Connex South Eastern was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Connex that operated the

South Eastern franchise The South Eastern franchise, also known as the Integrated Kent franchise, is a railway franchise for the provision of passenger services between London and Kent in South East England. History The South Eastern franchise was formed as a shadow ...

from October 1996 until November 2003.

History

On 13 October 1996 Connex commenced operating the

having beaten bids from a

Management Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

FirstBus FirstGroup plc is a British Multinational corporation, multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.GB Railways GB Railways was the parent company of a number of train operating companies, running the Anglia Railways franchise from January 1997 and launching Hull Trains and GB Railfreight. GB Railways was also involved in the management of the Estonian r ...

and

Stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...

. In December 2002, after the franchise ran into financial trouble, the Strategic Rail Authority agreed to bail it out with a £58 million injection, with the end date brought forward from 2011 until 2006. However continuing poor financial management resulted in the Strategic Rail Authority deciding to strip Connex of the franchise in June 2003. Connex South Eastern continued to operate the franchise until 8 November 2003 with the services transferring to the Strategic Rail Authority's

South Eastern Trains South Eastern Trains (stylised as Southeastern) was a publicly owned train operating company that operated the South Eastern Passenger Rail Franchise between November 2003, when it took over from Connex South Eastern, and 1 April 2006, when S ...

subsidiary the following day.

Services

Connex South Eastern ran passenger services from London Blackfriars,

London Bridge Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It r ...

London Cannon Street Cannon Street station, also known as London Cannon Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Travelcard zone 1 located on Cannon Street in the City of London and managed by Network Rail. It is ...

, London Charing Cross and

London Victoria Victoria station, also known as London Victoria, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Victoria, in the City of Westminster, managed by Network Rail. Named after the nearby Victoria Street (not the Q ...

to Hayes,

Bromley North Bromley North railway station is in the London Borough of Bromley in south-east London, in Travelcard Zone 4. It is down the line from . The station and all trains serving it are operated by Southeastern. It is the terminus of the short Broml ...

, Ramsgate,

Dover Priory The Priory of St. Mary the Virgin and St. Martin of the New Work, or Newark, commonly called Dover Priory, was a priory at Dover in southeast England. It was variously independent in rule, then occupied by canons regular of the Augustinian r ...

Folkestone Harbour Folkestone Harbour is the main harbour of the town of Folkestone in Kent, England. History In 1541, King Henry VIII of England was about to wage a war against the French. A plan was made to use Folkestone as a port of embarkation to supplies an ...

and

Ore Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 Apr ...

and various destinations within including

Orpington Orpington is a town and area in south east London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is 13.4 miles (21.6 km) south east of Charing Cross. On the south-eastern edge of the Greater London Built-up Area, it is south of St Ma ...

Sevenoaks Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506 situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter main line railway into London. Sevenoaks is from Charing Cross, the traditio ...

Dartford Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located south-east of Central London and is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames estuary, is Thurrock in ...

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Roc ...

, Ashford and Canterbury West. It also ran services between Sittingbourne and Sheerness; Paddock Wood, Maidstone West and Strood; and Maidstone West, Redhill and Three Bridges.

Rolling stock

Connex South Eastern inherited a large fleet of slam-door and power-door

electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a numbe ...

s from

Network SouthEast Network SouthEast (NSE) was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982. NSE mainly operated commuter rail trains within Greater London and inter-urban services in densely populated South East England, although the net ...

. The slam-door EMUs were Class 411s, Class 421s and Class 423s, built between 1956 and 1974, while the power-door EMUs were Class 365s, Class 465s and Class 466s, built between 1991 and 1995 as part of NSE's Networker family. In 1998 Connex South Eastern leased twelve Class 508s from

Angel Trains Angel Trains is a British rolling stock company (ROSCO). Together with Eversholt Rail Group and Porterbrook, it is one of the three original ROSCOs. Angel Trains was established in March 1994 as part of the privatisation of British Rail. In ...

that were surplus to Merseyrail Electrics, to replace some of the elderly Class 411s. Connex South Eastern ordered 10 three-carriage and 102 four-carriage Class 375s, and 36 five-carriage Class 376s in a couple of batches with the first entering service in April 2001. Between 4 February and 20 March 2002, owing to a shortage of rolling stock, a preserved Class 201 ''Hastings'' unit was on loan to Connex South Eastern to operate two return journeys on Monday to Fridays between Charing Cross and

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

Depots

Connex South Eastern's fleet was maintained at Ashford, Ramsgate,

Slade Green Slade Green is an area of South East London, England, within the London Borough of Bexley. It lies northeast of Bexleyheath, northwest of Dartford and south of Erith, and east-southeast of Charing Cross. Historically Slade Green was part o ...

and Gillingham depots.

References

External links

*
Connex website - Web archive
{{UK TOCs, defunct, state=collapsed Defunct train operating companies Railway companies established in 1996 Railway companies disestablished in 2003 Rail transport in Kent Veolia 1996 establishments in England 2003 disestablishments in England British companies established in 1996 British companies disestablished in 2003