Connex
- This page refers to Connex, a European public transport company. See also Connex GSM Romania.
Connex is Europe's largest private public transport company. It is owned by Vivendi, which was former French water department.
In Britain, it ran passenger train services in South East London, Kent and parts of East Sussex, and many bus routes in London and the South East.
Once part of the old Southern Region and Network South East, this dense network of services runs into Victoria, and to Charing Cross and Cannon Street via London Bridge. The company became known for promising twelve-coach trains over a network with indequate electric power supplies, for gating and fencing stations to reduce freeloaders and vandalism, and for seeking to overcome capacity limitations by commissioning new trains with no on-board toilets.
Connex operated in the South Central and South Eastern regions.
The franchise to operate these routes was due to run until 2006, but Connex South Central lost its franchise in 199?, and in June 2003 the Strategic Rail Authority decided to cut the South Eastern franchise short at the end of 2003 due to what it called "poor financial management". In the event Connex South Eastern lost its franchise at midnight on November 8, 2003, when train services were taken over by South Eastern Trains, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Strategic Rail Authority.
Connex is free to bid for future franchises, including the trans-Pennine franchise curently held by Arriva, which is due for renewal in September 2004.
A Connex bus in Helsinki advertising for Hesburger
Contracts
The company, which is owned by Veolia Environnement, also operates train and bus services in many parts of the United States, several countries in the Middle East and Colombia.