GOVIA

GOVIA AWARDED THE SOUTH EAST FRANCHISE

Keolis wins Integrated Kent Franchise.

The UK Department for Transport has today announced the appointment of Govia, a joint venture between Keolis and its partner Go-Ahead, to operate the new Integrated Kent Franchise.

This franchise consists not only in the operation of the network previously operated by South Eastern, throughout Kent, Sussex and South East London but also domestic high speed services from 2009 on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

This Franchise will serve the main Olympic site of the London 2012 Games, including the Olympic Village located nearby Stratford.

This contract, effective on 1st April 2006, is for 8 years and for a turn-over of £4 500m (or €6.5b).

Consisting of more than 3 800 staff, 350 trains together with new 28 high speed trains, this franchise is one of the most important public transport franchise for passengers in the United Kingdom.

For Keolis and its shareholders 3i and SNCF, this new success, a major one in the UK, confirms its choice regarding its long standing partnership with Go-Ahead, the quality of its offer, using the Group’s railway expertise and reflects its fast growing and sustainable development in Europe.

30 November 2005
INTEGRATED KENT FRANCHISE

The Board of Go-Ahead welcomes the decision of the Department for Transport ("DfT") to select Govia, Go-Ahead's 65% subsidiary, as the new franchisee for the new eight year Integrated Kent Franchise. The franchise will include routes on the national rail network currently operated by South Eastern Trains throughout Kent, parts of Sussex and South East London, plus from 2009 the planned high speed services on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link ("CTRL") from the Medway towns, Ashford and East Kent to Ebbsfleet, and on to Stratford and St. Pancras. The franchise will run from 1 April 2006 until 31 March 2012, with an automatic two year extension subject to the achievement of specified performance targets. This will be extended pro rata for up to two further years in the event of any delay in the start up of the CTRL high speed services.

There will be a revenue share mechanism and the significant initial subsidy will reverse into a modest premium at the end of the franchise. The franchise is expected to generate revenue of approximately £560m at the outset, inclusive of subsidy.

Commenting on the DfT's announcement, Chris Moyes, Chief Executive of the Group, said:

"We are delighted to have reached agreement with the DfT on the Integrated Kent Franchise, one of the largest commuter rail franchises. It fits perfectly with our focused strategy to provide passenger transport management services in the UK and the addition of IKF will endorse us as a pre-eminent operator of commuter rail services in the South East. We submitted a robust and competitive bid and are confident that real benefits will be delivered for passengers in terms of improved services, punctuality and reliability."

The train

A natural step for Keolis
With its wealth of experience operating metros and trams in France, it was only natural for Keolis to extend its competence to trains as soon as the European rail market opened up to private or semi-private companies. The support from its reference shareholder, SNCF, has allowed Keolis to develop synergies, sources of guarantees for organising authorities, and to develop technical collaboration contracts directly with SNCF across Europe. This has allowed Keolis to become a major rail operator in four European countries since 1997, with 2,400 kilometres of track currently under management.

A European presence with a focus on quality and performance

Quality of service to passengers is a high priority concern for Keolis, which means trains that arrive on time, carriages that are more and more comfortable, modern and safe networks, and well-informed passengers who are made welcome and transported in safety.

In Great Britain, Keolis is amongst the front runners via three franchises representing no less than 1,716 kilometres of network.
The Thameslink ( www.thameslink.co.uk) periurban network links Bedford and Brighton, passing through the City of London (250 km).
Southern connects central London Gatwick and Ashford airports (600 km).
The Transpennine www.tpexpress.co.uk - in place since the start of 2004 - covers the inter-city links between England's major northern cities: Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and York (866 km).

In Sweden, Keolis manages Stockholm's suburban network (200 km) www.citypendeln.se

In Germany, Keolis is in charge of the lines around Bielefeld and Frieberg (255 km) www.eurobahn.de

In the Netherlands, Keolis manages the Synthus network in the Geldre province (160 km) www.syntus.nl

In France, Keolis is present in Sologne, via Compagnie Blanc Argent (67 km)

Opening of the German and Spanish markets also offers interesting prospects for development.

Launched in February 2004,
Transpennine Express
(English franchise serving
the main cities of Northern
England) appeals to the
passengers. 80% of them
feel safer,
better cared for, and find
travel more comfortable.
In fact, their numbers
have increased by 19%
in just one year

Introduction

Each year around 700 million passengers use services provided by companies owned by The Go-Ahead Group.

The Go-Ahead Group was created following the liberalisation of the UK's train and bus industries. We are now a major force in delivering integrated public transport through major bus operations in Oxford, Brighton, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, the Isle of Wight, Londonand the North East of England and major commuter train services serving the capital (Thameslink and Southern).

We have also added aviation ground handling to our core business through the acquisition of GHI, Reed Aviation, Midland Airport Services, Plane Handling Ltd and the ground handling activities of British Midland Airways, which were all merged to form aviance UK.

The Go-Ahead Group is taking practical steps to provide a public transport service that incorporates, not excludes, the private vehicle. Our acquisition of Meteor Parking represents a major step towards achieving this goal.

On-line bookings, via Meteor's e-parking, are just one example of the kind of innovation we are focusing on for the future. Through Meteor's expertise and experience in car park design and management, we hope to use these new technologies further down the line to enable passengers to combine, for example, season parking and rail travel tickets.

With a significant share of the London bus market and almost six per cent of the whole UK public transport market, Go-Ahead's philosophy - and our business success - is founded on providing services of the highest quality, backed by an appreciation and consideration of the wider issues.

With Go-Ahead's broad range of experience in the transport sector, we are at the forefront of the integrated transport debate. By improving the link between public and private transport and combining this with our existing operations in the bus, rail and aviation sectors, we aim to increase the number of passengers travelling annually with Go-Ahead. This will bring associated benefits through reduced road congestion, improved social inclusion and air quality improvements.

For up-to-date travel information on services within Go-Ahead’s operating companies, please click on the relevant links below. As an added service we provide links to other public transport information providers and these can also be found below.

Bus
Web site: www.traveline.org.uk
Tel: 0870 608 2 608

Impartial public transport information web site, providing details of regional bus, coach and rail services across the UK.

Web site: www.buses.co.uk
Tel: 01273 886200

Serving the linked urban centres Brighton & Hove.

Web site: www.simplygo.com
Tel: 0845 60 60 260

Providing bus services in both rural and urban areas of Tyne and Wear and County Durham.

Web site: www.londoncentral.com
Tel: 020 8646 1747

Bus services in central and south London.

Web site: www.londongeneral.co.uk
Tel: 020 8646 1747

Bus services in central and south London.

Web site: www.metrobus.co.uk
Tel: 01689 861 432

Bus services across the South East of England.

Web site: www.oxfordbus.co.uk
Tel: 01865 785400

Travel details for the city and Park & Ride urban bus routes, and the London/airport inter-city coach services.

Web site: www.solentblueline.com
Tel: 023 8061 4459

Bus services across southern Hampshire based around Southampton and Eastleigh.

Web site: www.svoc.co.uk
Tel: 01983 522456

The principal operator of bus services on the Isle of Wight.
Web site: www.wdbus.co.uk
Tel: 01202 268 0888

Bus services across South Central and South West England.

Rail

Web site: www.nationalrail.co.uk
Tel: 08457 48 49 50

This site provides an on-line journey planner containing timetables for the entire UK rail network.

Web site: www.southernrailway.com
Tel: 08451 27 29 20
Rail services across the home counties and London.

Web site: www.thameslink.co.uk
Tel: 0845 330 6333

Timetable information for the north to south cross capital rail service, linking Bedford and Luton with Brighton via London.

Parking
Web site: www.meteor-uk.com
Tel: 08700 601 001

Parking services throughout the UK.

Aviation

Web site: www.aiportconnections.info

A guide to Go-Ahead train, bus and coach services run between Gatwick Airport and major destinations in the South East of England - including multilingual timetable information.

Web site: www.aviance.com
Tel: 01293 607 500

Baggage handling services throughout the UK.

Mutimodal transport

Web site: www.transportdirect.info

The first complete online journey planner for Great Britain, providing up to date travel information for a variety of different modes of transport.

go-ahead web site

keolis web site