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			Southern Railways provides services in South London and between central London and the South Coast, through East and West Sussex and Surrey, and parts of Kent and Hampshire.
		Rail commuters have welcomed the recent announcement by the Department for Transport that Southern Rail had successfully retained the South Central rail franchise and would continue to operate it till at at least 25 July 2015. A major contributor to the DFT decision were the Southern Rail punctuality figures released by the ORR for the third quarter of the 2008/9 financial year validating Southern Railways as one of the better performing train operating companies in the U.K. Southern have also announce the introduction of a new Service Quality Management System to monitor, measure and improve every aspect of a passenger’s journey. Use the RailEasy™ train ticket price checker and Rail Saver will find you the cheapest available Southern Railway Trains train ticket price and book your Southern train tickets in a few quick easy steps using the Rail Easy™ price check and Rail Saver booking engine.

About Southern Railway Trains

Southern Railways is a train operating company in England. It is based around routes to south London, Surrey, and Sussex from Victoria and London Bridge.

Southern is owned by Govia, a joint venture between transport groups Go-Ahead Group and Keolis, who also own the neighbouring Southeastern. Officially named New Southern Railway Ltd, the company branded South Central following its takeover of services previously operated by Connex South Central in 2000, rebranded Southern on 30 May 2004 in a deliberate recollection of the pre-nationalisation Southern Railway, with a green roundel logo with ‘Southern’ written in yellow in a green bar.

Southern Railway Train Routes

The Southern franchise covers south London and parts of Kent, East and West Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire including key business hubs such as Croydon, Crawley, Gatwick and Brighton.

It also includes fast services between London Victoria and Gatwick Airport, the majority of services on the Brighton Main Line, services along the South Coast and a significant number of high frequency services in South London.

Details of each route, including maps and timetables, are on Southern’s website. Its routes, in the order listed on the website, are:

• Brighton Main Line - London (Victoria and London Bridge) to Brighton
  
  
• East Coastway - Brighton to Hastings (via Eastbourne)
  including Marsh Link Line - Hastings to Ashford International
  including "Seaford Flyer" Line - Brighton to Seaford (via Lewes)
  Lewes to Wivelsfield
  
  
• West Coastway - Brighton to Portsmouth and/or Southampton
  Littlehampton branch
  Bognor Regis branch
  
  
• Arun Valley Line - Brighton Main Line to West Coastway (via Horsham)
  
  
• North Downs Line - Redhill to Reigate (peak only)
  
  
• Oxted Lines, divides at Hurst Green to East Grinstead / Uckfield
  
  
• Sutton & Mole Valley Line - London (Victoria and London Bridge) to Horsham (via Dorking) or Guildford (both via Mitcham Junction or West Croydon) including Epsom Downs branch.
  
  
• Caterham - London (Victoria, Charing Cross and London Bridge) to Caterham (via the Brighton Main Line, diverging at Purley).
  
  
• Tattenham Corner - London (Victoria and London Bridge) to Tattenham Corner (via the Brighton Main Line, diverging at Purley).
  
  
• Victoria to East Croydon via Crystal Palace and Balham / Selhurst and Balham.
  
  
• London Bridge to East Croydon via Sydenham / Selhurst and Tulse Hill / Crystal Palace and Tulse Hill.
  
  
• South London Lines - Victoria to London Bridge - "inner" via Peckham Rye / "outer" via Crystal Palace.
  
  
• West London Line - Clapham Junction to Watford Junction
  

Southern's 3,500 staff manage 160 stations and operate and maintain a fleet of 300 new and refurbished trains, seven days a week and up to 24 hours a day.

The Southern Rail Focus Is On It's Passengers

Southern Rail's succesful franchise extension bid has been secured with the following undertakings by Southern Rail:-

Fleet Improvement

• Reliability modifications to all fleet types by 2010
• Interior refreshment of the 455 fleet by 2012 and of the 377 Metro fleet by 2011
• enabling maximum capacity benefit from the move to ten car metro operations during the franchise.

Station enhancements including:

• CCTV at all stations with 24 hour live monitoring by April 2011
• New ticket gates at 22 stations
• Additional car and cycle parking spaces
• 100 extra car park ticket machines and real time train departure information at ten car parks
• Deep clean and minor fault repairs at all stations by 2011
• Improvements to lighting
• Additional improvements to 34 stations including Brighton, Haywards Heath, Hove, Lewes, Redhill, Three Bridges and Worthing. Work will include refurbishment of waiting rooms and toilets and repainting
  Station access improvements linked to Station Travel Plans
  

Fares and ticketing

• The iIntroduction of an ITSO-certified Smartcard ticketing system across the network by January 2012
• 120 new ticket vending machines
• A customer-orientated website making it easy to buy tickets on-line
• Introduction of Oyster Pay As You Go
• Multi-modal Pay As You Go ITSO Smartcard for Crawley/Gatwick and Brighton, working in partnership with Metrobus and Brighton and Hove Buses respectively
  

Passenger information

• New information zones at stations to assist passengers during their journey
• Customer information systems on all stations
• “Fastest train” boards for all destinations at nine stations
• Help points at 40 stations where none currently exist
• Real time multi-modal rail/bus travel information at 35 stations including Crawley, Falmer, Gatwick Airport, Haywards Heath, Shoreham-by-Sea and Worthing
• Improved rail replacement bus service information including signage at stations and on customer information systems
• A 1000-member virtual passenger panel providing a channel for feedback and consultation
• A new “Station Partnership” scheme delivered in partnership with the Sussex Community Rail Partnership
• A new Passenger Charter and delay/repay scheme
• Train departure information in 10 station car parks
  

Performance

• Further improvements to performance through fleet enhancements
• A new customer focused service recovery team dealing with passenger information during disruption
  

Security

• A new Safer Travel Team comprising 38 staff including 32 Rail Enforcement Officers
• Retention of Park Mark accreditation at 24 car parks and new accreditation at a further 17 car parks
• Secure Station Status at stations which together account for 95% of total passenger numbers
  

Environmental

• Regenerative braking on all 377s by 2010
• 25 per cent reduction in electricity usage at stations and depots by September 2013
• A 50 per cent increase in paper waste recycling
• New environmental targets to reduce Southern’s impact on the environment
• Energy efficiency driver training using upgraded driving simulators
  

Passenger-focused staff

• Achievement of Investors in People by 2011
• Personal Digital Assistants or Blackberrys for passenger facing staff enabling them to provide information to passengers quickly and accurately
• A new Service Excellence customer service training programme to re-train all 2800 frontline staff
  

Southern Rail WIFI Broadband Activated Trains

Southern introduced the world’s first genuine broadband Wi-Fi service to passengers on the London to Brighton rail route. Passengers on the express rail service between London and Brighton - one of Britain’s busiest commuter rail routes - were the first to be able to send and receive emails or surf the internet securely while travelling on the train.

HotSpot is the new T-Mobile wireless internet access service that allows you to use email or the web at broadband speeds on certain Southern trains and stations. Look for the HotSpot signs.

You will need a laptop with Wi-Fi (802.11b) capability. Your existing device may already have the capability built-in, or you can buy a Wi-Fi 802.11b networking card from electronics retailers. You don’t need to be a T-Mobile customer or have an account to use the service immediately.

T-Mobile offers various price plans and subscriptions to suit your needs. Time based passes bought by credit card starting from £5 for an hour up to £40 for 30 continuous days. Pay via your T-Mobile phone bill or off prepay balance. Unlimited HotSpot subscription plan for £20 per month

Southern Rail Wifi Enabled Rail Stations:-

BRIGHTON
BATTERSEA
BURGESS HILL
CLAPHAM JUNCTION (over bridge)
COULSDEN SOUTH
EARLSWOOD
EAST CROYDON
GATWICK
HASSOCKS
HAYWARDS HEATH
HORLEY
SALFORDS
SELHURST
STREATHAM COMMON
THORNTONHEATH
VICTORIA
WANDSWORTH COMMON
WIVELSFIELD

Note: No need to be a T-Mobile (phone) customer to use HotSpot. All valid passes can be used at any and all UK HotSpot locations. For more information please refer to www.t-mobile.co.uk

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