Government to take over Southeastern after ‘serious’ breach of franchise

The Guardian says the government is taking over the running of the railway operator Southeastern, owned by Go-Ahead, from mid-October after discovering a “serious” breach of the franchise agreement.

The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, said an investigation by the Department for Transport found that since October 2014 Southeastern had not declared more than £25m of historic taxpayer funding that should have been returned, and described this as a serious breach of the franchise agreement’s “good faith” obligation.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/sep/28/government-to-take-over-southeastern-after-serious-breach-of-franchise