franchise s network southcentral 26 august 2001 24 may 2003 south central 25 may 2003 19 september 2009 gatwick express 22 june 2008 19 september 2009 south central incl gatwick express 20 september 2009 25 july 2015 part of thameslink southern and great northern 26 july 2015 september 2021 main region s london sussex surrey hampshire kent other region s hertfordshire buckinghamshire fleet size 297 stations called at 213 stations operated 156 route km operated 666.3 national rail abbreviation sn parent company govia thameslink railway website www.southernrailway.com route map a sign at brighton station showing the name change from south central to southern in 2004 . southern is the brand name used by the govia thameslink railway train operating company on the southern routes of the thameslink southern and great northern franchise . 1 it is a subsidiary of govia a joint venture between transport groups go ahead and keolis and operated the south central rail franchise since august 2001 and the gatwick express service since june 2008 . on 26 july 2015 the franchisee was subsumed into govia thameslink railway but the existing southern and gatwick express brand identities have been retained alongside those of thameslink and great northern . southern operates the majority of commuter services from its central london terminals at london bridge and london victoria to south london and sussex as well as regional services in parts of hampshire kent and surrey . it also provides services between milton keynes and croydon via the west london line . major destinations served include banstead beckenham junction epsom downs epsom leatherhead east croydon mitcham junction sutton east grinstead uckfield caterham tattenham corner redhill gatwick airport crawley horsham littlehampton worthing bognor regis southampton portsmouth brighton eastbourne and ore . it also operates services from brighton to ashford brighton to seaford brighton to southampton and south croydon to milton keynes . contents 1 history 1.1 timetables 1.2 december 2010 timetable 1.3 punctuality and overcrowding 1.4 2016 amended timetable 2 routes 3 rolling stock 3.1 current fleet 3.2 past fleet 4 depots 5 future 5.1 thameslink southern and great northern tsgn 5.2 uckfield lewes line 5.3 future of the franchise 6 rolling out of smartcards 6.1 the key 7 see also 8 references 9 external links history edit following the end of british rail connex south central was awarded the network southcentral franchise by the director of passenger rail franchising . operations began on 26 may 1996 . in march 2000 the shadow strategic rail authority ssra announced its intention to relet the franchise from may 2003 with connex and govia the shortlisted bidders . 2 3 in october 2000 the ssra announced that govia had been awarded the franchise and would operate it from may 2003 . 4 govia negotiated a deal with connex to buy out the remainder of its franchise this was completed in august 2001 . 5 6 7 govia trading as southcentral 8 took over operations on 26 august 2001 . the franchise was originally to run for twenty years but in 2002 the strategic rail authority changed the way it handled financing agreements and therefore govia was re awarded with a seven and a half year franchise until december 2009 . 4 9 10 in may 2004 the franchise was rebranded as southern in a recall of the pre nationalisation southern railway using a green roundel logo with southern in yellow in a green bar . in april 2007 the department for transport dft announced that the gatwick express franchise was to be incorporated into the main south central franchise . 11 12 this was part of a plan to increase capacity on the brighton main line involving the extension of peak hour services from gatwick to brighton and eastbourne from december 2008 . this doubled the number of london to brighton express trains during those periods . 13 in december 2008 southern took over the services on the redhill to tonbridge line from southeastern . 14 the south central franchise end date was brought forward to september 2009 upon the integration of the gatwick express service to allow the new operator to be in place during major changes to the timetable in and around south london in december 2009 . 15 in the run up to the bidding process for the franchise reports emerged suggesting that transport for london the operator of the london overground service wished to take control of all overground services in south london including the metro area of the south central franchise . 16 17 however such a transfer never took place and the dft put out the entire franchise for tender . in august 2008 the dft shortlisted govia national express nedrail and stagecoach for the new south central franchise . 18 19 20 in june 2009 the dft announced that govia had retained the franchise to start on 20 september 2009 . 21 22 at the conclusion of the southern franchise in july 2015 the south central franchise was merged into the govia thameslink railway franchise . 23 24 however the southern brand was retained . 25 in march 2012 the department for transport announced that abellio firstgroup govia mtr and stagecoach had been shortlisted for the new thameslink southern and great northern franchise . 26 27 the invitation to tender was to be issued in october 2012 with the successful bidder announced in spring 2013 . however in the wake of the collapse of the intercity west coast refranchising process the government announced in october 2012 that the process would be put on hold pending the results of a review . 28 in december 2012 southern s london victoria to london bridge via denmark hill service ceased being partially replaced by london overground s new clapham junction to dalston junction service . timetables edit southern was criticised for major changes to its timetables in december 2007 and december 2008 . in december 2007 southern changed the arrangement for the splitting of services to and from london victoria on the arun valley line opting to split trains at horsham rather than barnham . some passengers criticised this change as it increased the journey time to and from london by up to 10 minutes from certain stations while in the event of services running behind schedule trains were sometimes not split at horsham and proceeded non stop to barnham leaving arun valley commuters at horsham with the prospect of no onward trains . 29 in december 2008 further timetable changes included the introduction of the extended gatwick express services . however reliability and timekeeping on some of the new services were considered poor leading to several public meetings being held . 30 31 32 on 22 january 2009 southern responded to some of these criticisms . during 2009 these services have recorded improved timekeeping and criticisms have since subsided . 33 the new timetable also led to unhappiness due to the difference in speed and frequency of service between east coastway services and those on the brighton main line . 34 35 until february 2009 southern used to operate hourly services between watford junction and brighton but now these services no longer operate from brighton and now terminate at east croydon although most services have been extended north through watford junction to milton keynes central . citation needed december 2010 timetable edit further changes to the timetable were made in december 2010 ; the first timetable change to include many of the requirements of the new franchise . additional services were included at evenings and weekends . in the london area a metro frequency of service was introduced on most routes with the extension of the weekday daytime four trains per hour norm to late evenings up to around midnight saturdays and sundays . in addition new late night services were introduced from london on friday and saturday nights with last trains leaving central london at around 00 30 . outside london a new later evening service was introduced to uckfield from london bridge new late night services from brighton along the west coastway and direct services between southampton and brighton on sundays . southern s plans for enhanced services between victoria and brighton with a new four trains per hour frequency were rejected at the last minute by the office of rail regulation . punctuality and overcrowding edit in january 2015 southern hit controversy when it was revealed that the 7.29 am brighton to london victoria train failed to get in on time on any occasion out of all 240 attempts in 2014 . 36 later in may 2015 it was revealed that southern had fined passengers for standing in first class on an overcrowded train . 37 only 20 % of southern trains arrived on time in the year from april 2015 to march 2016 and there was an ongoing industrial dispute over driver only operated trains . 38 39 2016 amended timetable edit in 2016 the company introduced an amended timetable that would be a temporary measure until staffing returned to normal to be announced on 5 july . the rmt trade union said that 350 services would be cancelled every day the company ran 2 242 weekday services in the previous timetable . the company said it had insufficient personnel and too many were taking sick leave ; the union denied that high levels of sickness were the cause of cancellations while agreeing that there were an insufficient number of guards and drivers . 40 the government department for transport said that the situation was unacceptable . while the company was obliged to notify the department in advance this did not amount to giving the company permission for the changes . the rmt general secretary mick cash said the government had permitted gtr to introduce the emergency timetable but that it was nothing to do with staff sickness and everything to do with gross mismanagement of this franchise and the failure to employ enough guards and drivers . ... a cynical and cowardly ploy . 40 the london evening standard mentioned southern in an article in june 2016 southern rail suggests commuter goes on 100 mile detour to clapham instead of her normal six minute journey . 41 in june 2016 amongst criticism of the performance of its services go ahead warned of lower than anticipated profits on its govia thameslink railway franchises leading to 18 % drop in the go ahead share price . 42 as of september 2016 southern had still not restored a full timetable and was unable to say when it would do so . routes edit the network of services operated by southern includes local suburban metro services in south london and regional services extending into the southern home counties . all routes are south of the river thames with the exception of the west london service which crosses the city via shepherd s bush and runs up the west coast mainline to milton keynes . along with the thameslink route this provides one of the few long distance national rail routes to run right across london instead of terminating at one of the london rail termini . southern routes which do not serve london include the west coastway and east coastway lines along the south coast of sussex kent and hampshire . details of each route including maps and timetables are on southern s website see external links below . as of september 2016 its routes off peak monday to saturday with frequencies in trains per hour tph include brighton mainline route tph calling at london victoria to brighton semi fast 1 clapham junction east croydon horley burgess hill london victoria to brighton semi fast 1 clapham junction east croydon gatwick airport hassocks gatwick express route tph calling at london victoria to brighton express 43 2 gatwick airport london victoria to gatwick airport 2 non stop mainline east route tph calling at london victoria to eastbourne 1 clapham junction east croydon gatwick airport haywards heath wivelsfield plumpton cooksbridge limited