The new contract follows on from Arriva’s successful bid for the franchise to operate Northern, which was awarded in December 2015; this franchise is due to run from 1 April 2016.

The managing director of Arriva’s UK rail operations, Chris Burchell, commented: ‘It is exciting to be given the opportunity to build on the major improvements we have made in recent years and we are delighted to be playing a key role in the next phase of London’s growth and development … We will be working closely with Transport for London to introduce further improvements which will bring world-class performance and customer service levels across the network and to new routes.’

The franchise for the Overground network is currently held by a joint venture between Arriva and MTR and originally commenced on 11 November 2007.

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