The franchise has an unusual structure involving a management contract that sees all fare revenues going straight to the Department for Transport (DfT), which in turn pays GTR fixed amounts that add up to £8.9 billion across its first seven years of operation.

In terms of infrastructure, Govia planned to invest £50 million into the 239 stations it manages to improve accessibility, replace information systems, and increase staffing hours, alongside general redevelopment work.

As early as June 2016, GTR was facing public criticism from officials over its performance, including calls from the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan for it to be stripped of the franchise.

[2] The Invitation to Tender was to have been issued in October 2012, with the successful bidder announced during Spring 2013 and TSGN originally due to start in September 2013.

However, following the collapse of the InterCity West Coast re-franchising process, it was decided to enact a temporary freeze on all franchising competitions until January 2013.

During July 2015, both Southern and Gatwick Express became a part of GTR, making it the largest rail franchise in terms of passengers, staff and fleet in the UK.

[14][15] During December 2015, GTR announced that the majority of its ticket prices would be frozen, and that the average fare rise for the coming year would be only 0.8%.

[27] GTR is only capable of operating a very minimal timetable on any of the planned dates for the strikes due to the number of staff involved.

Great Northern is the name of the suburban rail services run on the southern end of Britain's East Coast Main Line and associated branches.

Destinations include Hertford North, Welwyn Garden City, Stevenage, Peterborough, Cambridge and King's Lynn.

In May 2018, the company introduced a new timetable which included the first regular services through the Canal Tunnels and to other new destinations previously not served by Thameslink.

However, due to frequent disruption of services on the whole network, Govia decided to create a new interim timetable with a reduced number of trains; this came into operation in July 2018.

[36][39] As well as these services, during peak hours, several trains in each direction (approximately two trains per hour) run to/from Orpington (originating/terminating at either London Blackfriars, Luton, West Hampstead Thameslink or Kentish Town), all calling at Petts Wood in lieu of stations from St Mary Cray to Bat & Ball.

[36] In addition, there are seven trains per day in each direction that operate to/from East Grinstead (originating/terminating at either Bedford, West Hampstead Thameslink, St Pancras International or London Bridge), which, after calling at South Croydon, call at Sanderstead, Riddlesdown, Upper Warlingham, Woldingham, Oxted, Hurst Green, Lingfield and Dormans.

[40] There are also three extra trains throughout the evening peak hours that operate from Gatwick Airport to Bedford in that direction only, calling at various stations.

[42] The Great Northern Monday-Friday off-peak service pattern, as of December 2024, with frequencies in trains per hour (tph), consists of the following:[43]

Further afield, Southern also serve Redhill, Tonbridge, Uckfield, East Grinstead, Gatwick Airport, Brighton, Ashford (Kent), Worthing, Hastings, Portsmouth, Eastbourne, Horsham, Southampton, Littlehampton and Bognor Regis.

Additionally, Southern run West London route services from Milton Keynes to South Croydon via Watford and Clapham Junction.

[58][59] In addition to these, GTR ordered 25 new six-car trains to replace 40-year-old Class 313 units,[49] which were being run on the Great Northern suburban services out of Moorgate.

Thameslink and Great Northern were also scored 2/5 stars in each of the specific categories covered by the survey (including Reliability, Punctuality and Cleanliness of toilets) – which is the worst performance of any UK train operator.