London Mayor Khan held up in bid for Southeastern metro

The London Mayoral ambition to bring South London suburban services under Transport for London control has hit a stumbling block over what is known as the Southeastern Metro.

Sadiq Khan is keen to expand his influence beyond the Overground, but the government appears to be in favour of handing over responsibility for the ‘Metro’ to Great British Railways when the current Southeastern franchise expires (no later than October 17 2027).

Although it continues to trade under the Southeastern brand, responsibility for services out of Victoria, Charing Cross, Cannon Street and Blackfriars has been under government control since October 2021.

At that time, the Department for Transport ended its agreement with Govia because it said the private owner could not properly account for over £25 million worth of subsidies that should have been returned to the taxpayer.

The Metro services up for grabs run to Sevenoaks via Grove Park and Bromley South, Orpington via Lewisham and Bromley South, Swanley, the Hayes, Bromley North and Mid-Kent lines, and to Dartford via the North Kent Line, Bexleyheath Line, and the Dartford Loop.

Separately, Khan has also targeted Great Northern services from Moorgate to destinations such as Hertford and Stevenage, following the possible formal end of the franchise next March (it is extendable to 2028, but this now seems unlikely). Taking over GN would also widen the range of Oyster cards.

The long-term future of all these routes has been under discussion for the past eight years. Former mayors Ken Livingstone (Labour) and Boris Johnson (Conservative) both wanted a TfL takeover, but the outgoing Conservative government refused to enter into discussions with either of them.

New Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said: “My priority is getting GBR established and the basics right, because we’ve suffered from delays and cancellations for too long.

“We have said that we want the mayors to have more of a role in GBR, whether it be the planning, the timetabling, or indeed the running. I look forward to working with Sadiq to establish how that will happen.”

She added: “This government isn’t going to work against London anymore. We are going to work in partnership.”

Transport for London claims that it is well-placed to run the Southeastern Metro because of the success of its takeover of other former National Rail services.

It created the Overground in 2007 and began running parts of what is now the Elizabeth line in 2015.

At Southeastern, only a few of the service cuts made during the pandemic have been restored. Around 25 of its 147 Class 465 ‘Networker’ electric multiple units are in store with little prospect of being returned to use.

Khan restated his case during his successful May re-election campaign, and has also worked hard to secure cross-party support.

He believes that current financial losses could be reduced by increasing passenger services to boost revenue, and using surpluses being made north of the Thames.

However, he has yet to resolve how the rest of Southeastern’s services into Kent could be easily separated when the rolling stock and train crews are the same.