this plan. In June 2017, the Department for Transport announced an Abellio/East Japan Railway Company/Mitsui consortium, incumbent Govia, Stagecoach and Trenitalia had been shortlisted to bid for the next South Eastern franchise. On 10 August 2017, Trenitalia withdrew its interest in the franchise. Alstom joined Stagecoach's bid in February 2018. The Invitation to Tender for the next franchise was issued in November 2017. There have been several extensions to the current franchise since then. The franchise competition was cancelled on 7 August 2019 and the DfT instead took up a further extension and the operator was to run services until 31 March 2020. However, a new contract was then agreed on 30 March 2020, running up to 16 October 2021, with a possible extension to 31 March 2022. Termination of franchise In September 2021, the Department for Transport (DfT) announced it would be terminating the South Eastern franchise operated by Govia-owned Southeastern after revenue declaration discrepancies involving £25million of public money were discovered. Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps stated that this was a serious breach of the "good faith" obligation in the franchise agreement. Following the announcement, shares in Go-Ahead Group (joint owner of Govia) fell 22% and their Chief Financial Officer resigned. Go-Ahead subsequently admitted to "serious errors and failures" in December 2021, with trading of its shares on the London Stock Exchange suspended as it was unable to publish financial results. In February 2022, Go-Ahead announced the outcome of investigations into the termination of the franchise. It found that "serious errors had been made” since 2006, with the expected cost to the company to be over £80million. The amount owed to the DfT was increased to £51.3million, with errors dating back to the start of the franchise in 2006. Go-Ahead also stated that they expect to have to pay a fine to the DfT, setting aside up to £30million for this. Go-Ahead also stated that they may also owe DfT an additional £21.3million, related to a dispute over profit sharing. In March 2022, the government imposed a £23.5million penalty in addition the £64million that it is seeking to recover from the former operator. Southeastern (SE Trains Limited), as an operator of last resort, took over the franchise on 17 October 2021. Southeastern sub-brands Highspeed Southeastern introduced a full timetable of domestic high-speed services branded Southeastern Highspeed over High Speed 1 between and on 13 December 2009;