Profiles of companies that hold franchises for rail routes

Over 15,000 people are employed across its operating companies, which collectively serve over a million passengers in England and Scotland every day. A wholly owned subsidiary of Dutch rail operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Abellio was founded in 2002 to take advantage of the liberalisation of the European transport sector, and it now has operations in the UK and Germany.

Abellio first entered the UK transport market in 2003 and has since established itself as one of the UK’s foremost rail owning groups, accounting for nearly one in five of all UK rail customers – the largest it has been in its operating history.

Its UK rail franchises are Merseyrail (a 50:50 venture with Serco), Greater Anglia (a 60:40 venture with Mitsui), West Midlands Trains (a 70:15:15 venture with Mitsui and JR East) and East Midlands Railway.

After taking its first steps into the London bus market in 2009, the company now runs around eight per cent of all London bus services. Abellio wants to make it easier to travel, by providing comfortable, reliable journeys which are simple for people to plan, buy and use. To this end, the company is investing heavily across its UK rail franchises to transform its services, improve its customers’ experience and help to deliver a sustainable zero carbon future. Through its £3 billion investment in new trains for all its operating companies, Abellio is delivering more seats and services.

This investment and innovation reflect Abellio’s strong commitment to improving

its customers’ experience by delivering the more reliable, simple and sustainable transport services they rightly expect.

A new UK-run transport company is set to operate four of the country’s rail passenger services and over 50 London bus routes by the end of this year. A management buyout from the state-owned rail company, Nederlandse Spoorwegen will pave the way for a new UK-based company to take over all Abellio UK’s existing services, serving millions of rail and bus passengers in London, Liverpool, the Midlands and East Anglia. The new company will be called Transport UK Group Limited.

Led by Managing Director Dominic Booth, who has decades of experience running public transport services in the UK, this deal has been widely welcomed by industry partners and experts. Completion of the buyout deal is subject to formal approval from partners including the Department for Transport, Transport for London and Merseytravel as well as regulatory consent from the Office for Rail and Road.

KEY PERSONNEL Managing Director Abellio UK: Dominic Booth Chief Operating Officer Rail: Dave Kaye Financial Director: Chris Harris Managing Director Rail Retailing and Digital Business: Stewart Fox-Mills UK New Trains Project & Fleet Director, and ScotRail COO: Alex White Human Resources Director: Andrew Meadows Director of Communication: Allan Watt Managing Director, Abellio Group: Angelique Magielse

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 5th Floor, The Culzean Building, 36 Renfield Street, Glasgow G2 1LU Tel: 0141 320 0620 Email: communications@abellio.co.uk Visit: www.abellio.com/uk

The CrossCountry network is the most extensive rail contract in the UK. Stretching from Aberdeen to Penzance, and from Stansted Airport to Cardiff, it calls at more than 120 stations. Based in Birmingham, CrossCountry connects seven of Britain’s ten largest cities, delivering services every weekday that equate to some forty million passenger journeys a year. CrossCountry has been awarded five stars under the EFQM ‘Recognise for Excellence’ accreditation and the coveted UK Excellence Award by the British Quality Foundation.

Chiltern Railways provide scheduled passenger services along the M40 corridor between London Marylebone and Birmingham Moor Street, to Aylesbury via Amersham. Following an investment of £250 million, Chiltern Railways run a service between Oxford and London Marylebone, on which route they enjoy a successful partnership with Bicester Village.

Chiltern remains one of Britain’s most popular and reliable train operating companies, regularly scoring in the top quartile of all operators for customer satisfaction and punctuality in national rail passenger surveys.

Grand Central is an established fully commercial train operating company connecting the North East of England and Yorkshire to London under an open access agreement. It has been providing high quality rail services since 2007 and delivers customer satisfaction that is regularly among the highest scoring of all operators. Grand Central has done this while growing passenger numbers and introducing real competition on the East Coast Main Line, exerting downwards pressure on ticket costs for passengers.

Arriva Rail London operates the London Overground network under contract to Transport for London (TfL). The seven and half year concession commenced in November 2016, with the network linking 23 of London’s 33 boroughs.

Working in partnership with TfL, Arriva Rail London has delivered improvements for customers through more frequent services, new trains, better facilities and improved interchanges, and has developed stations and lines to meet increasing passenger demand. The partnership also supports new homes (such as new links to Barking Riverside), jobs around stations and the environment.

Arriva’s TrainCare business provides maintenance depots and servicing facilities for electric and diesel trains. In recent years, Arriva TrainCare has grown following substantial investment in developing heavy maintenance work.

Operating from five depots in strategic locations across the country, Arriva TrainCare currently provides overnight and heavy maintenance services to several train operating companies and ROSCOs, along with post production support for new train manufacturers.

Arriva Road Transport Services offer rail replacement, minibus and taxi provision, duplicate transport services and event transportation hire across the UK.

KEY PERSONNEL Arriva CEO: Mike Cooper Arriva Chief Financial Officer: Christian Goeseke Managing Director UK Trains: David Brown Arriva UK Trains Finance and Commercial Director: Amanda Furlong

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: Arriva plc, Admiral Way, Doxford International Business Pk, Sunderland SR3 3XP Tel: 0191 520 4000 Email: enquiries@arriva.co.uk Visit: www.arriva.co.uk

First Rail is the UK’s largest rail operator, with many years of experience running all types of passenger rail operations across the country; comprising long-distance, commuter, regional and sleeper services

First Rail operates four Department for Transport contracted services – Avanti West Coast, Great Western Railway, South Western Railway and TransPennine Express. Alongside this it also runs two open access operators – Hull Trains and Lumo. It also operates London Trams on behalf of Transport for London.

First have proposed and delivered over £650 million capital investment into the franchises since 2006. Since they began running rail operations, they have introduced more than 740 additional vehicles across various franchises, which has also led to the creation of new depot facilities and jobs.

The customer app for First operating companies has been downloaded more than one million times; First is working with councils to introduce smart ticketing and has led one of the largest roll outs of free Wi-Fi on the UK rail network.

First Group owns Great Western Railway (GWR) which operates the Great Western rail franchise area. This includes South Wales, the West Country, the Cotswolds, and large parts of Southern England. On 30 March 202 FirstGroup signed a Direct Award with the Department for Transport to continue operating GWR services until 31 March 2023, with a possible extension of up to one further year.

The South Western Rail franchise was awarded to FirstGroup and MTR in March 2017. They began operating the network on 20 August 2017 and will continue until at least August 2024. SWR operates almost 2,000 services per day across the network, providing commuter, inter-urban, regional and long distance services to passengers in south west London and southern counties of England.

First Group introduced refurbished trains to the Portsmouth-London line in late 2019, with new suburban rolling stock due in the next few months. Timetable changes in May and December 2019 added more than 350 new services per week.

First Group also owns TransPennine Express which provides vital connections between key cities in the North of England and Scotland. TransPennine Express operates intercity services on three main routes: • North

TransPennine • South

TransPennine • North West and Scotland

Frist Group will operate the franchise until at least 2023, and during that time TPE is overseeing an investment which lead to an 80 per cent rise in capacity at the busiest times of the day and increase connections between the largest cities in the North and Scotland by 55 per cent by 2019. TPE has now begun to introduce 220 new carriages, and new services, including Liverpool to Glasgow, and extending its East Coast route from Newcastle to Edinburgh.

First Group open access operation of Hull Trains began service in 2000, making 90 journeys a week between London, Hull and intermediate stations, and transporting more than a million people annually – an increase of more than ten times since inception. First Group have secured track access rights to operate the service until 2029.

KEY PERSONNEL Non-Executive Chairman, Chair of the Nomination Committee: David Martin Chief Executive Officer: Matthew Gregory Managing Director – First Rail: Steve Montgomery Chief Financial Officer: Ryan Mangold Group Employee Director: Ant Green

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 395 King Street, Aberdeen, Scotland AB24 5RP Tel: 01224 650100 Email: contactus.fec@firstgroup.com Visit: www.firstgroupplc.com

First Group operates the London Trams network on behalf of Transport for London, which sees patronage of around 29 million passengers per year. Passenger numbers have increased by more than ten million since the start of operations.

Since foundation in the 1980s, Go-Ahead has transformed from a small bus operator in northeast England to a FTSE 250 company. It employs 27,000 people in the UK and overseas, who work hard to deliver safe, reliable and value-for-money services for passengers.

Go-Ahead has a devolved approach to the management of its bus and train operating companies. They are run autonomously, are locally branded, and the management teams are empowered to respond directly to the needs of the local communities they serve. Working in this way ensures Go-Ahead retains strong local expertise and can focus on the needs of customers and adapt quickly to changing conditions in local markets.

It is the largest operator of bus services in London, running around a quarter of London’s buses and outside of London, its regional bus services account for around eleven per cent of the UK market.

Go-Ahead also runs bus services in Singapore and began running services in Ireland in 2018. The company operates rail in two German states – Bavaria and BadenWuttemberg – and has a rail contract in Norway.

Go-Ahead’s UK rail operation (Govia) is a joint venture between Go-Ahead (65 per cent) and Keolis (35 per cent). In the years since the privatisation of rail operations, Go-Ahead’s rail division has delivered profitability, strong cash flow and good returns on capital; and continues to do so.

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) began operating in September 2014 with Great Northern and Thameslink routes. Southern and Gatwick Express routes were integrated in July 2015. It is the largest and busiest single rail franchise in the UK: in terms of passenger numbers (around 25 per cent of all train passenger journeys), trains, revenue and staff (6,500 people employed).

The franchise encompasses King’s Lynn in the north and Brighton in the south, serving London as well as several important regional centres including Cambridge, Luton, Peterborough, Portsmouth and Southampton. It also provides direct links to major airports (Gatwick and Luton) as well as St Pancras International.

GTR will operate under its ERMA until the end of its contract term in March 2022, with the potential for a further extension.

KEY PERSONNEL CEO of Go-Ahead: Christian Schreyer Chief Financial Officer: Sarah Mussenden Chairman: Clare Hollingsworth Group Company Secretary: Carolyn Ferguson Managing Director, Business Development: Peter Robinson Strategy and Transformation Director: Louis Rambaud Customer and Commercial Director: Mark Anderson

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: The Go-Ahead Group plc, 4 Matthew Parker Street, Westminster, London SW1H 9NP Tel: 020 7799 8999 Email: communications@go-ahead.com Visit: www.go-ahead.com

Established in the United Kingdom since 1996 and employing 9,500 people across its businesses, Keolis has become a reference public transport operator due to its operation of several emblematic train, tram and metro networks including:

• Govia, the joint venture created between

Keolis UK (35 per cent) and its partner

Go-Ahead (65 per cent), which operates

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), the train network in the London area, since 2014. • KeolisAmey, the joint venture created in 2014 by Keolis UK is a British company specialising in the operation and maintenance of transport networks

Docklands Light Railway (DLR), the automatic metro network, since 2014 – Keolis (70 per cent) and Amey (30 per cent) and Greater Manchester's

Metrolink, the UK's largest tram network, since 2017 – Keolis (60 per cent) and Amey (40 per cent). • Tramlink Nottingham, the joint venture formed by Keolis UK (80 per cent) and

Wellglade Limited (20 per cent) which has operated Nottingham's tram network since 2011. between Keolis and Amey, took over operations and maintenance of Manchester’s Metrolink for a period of up to 10 years from July 2017.

The KeolisAmey Metrolink tram system is the largest of its kind in the UK. It serves 99 stops across eight different lines along almost 103 kilometres of track, with a fleet of 120 modern trams catering for more than 34 million journeys a year.

KeolisAmey Docklands was awarded the franchise in July 2014 to operate and maintain the Docklands Light Railway in London until at least 2024.

Govia is a joint-venture between Keolis (35 per cent) and The Go-Ahead Group (65 per cent). As the country’s busiest rail operator, Govia is responsible for 5,500 services and more than one million passengers per day. It operates two major commuter rail franchises, Southeastern and GTR (Govia Thameslink Railway), serving over 500 stations.

GTR, which stands for Govia Thameslink Railway, is the largest train operating company in the UK and was created following the merger of Great Northern, Thameslink, Southern and Gatwick Express in July 2015.

Keolis is part of the Tramlink consortium responsible for the operation, maintenance and ongoing expansion of the Nottingham tram system. In December 2011, Tramlink entered into a PPP (Public-Private Partnership) agreement for 22 and a half years. Together Keolis, Trent Barton, Alstom and Vinci, are the industrial shareholders in the Tramlink Nottingham concession company.

KEY PERSONNEL Chairman of Keolis UK: Sir Derek Jones CEO: Alistair Gordon Chief Financial Officer: Virginie Merle Managing Director of KeolisAmey Docklands: Abdellah Chajai

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: Evergreen House North, 160 Euston Road, London NW1 2DX Tel: 020 3691 1715 Email: comms@keolis.co.uk Visit: www.keolis.co.uk

In June 2000, it was re-established as MTR Corporation Limited and was listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong in October 2000. In December 2007, the operations of the government-owned rail operator, the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation, were merged into MTR. The merged rail network comprises nine commuter railway lines, a light rail network and a highspeed airport express link with an average weekday ridership of more than 5.6 million passengers in Hong Kong.

Globally, MTR delivers services for over 13 million people each day, more than 4.7 billion journeys every year.

Acknowledged as one of the world’s leading operators of metro, commuter and airport rail systems, MTR also has a successful international consulting business and is a recognised world leader in Rail + Property development, managing shopping malls, retail units, apartments and other major buildings along some of its lines.

MTR offers worldwide railway consultancy and contracting services. Clients served include metro companies, government authorities and rail system suppliers in the Mainland of China, India, Australia, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

In China, MTR operates the Beijing Metro Lines 4, 14, and 16 and the Daxing Line extension, Shenzhen Metro Longhua Line and the Hangzhou Metro Line 1. Further projects and concessions in development include Hangzhou Metro Line 5, and property projects along Shenzen Metro Longhua Line and Tianjin Metro Line 6.

In Australia, MTR operates and manages the Melbourne Metro and, in September 2014, the Northwest Rapid Transit Consortium (of which MTR is a shareholder) was awarded the Operations, Trains and Systems Public-Private Partnership (PPP) contract for the Sydney Metro Northwest project in Sydney.

MTR also operates and manages Stockholm Metro, the MTR Express intercity service between Stockholm and Gothenburg and Stockholm Commuter Rail Systems in Sweden.

In the UK, MTR has been connecting people and communities for almost 15 years and has an established track record of excellence. It operated the London Overground in partnership with Arriva for ten years, and currently operates TfL Rail services on behalf of Transport for London and South Western Railway in partnership with FirstGroup. Its track record on the London Overground and TfL Rail are particularly well known within the UK’s rail industry, with the company twice winning both the National Rail Awards’ Passenger of the Year Award and London Transport Awards’ Rail Operator of the Year.

MTR Elizabeth line’s operations will eventually cover all aspects of train and passenger service operations including: • A fleet of 70 brand new high-capacity trains, 200m long, each featuring nine walk-through carriages. • Up to 24 trains per hours in each direction through the central tunnel section once fully integrated. • The operation of 28 stations, serving 41 stations in total. • Platforms with lengths of up to 250 metres – more than twice the length of current Underground platforms.

KEY PERSONNEL CEO UK: Steve Murphy

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: MTR Corporation Limited, Third floor, 123 Pall Mall, London, SW1Y 5EA Visit: www.mtreurope.com

Serco has global expertise in the design, setting up, operation, and maintenance of heavy rail, metro and light rail operations across the globe – from the turnkey operation of the Dubai Tram to redefining a luxury experience on the Scottish Caledonian Sleeper

Serco began operating Caledonian Sleeper in April 2015 after it was selected by Transport Scotland to manage the new 15- year franchise back in May 2014. Total revenue to Serco over the franchise period is estimated at up to £800 million, of which approximately £180 million will be in the form of franchise payments.

In 2019, Caledonian Sleeper’s service was transformed when it debuted 75 new carriages across its Highlander and Lowlander routes – delivering on a commitment made when the contract was won. The fleet, built at a cost of £150 million, has been part funded by capital grants from Scottish Ministers and from the UK Government.

Serco first began operating and maintaining the initial ten stations on the Red Line from the official opening of the Dubai Metro in 2009. Expansion of the Metro has seen the Red Line grow to 29 stations, while the Green Line, opened in 2011, added an additional 20 stations. The Red Line expansion for Expo 2020 adds 15 kilometres and connects seven stations. At that point, the Dubai Metro will have a total network length of 90 kilometres and over 120 trains running at peak times. Serco’s more than 2,000 employees on the Dubai Metro continue to deliver excellent operational performance and record numbers of passenger journeys.

Merseyrail is a 50/50 JV between Serco and Abellio. Serco have redesigned the model of delivering a city region wide rail transit system through a model of operational excellence by focussing on delivering high levels of predictability, reliability, punctuality, trust, safety and customer service. All of which has led to Merseyrail consistently being at or around the top of the league on customer satisfaction and operational performance.

SRTS is part of Serco’s Transport business, which operates various transport services around the world (primarily rail but also air, sea and road related). A specialist provider of Rolling Stock Testing & Commissioning (T&C) and technical assurance services, it is uniquely placed to provide a deep technical and practical insight into GB railway operations. Today it has over 50 years’ experience across a broad range of rolling stock and infrastructure technical services through the rolling stock development lifecycle. SRTS provides engineers at client depots and routes across the GB rail network. SRTS works closely with train manufacturers to successfully deliver extensive and complex rolling stock testing programmes at sites and other worldwide test tracks and depots.

KEY PERSONNEL Chairman: John Rishton Group Chief Executive Officer: Rupert Soames OBE Chief Executive Officer, Serco UK and Europe: Mark Irwin Group Chief Financial Officer: Nigel Crossley Managing Director, Transport for the UK & Europe: John Whitehurst Group Human Resources Director: Anthony Kirby Group General Counsel and Company Secretary: David Eveleigh Group Strategy and communications Director: Kate Steadman

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: Serco House, 16 Bartley Wood Business Park, Bartley Way, Hook, Hampshire RG27 9XB Tel: 01256 745900 Email: generalenquiries@serco.com Visit: www.serco.com