The South Eastern franchise, also known as the Integrated Kent franchise, is a railway franchise for providing passenger services between London and Kent in South East England.
Connex South Eastern began operating the franchise on 13 October 1996
On 8 November 2003, Its services were stopped because of money problems and using old trains instead of buying new ones.[1][2]
On 9 November 2003, South Eastern Trains, took over the franchise for 18 months.[3] It took on all of the trains and the Connex staff.
In 1 April 2006, Southeastern took over the franchise.[4][5][6] It took on all of the trains.
On 27 September 2021, Its services were stopped by the Department for Transport because it kept £25 million instead of paying it back to Department for Transport.[7][8][9][10][11]
In October 2022, Department for Transport created a new train operating company called Southeastern.
On 17 October 2021, Southeastern took over the franchise.[12][13] They had kept the same name, same logos, same trains and same staff.[13][12]