Southeastern - The most recent failed franchise!? | Failed Franchises #7 - SE
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- Опубліковано 22 бер 2024
- Hello & welcome to the seventh episode of Failed Franchises. In this series I look at train companies that have failed at their franchise agreements or have been criticised by passengers & industry alike. Today I'm looking at Southeastern, a company embroiled in fraud and poor passenger service controversy, eventually leading to the strippage of the franchise in October 2021.
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Any content featured in this video has been accredited to the correct author, where possible, with permission. However, I may sometimes mistakenly miscredit content, so please let me know if I have got credits wrong for authors of content featured in this video.
Huge thanks to Johnny Hoover Travels who gave me access to some footage: youtube.com/@JohnnyHooverTrav...
Any views mentioned in this video are of my opinion and my opinion only. I am impartial and will never be swayed by a company to not tell the truth, however will sometimes speak from my own viewpoint. I always attempt to use sources that are from sites that I personally trust; BBC, Sky News etc, and I will always attempt to portray the whole picture of the subject in my videos.
References (including accredited sources):
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The fact you've already made 7 of these, really should be an indicator that the general management of services under privatisation needs to be changed.
We gotta bring BR back
@@kleenexbox974 BR was a shambles and is often over glorified because of the HST and 225s.
@@devon896it was going better with sectorisation originally. NSE, Regional and InterCity were all investing pretty heavily to improve their services while Railfreight was also trying to change things when privatisation fuc*ed everything up
It doesn't mean nationalisation can't work though!
@@devon896 as if private rail operators are any better
One trick they used to pull quite alot was late running trains would just skip stations to get back on time. Often had the train annouced as 'arriving on platform 1', only to have it go sailing past at full speed, and then the platform signs would display 'cancelled'.
Avanti West Coast might be in the Failed Franchises series quite soon. Heard reports that Avanti could be stripped of its contract within days.
I've heard it too
Edit: apparantley MPs have denied this claim...
I was surprised when their contract was extended last year. Hopefully a OLR takeover will help deal with the huge number of cancellations and get ticket prices down. Their trains are among the best in the UK and the on board product is great, they just cancel a lot and are way too expensive.
@@mrvwbug4423 It won't when the Tories are in power.
Get rid of Avanti and give Virgin back the franchise🚄
@@seanmawson296 No just strip the contract and make a new bidding.
as someone who usually uses southeastern, never knew they were a failed franchise until now
It's amazing how quickly people forget. If you compare the service to that of the connex days it really is night and day.
Tbf I moved out of the area so my experience is out of date now and I understand the networkers are really starting to show their age now, but is it really as bad as connex were? Somehow I doubt it!
I did a whole episode on Connex too!
I think the 'TFL Three' made a video, showing just how poor the seats on the 465's are. They walked along the carriages, trying to lift the seats, and nearly ALL of them were loose and broken.
Terrible trains!
The Networker units are all like that. The seats are meant to be lifted for ease of replacement I think!
"Credit : Myself", very kind of you but honestly I didn't take any of that footage. Thanks though.
Do apologise 🫣🫣
The southeastern franchise wasn't technically stripped of the franchise, just the DfT didn't extend the contract for Govia the extra 6 months that was an option in the contract. The southeastern franchise has been treated poorly for ages. I commute every day on southeastern metro services, and to say our rolling stock is in a bad condition would not be an understatement. Constant short term extensions by the DfT meant that there was no point in investing in any of the metro fleet. You mentioned how the whole southeastern fleet was refurbished. The 375s were refurbished, but not the 465s and 376s. The 465s only got the modifications to make them legal but did not get reupholstered or any real benefit. The 376s are still in their Connex moquette due to the lack of investment. However, I find DfT OLR southeastern worse than Govia. They have continued to not invest in the metro fleet, the 465s are becoming old and reliable, and nothing official is really coming out from southesastern about a 376 refurb. Even the 376 refurb won't be getting air conditioning, a feature on every other electrostar, as that is too much money. DfT southeastern have just cut timetables, and one service I was getting every morning was on average at least 5 minutes late every morning. Trains seemed dirtier and would say more is needed to be done. Is it bad that I found Northern's ex-EMR 156s luxury compared to what I normally travel on?
The class 466 are illegal (no disability mods at all) and the Class 465 are the worst trains in Britain now all the Pacers have been retired. Vomit is cleaner.
The DFT has worsened it under their control
I wouldn't really call HS1 Intercity, more express-commuter
HS1 itself is an intercity or even better than that. It's just that southeastern's use of it kinda devalues the line
Regional
@@___-000 yeah I would call it intercity if the trains were specified well but currently they are definitely commuter
@@nathanw9770 not really, the trains run express for their whole route and don't stop at every station which the SEML 375s stop at
Great video mate keep up the great work 🇬🇧👍
I've been binging your videos. Love them. Everything you do is great!!! Thanks for the content.
Thank you!!!
good video!!! don't stop making these
I remember catching a train from Beckenham Junction to Herne Hill on SouthEastern, returning home from a day trip out on the trams in Croydon with friends. The power shut off suddenly near Sydenham Hill, one of the most stranded stations on the network. We waited for over an hour, but still the train didn't move. We ended up walking ten minutes to the nearest bus stop, then had to go to Brixton.
As someone using southeastern, I have to say that they were never that impressive. Those good early years weren't their success, they were simply in the right place at the right time. They inherited a much improved service from the Operator of Last Resort, and inherited schemes like HS1. They were very good at claiming the credit for that, but not so good at actually running a railway.
They weren't as bad as Connex, but that would require considerable malicious effort. Southeastern felt more like they were simply absent from a certain level of management upwards... they had great staff at the lower levels who had learned the lessons from past problems. But the upper management seemed unwilling or unable to learn from them.
Definitely better than Connex! I made a full video on both their franchises which got stripped. Says all you need to know..
Another really good video!
Lovely video!
This must have taken a crazy amount of research, but this is an incredible video, I salute you!!
Thanks!!!
A very interesting video, Thank you for uploading this video 😊😊
I stumbled across this series yesterday and binged it in one sitting
And then I get rewarded with a seventh? God must be real
Haha!
Like the videos before this is an excellent video. I've been really enjoying them.
Thanks!
Another great video!
Another home run of a video !
Thank you!!!
Just got there in time before you stopped reading them xD loving your content
Haha! Thank you :DD
I personally think that both the southeastern and Southcentral franchises were a complete disaster, both originally run by connex, then govia. Unfortunately we have to still ride with govia as I live on the gtr lines. The government should hsve left the southeast as the network southeast, it ran better and we were seeing results across the network, but government greed took control. Ruined commuting and made the fares prohibitively expensive.
I enjoyed a weekend in Kent in February 2024; check my “Humberside Invicta Weekend” series of videos. I have to say every train I used was near enough to time with no cancellations at all. The only disruption I encountered was buses between Minster and Margate which was because of engineering work.
incredible video as always, keep it up!
Thank you 😄😄😄😄😄
What is this man's budget
I am jealous
@@smudgycat6750 im gonna stop before i go bankrupt
@@DeveroonieWasTaken @DeveroonieTrainEnthusiast greetings DeveroonieTrainEnthusiast, j see you have provided support for my good friend vanmanyo in the form of financial aid, while I am not against this, I do see this as a threat to my dominance, in other words i AM the ALPHA WOLF🐺🐺🐺 obey alphawolf165 or I WILL get the authorities involved.
Never really used SouthEastern but the few times I have ever used the service, it has not been very good; once tried to get home (travelling west) from Bromley South only to find that my train was cancelled after someone had successfully jumped in front of a moving train at another station forcing me to get the bus instead, very sad indeed.
In fairness you can't really blame them for that
Is there a possibility that you could cover National Express East Coast in this series because that franchise from what I've heard was definitely not smooth sailing
Along with GNER and Virgin East Coast on the same route.
@@katrinabryceYup I agree as I've used Virgin to get to Paignton from Manchester and back and GNER to get to London's King's Cross
Also National Express East Anglia as well they lost their franchise because of the default of the East Coast route.
This is just sad at this point, privatization was a mistake
Keep it up bro, great video
Gives me videos to release though!!
Abellio when they run Scotrail is another one😂
Serco when they ran the sleeper service too
In reality its not Govia's fault most of these issues. Its the DFT who was BLOCKING them from buying additional capacity.
Will Southeastern replace the Class 465 and Class 466 Networkers if they were to order new trains and to retain the Class 375, Class 376, Class 377/5 and Class 707. As well as keeping the Class 395 that are used on HS1 domestic services to & from St. Pancras International.
Great video, for a bit of fun could you do a fantastic franchise video series.
I think I would struggle to get it to 15 minutes 😅
@@Vanmanyo True, perhaps a two part video on some of the best franchises such as Virgin Trains West Coast.
I did delve into Virgin quite a bit on my three part class 390 series (if you didn't already know about it!), but I might do a series about how virgin had 3 franchises and lost them all
Its actually worse run by the government, It wasn't so bad under Go-Ahead/Govia. I avoid it now, if i need to go into to Kent from Bexley I do it by bus since the fares are currently low, if its into London then I use the Elizabeth Line
I love how the footage has "Myself" credited.
Haha! Might as well say where the footage has come from! Probably should use "own work" for better phrasing though 😄
@@VanmanyoIt's charming! I'm gonna look out for "Me, Myself and I" or "Yours Truly" on future vids lol
are there any well run rail companies in the UK?
Well all have their negatives... C2C seems pretty decent, Greater Anglia is decent too. Chiltern is run well in terms of treating staff well but then has the oldest stock in the UK. So, not really!
@@Vanmanyo Chiltern when Adrian Shooter managed it was the best. Though they need to just get rid of those 165's. The 168's are the best trains they have.
I did a whole video on them 😀
They aren't usually thought about because they're not part of National Rail, but I think Northern Ireland Railways do a decent job especially considering they never receive the level of funding they should get, it could be so much better if more money was invested. Definitely a case for new stations and improved frequencies.. and line re-openings in the longer term.
So the privatization of the railroads is a resounding success, like water and other utilities. this is what happens with unsound ideology is put into place. As for Chris Grayling, wasn't he the guy who paid out your tax pounds to a ferry company which had no ships.
Avanti WC should be next. How they've not lost their franchise is beyond logic and Reason. Also the WCML should allow more open access operating like the ECML.
I have done an Avanti video! Just that failed franchises wasn't a thing back then!
Are Southeastern ever going to replace the Class 465 and Class 466 Networkers if they want to order more new trains. And to inherit extra Class 387s to increase more extra capacity on long distance commuter services in Kent. Since they have got so many trains.
They've already retired a few 465/6s
@@VanmanyoAh yes. 👍
Were no one in SouthEastern arrested for fraud?
I doubt it. It was just unreported finances so SE could just say it was a mistake or something, probably had to pay it back
@@Vanmanyo ah I see. Still a really bad image for the company like you have said though. Let’s just all wish for a better future for Britain’s railways. Nice work as always Vanmanyo!
@@volvoolympianforever thank you!!!
@@Vanmanyo I believe the money was the money for access charges to use HS1, but due to service cuts during the first lockdown, the access charges were less so there was this extra money. I believe the money was returned as soon as the DfT realised it.
Yes....
I would like to see South West trains to be in the failed franchise
Now I wonder if/when ThamesLink becomes a failed franchise, given they're also run by GoVia.
oh my gee
No surprise.
Average javelin seat alignment:
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Ah the old chestnut 🌰 of blaming the Department of Transport (often blaming Network Rail too)for something they have bid for fully knowing the stipulations.
Bro really did Southeastern but Not East Midlands trains 😢😢😢 EMT When?!?!?!?
were EMT really failed?
Yh kinda, it would be interesting
expensive
w
Whoo
I agree with you completely here
What if instead of a franchises contract was stripped from them, their edging contract was stripped from them😂😂😂 and then they had to go to ohio😂😂😂😂😂
Shush little bro
@@dylanismail178 we have a 165 HATER over here
Brilliant video as always. Keep it up!
Thank you!
No problem!