ONE of the country’s busiest rail commuter routes is to return to the private sector after being in public hands for two years.

Govia, a joint venture between the Go-Ahead company and Keolis, the French transport operator, beat competition from three other private sector operators — including GNER, Stagecoach and FirstGroup — to win the eight-year franchise yesterday. The deal will include the new high-speed line from the Channel Tunnel to Central London.

However, travellers on the new Integrated Kent Franchise, which starts from April, will face above-inflation fare increases for the next six years, the Department for Transport said yesterday.

The department said that the fare increases would pay for new trains on the route, which will see Hitachi-built high-speed trains on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link from 2009.

The franchise includes parts of East Sussex and South London as well as routes run by South Eastern Trains. The trains group was created after the Strategic Rail Authority stripped Connex of the south-eastern franchise in 2003 because of concerns over its financial management.

The RMT, the country’s largest rail union, had been lobbying to retain the franchise in the public sector. It said that yesterday’s franchise award was a missed opportunity to implement renationalisation of rail services.

Train services in the area will receive a subsidy of £585 million over the next eight years.

Go-Ahead was recently told that it had not qualified to bid for the Thameslink franchise, which it had operated for many years.

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