STATEMENT

7 August 2019

Go-Ahead statement regarding the Southeastern franchise

The Department for Transport (DfT) has confirmed a further extension to the current Southeastern franchise which will now run to 1 April 2020 rather than expiring on 10 November 2019. It has also notified us that the competition for the next South Eastern franchise has been terminated.

Go-Ahead Chief Executive David Brown said:

"A lot of hard work was put into a strong bid that would have built upon the achievements of Southeastern in recent years in improving performance and customer satisfaction, delivering more capacity and investment.

"Whilst we're disappointed that our original bid is not being taken forward, we will engage with the DfT on next steps."

David Statham, Southeastern's Managing Director, said:

"We're proud to have delivered more than £80 million of improvements for passengers since we began a new Direct Award contract in 2014. Punctuality has improved by nearly 10% in two years, we've introduced free WiFi on our trains and boosted capacity on board with 5,000 extra seats".

"Over this next extension period, our focus remains squarely on our passengers, delivering more improvements and continuing to improve the punctuality and reliability of our services."

ENDS

For further information, please contact:

Communications team
communications@go-ahead.com
020 7799 8999

Holly Gillis
Head of Investor Relations

investorrelations@go-ahead.com

020 7799 8984

GO-AHEAD
Go-Ahead is a leading public transport operator, providing high quality services in the bus and rail sectors. Employing around 28,000 people across our businesses, over one billion passenger journeys are undertaken on our services each year. We are committed to operating our companies in a safe, socially and environmentally responsible way and are proud to have been the first FTSE250 company to be certified with First Tax Mark accreditation and have been recertified for seven consecutive years. In addition to the travelling public, our customers include the Department for Transport, Transport for London (TfL) and local authorities.

BUS
Go-Ahead is one of the UK's largest bus operators. With a fleet of around 5,000 buses, we carry over two million passengers every day. Our operations are focused on high density commuter markets. We have a strong presence in London, with around 23 per cent market share, where we provide regulated services for TfL. Outside London, we operate services in Oxford, East Anglia, Hull, the South East, Southern and north east England. In September 2016, the Group began operating a bus contract in Singapore, and in September 2018 began operating one of two Irish bus contracts.

RAIL 
The rail operation, Govia, is 65 per cent owned by Go-Ahead and 35 per cent by Keolis. It is the largest rail operation in the UK, responsible for over 30 per cent of all UK passenger rail journeys through its rail franchises: GTR (Govia Thameslink Railway) and Southeastern.