes 1 hour 45 minutes in the peak hours to reach London. Hastings historically over many years was used as a migration solution by the Lewisham, Greenwich and Bromley boroughs for people they don’t want in those areas (interestingly the same areas that TFL wish to extend the highly successful London Overground network). As a result Hastings has the highest unemployment and deprivation / poverty rate in the south east and just behind Tower Hamlets, Newham boroughs. Therefore some of the £100 million saved that has been suggested by this initiative will really need to be spent on the extending South Eastern franchise high speed trains on from Ashford to Hastings to encourage business enterprise and tourism to drive up employment, this will help towards equality between Hastings and The South Eastern London Boroughs. Of course you could ask those London Boroughs to retake the deprived and those in poverty back and re-integrate so they can once again be given the education and job opportunities that London has however this would probably be a more expensive solution.