Govia Thameslink Railway

Thameslink and Great Northern services were merged into one franchise in 2006 due to the upcoming Thameslink Programme. In 2012, it was announced that services of First Capital Connect, Southern (with Gatwick Express) and some Southeastern routes would be merged into a single Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise (TSGN).[3] The Invitation to Tender was to have been issued in October 2012, with the successful bidder announced in Spring 2013 and TSGN originally due to start in September 2013. However, due to the collapse of the InterCity West Coast re-franchising process, all franchising competitions were frozen until January 2013.[4] In January 2013 the government announced that it would extend the contract until March 2014, intending to negotiate with FirstGroup to operate the franchise on a management contract for up to two years.[5]

In March 2013 the Secretary of State for Transport announced that the franchise would again be extended, until 13 September 2014, and that the future franchise would be a management-style contract due to the level of investment and change on the route.[6] In September 2013 a revised invitation to tender was issued.[7] Govia Thameslink Railway was awarded the franchise on 23 May 2014.[8][9]

On 14 September 2014, Govia Thameslink Railway took over services from First Capital Connect, serving 122 stations and operating a fleet of 226 trains. In December 2014, full control was taken of the Sevenoaks Thameslink service (this service was previously jointly operated with Southeastern). The separate Thameslink and Great Northern were maintained upon the GTR takeover. Southern and Gatwick Express became part of GTR in July 2015, making it the largest rail franchise in terms of passengers, staff and fleet in the UK.[10][11]

The franchise has an unusual structure: it is a management contract where fare income does not go to GTR. Under their original contract, Department for Transport will pay GTR £8.9 billion over the first seven years and receive all revenue.[2] Consequently, the company carries less revenue risk. This form of franchise was chosen because of long-term engineering works anticipated around London, which would be a significant challenge to organise within the normal form of franchise.[12][13]

In June 2016, amongst criticism of the performance of its services, Go-Ahead warned of lower than anticipated profits on the franchises, leading to 18% drop in the Go-Ahead share price. Passengers had previously rated its Thameslink service as the worst in the country. Only 20% of Southern trains arrived on time in the year from April 2015 to March 2016, and there was an ongoing industrial dispute over driver-only operated trains.[14][15][16] On 12 July 2016, after 15% of Southern services were cancelled for a period of weeks to improve service reliability, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan called for GTR to be stripped of the franchise.[17] On 15 July 2016, Rail Minister Claire Perry resigned.[18]

A map of off-peak Thameslink services as of May 2020 (including the future extension to Maidstone East)

Govia Thameslink Railway has operated Thameslink and Great Northern services since 14 September 2014. Thameslink is a 68-station main-line route running 225 km (140 mi) north to south through London from Bedford to Brighton, serving both London Gatwick Airport and London Luton Airport, with a suburban loop serving Sutton, Mitcham and Wimbledon and on weekdays a suburban line via Catford and Bromley South to Sevenoaks. Great Northern is the name of the suburban rail services run on the southern end of Britain's East Coast Main Line and associated branches. Services operate to or from London King's Cross and London Moorgate. Destinations include Hertford North, Welwyn Garden City, Stevenage, Peterborough, Cambridge and King's Lynn.

In May 2018, the company introduced a new timetable which included the first regular services through the Canal Tunnels and to other new destinations previously not served by Thameslink. However, due to frequent disruption of services on the whole network, Govia decided to create a new interim timetable with a reduced number of trains; this came into operation in July 2018.[19]

Great Northern service pattern

A map of the off-peak services provided by Great Northern

Since the introduction of regular services through the Canal Tunnels in May 2018, many GTR services on the East Coast Main Line were rebranded from Great Northern to Thameslink. Most of these services are now extended through central London and incorporated into the Thameslink network (as per above), although as of October 2019 some services are yet to be extended. The only services to retain the Great Northern brand (which will not become part of Thameslink) are those on the Northern City line and the express services to/from Cambridge, Ely and King's Lynn, as well as Peterborough at peak times.[23]

The Great Northern off-peak service pattern, with frequencies in trains per hour (tph), consists of the following:[24]

Cambridge express & Fen line
Route	tph	Calling at	Stock
London King's Cross to Ely	1	Cambridge, Cambridge North	387
London King's Cross to King's Lynn	1	Cambridge, Cambridge North, Waterbeach, Ely, Littleport, Downham Market, Watlington
Northern City line
Route	tph	Calling at	Stock
Moorgate to Welwyn Garden City	4	Old Street, Essex Road, Highbury & Islington, Drayton Park, Finsbury Park, Harringay (2tph), Hornsey (2tph), Alexandra Palace, New Southgate, Oakleigh Park, New Barnet, Hadley Wood, Potters Bar, Brookmans Park (2tph), Welham Green (2tph), Hatfield Harringay, Hornsey, Brookmans Park and Welham Green are served by the same trains	717
Moorgate to Hertford North	2	Old Street, Essex Road, Highbury & Islington, Drayton Park, Finsbury Park, Harringay, Hornsey, Alexandra Palace, Bowes Park, Palmers Green, Winchmore Hill, Grange Park, Enfield Chase, Gordon Hill, Crews Hill, Cuffley, Bayford
Moorgate to Stevenage	2	Old Street, Essex Road, Highbury & Islington, Drayton Park, Finsbury Park, Harringay, Hornsey, Alexandra Palace, Bowes Park, Palmers Green, Winchmore Hill, Grange Park, Enfield Chase, Gordon Hill, Cuffley, Hertford North, Watton-at-Stone

Southern Class 377 at Watford Junction

The Southern and Gatwick Express brands joined Govia Thameslink Railway on 26 July 2015. Southern routes run from London Victoria and London Bridge through the South London suburbs of Battersea, Norbury, Peckham, Sydenham, Crystal Palace, Norwood, Croydon, Streatham, Purley and Sutton to towns surrounding London including Caterham, Epsom and Tadworth. Further afield, Southern also serve Redhill, Tonbridge, Uckfield, East Grinstead, Gatwick Airport, Brighton, Ashford (Kent), Worthing, Hastings, Portsmouth, Eastbourne, Horsham, Southampton, Littlehampton and Bognor Regis. Additionally, Southern run West London route services from Milton Keynes to South Croydon via Watford and Clapham Junction. Since 2008, Southern has operated the Gatwick Express service from London Victoria to Gatwick Airport and Brighton.

An example of widescale upgrade works at Harpenden station including the extension of platforms for 12 carriage trains, a new footbridge with lifts, new waiting rooms, brighter lighting, new ticket gates and automatic passenger information screens

This franchise is different from many other franchises let since privatisation in 1996. Now the operator, in this case Govia, gives all revenue to the government, rather than paying set premiums. The Department for Transport will pay Govia, totalling around £8.9 billion over the franchise period of seven years, from the expected revenues of £12.4 billion. With this Govia expects to make a 3% profit, and the risks on costs will be Govia's, while the DfT will profit or lose from fluctuations in revenue.[28]

Govia plans to invest £50 million in all 239 stations it will manage. It plans to:[29]

• Enhance all 239 stations including improving access, replace electronic information screens and working with local authorities on the redevelopment of St Albans and Luton stations.
• Increase staffing hours at many stations, with the 100 busiest stations staffed from first to last train, like London Overground stations.
• Extension of 'the key' smartcard which Southern has been introducing.
• Provide 104 stations with free wifi.
• £1.5 million on station access improvements including increased cycle storage and electrical vehicle charging points.

Other plans include:[30]

• Half-hourly King's Lynn to London services
• Direct Peterborough, Cambridge, Welwyn Garden City and Finsbury Park to Tattenham Corner, Caterham, Horsham services.[31]
• Increasing Great Northern suburban services to four trains per hour via Enfield Chase and New Barnet
• Great Northern suburban services to run to Moorgate at weekends and on weekday evenings
• 50% increase in capacity from Uckfield to London in the peaks.
• Doubling overnight Thameslink services
• Sevenoaks Thameslink services to run on Saturdays
• Working to extend Oyster to Epsom, Gatwick Airport, Luton Airport Parkway, Welwyn Garden City and Hertford North[32]
• Class 387 Electrostars for King's Lynn express services, releasing Class 317s, 321s and some Class 365s for newly electrified routes elsewhere.[33]
• Creating an alliance arrangement with Network Rail in 2016, like South West Trains.[34]

Interior of a Thameslink Class 700

Interior of a Great Northern Class 387 having been moved over from the Thameslink brand with a Southern interior.

In 2011 the consortium Cross London Trains Ltd. consisting of Siemens Project Ventures, 3i Infrastructure plc and Innisfree Ltd was announced as preferred bidder with Siemens to manufacture and maintain the rolling stock to run on the Thameslink routes from 2016. This was a politically controversial decision as the competing bidder Bombardier Transportation had a train factory in the UK.[35] Both the procurement process and final close of contract were significantly delayed, resulting in the expected first delivery date moving from 2012 to 2016. The trains are known as Class 700s and the £1.6 billion contract to manufacture and provide service depots for the trains was finalised in mid 2013.[36] A fleet of 115 8- and 12-car trains is expected to enter service between 2016 and 2018. A new-build rolling stock depot was completed at Three Bridges in 2015,[37] and Hornsey depot was extended northwards and had several new buildings added in 2016.[38]

Because of the delay in procuring the Class 700 trains, 29 Class 387 trains were ordered for the Thameslink route, releasing the Class 319 trains to newly electrified routes. Delivery was completed in 2014 and the trains entered service later that year. The order includes provision for an extra 140 vehicles.[7][39] It was originally planned that once the Class 700s began entering service, the Class 387s would be transferred to Great Western Railway for use on routes in the Thames Valley.[40] However a change of plans saw GWR order an entirely new fleet of Class 387s, so the Thameslink units were cascaded to the Great Northern route following delivery of the Class 700s.[41][42]

In addition to the introduction of the new Class 700 units, GTR also ordered a further 25 new 6-car trains to replace the 40-year-old Class 313 units[28] on the Great Northern Moorgate suburban services. In December 2015, Siemens was selected to provide these as a follow-on to the Class 700 order.[43][44] They were designated as the Class 717 in June 2016, and were first introduced in September 2018.[45][46]

Current fleet

Family	Class	Image	Type	Top speed		Cars	Number	Routes operated	Built
				mph	km/h
Southern
Bombardier Turbostar	171		DMU	100	161	2	12	Oxted line (London Bridge - Uckfield) East Coastway line (Eastbourne - Hastings) Marshlink line (Hastings - Ashford Int'l)	2003–2004
						4	8
BREL 1972	313		EMU	75	120	3	19	West Coastway line (Brighton / Littlehampton / Barnham - Hove / West Worthing / Bognor Regis / Portsmouth Harbour / Portsmouth & SS) East Coastway line (Brighton - Lewes) Seaford branch line (Lewes - Seaford)	1976–1977
Bombardier Electrostar	377		EMU	100	160	3	28	Entire Southern network apart from Oxted line (Hurst Green - Uckfield) & Marshlink line (Ore - Ashford Int'l) sections	2001–2005
						4	152
						5	34		2012–2014
	455		EMU	75	120	4	46[47]	Metro and commuter services from London Victoria & London Bridge	1982–1984
Gatwick Express
Bombardier Electrostar	387/2		EMU	110	177	4	27	Gatwick Express services between London Victoria & Gatwick Airport / Brighton	2015–2016
Great Northern
Bombardier Electrostar	387/1		EMU	110	177	4	29	Great Northern express services between London King's Cross & Peterborough / Ely / King's Lynn	2014–2015
Siemens Desiro	717 Desiro City[46]		EMU	85	137	6	25	Northern City Line services between London Moorgate & Welwyn Garden City / Hertford North / Stevenage	2018
Thameslink
Siemens Desiro	700/0 & 700/1 Desiro City		EMU	100	161	8	60	All Thameslink services	2015–2018
						12	55

Past fleet

Former units operated by Thameslink and Great Northern include:

Class	Image	Type	Top speed		Carriages	Number	Built	Routes	Withdrawn
			mph	km/h
365 Networker Express		EMU	100	161	4	40	1994-95	Express services between London King's Cross and Peterborough / Ely / King's Lynn	2018–2021
313		EMU	75	121	3	44	1976–1977	Northern City Line	2019
317		EMU	100	161	4	12	1981–1982	Express services between London King's Cross to Peterborough and Cambridge	2017
319		EMU	100	161	4	86	1987–1988 1990	All Thameslink services	2015–2017
321		EMU	100	161	4	13	1989–1990	Express services between London King's Cross to Peterborough and Cambridge	2016
377 Electrostar						26	2008–2009	Some Thameslink services	2017

Govia and Thameslink passenger numbers 2010–11 to 2018–19 Q4, annual rolling average[48][49]

In February 2015, Thameslink and Great Northern came at the bottom of Which? magazine's Best and worst UK train companies customer survey, scoring a customer satisfaction score of 43%. Thameslink and Great Northern were also scored 2/5 stars in each of the specific categories covered by the survey (including Reliability, Punctuality and Cleanliness of toilets) – which is the worst performance of any UK train operator. In the Which? 2017 survey Thameslink and Great Northern improved their performance slightly with a rating of 46% also, their position in the table was second to bottom[50](Southern were in bottom place, but had been subject huge disruption due to industrial action).

Passenger numbers on Govia Thameslink Railway (which also includes Southern and Gatwick Express) have risen from 262 million annually in 2010–11 to 327 million annually in 2015–16.[49]

Media related to Govia Thameslink Railway at Wikimedia Commons

• Thameslink website
• Great Northern website
• Southern website
• Gatwick Express website