Govia Thameslink Railway - Govia Thameslink Railway Changes and Disruptions - C

• 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%.
• In June 2016, amongst criticism of the performance of its services, Go-Ahead warned of lower than anticipated profits on the franchises, leading to 18% drop in the Go-Ahead share price. Passengers had previously rated its Thameslink service as the worst in the country. Only 20% of Southern trains arrived on time in the year from April 2015 to March 2016, and there was an ongoing industrial dispute over driver-only operated trains.
• On 12 July 2016, after 15% of Southern services were cancelled for a period of weeks to improve service reliability, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan called for GTR to be stripped of the franchise. On 15 July 2016, citing the issues, Rail Minister Claire Perry resigned from her position.
• In response to the significant decline of passenger travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic, GTR considerably curtailed its services by mid-2020. Between 30 March 2020 and 3 April 2022, Gatwick Express services were suspended.
• In March 2022, following changes made due to COVID-19, the DfT gave GTR a direct-award contract expiring on 1 April 2028.