London & South Eastern Railway Limited, trading as Southeastern, 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 trains operated on three main routes: the South Eastern Main Line from London Cannon Street and London Charing Cross to Dover via Sevenoaks; the Chatham Main Line between London Victoria and Dover/Ramsgate via the Medway towns; and High Speed 1 from London St Pancras. Southeastern began 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. Southeastern received a number of extensions, with the franchise scheduled to end on 1 April 2020, until a new contract was agreed on 30 March 2020, running for up to two years. The Southeastern franchise was terminated early on 16 October 2021 and transferred to the Department for Transport-owned operator SE Trains, which is also trading as Southeastern, after an investigation into £25million of unaccounted for taxpayer money. Overview Southeastern served the main London stations of Charing Cross, Victoria, Cannon Street, London Bridge, Waterloo East and St Pancras. The Southeastern network has a route mileage of 540, with 179 stations. About 70% of its services run to and from London. It was owned by Govia, a joint venture between Go-Ahead Group and Keolis, which also operates the neighbouring Southern franchise that overlapped with Southeastern in some western areas. History In December 2003, the Strategic Rail Authority announced that Danish State Railways/Stagecoach, FirstGroup, Govia and MTR/Sea Containers had been shortlisted to bid for the new Integrated Kent franchise, which would replace the South Eastern franchise and include services on High Speed 1 operating from St Pancras. In November 2005, the Department for Transport (DfT) announced Govia had been awarded the franchise; the services operated by South Eastern Trains transferred to Southeastern on 1 April 2006. The franchise was let for an initial eight years, with a two-year option dependent on performance targets being met. The opening of the second phase of High Speed 1 in November 2007 made available train paths on the traditional network previously used by Eurostar, allowing Southeastern to increase certain services in December 2007. In December 2008, as part of the franchise