London & South Eastern Railway Limited, trading asSoutheastern, was a British train operating company owned by Govia that operated passenger rail services in South East England. It was the key operator of commuter and regional services in South East London and Kent, and also served parts of East Sussex.
Southeastern commenced operations on 1 April 2006 as the franchisee for the new Integrated Kent franchise (IKF), replacing the publicly owned South Eastern Trains on the former South Eastern franchise.
Initially set to operate the franchise for a period of eight years, the company received numerous extensions and was at one point contracted to operate through to 2022.[2] However, the franchise was terminated early after it was discovered that the company had held onto £25 million of unaccounted-for taxpayer money. On 16 October 2021, operations were transferred to the Department for Transport-owned operator SE Trains, which also trades as Southeastern.
