Connex South Central

Connex South Central, owned by the Connex Group, operated passenger trains serving Surrey, Sussex and parts of Hampshire and Kent between October 1996 and mid-2001. The network was previously part of the Southern Region of British Railways and later Network SouthEast. Before privatisation, the part of Network SouthEast which was to become Connex South Central was known as Network South Central. Services used the London termini of Victoria and London Bridge. In 1997 a new service from Gatwick Airport to Rugby began, via the West Coast Main Line, it was later curtailed to Watford Junction in the early 2000s, but extended southwards to Brighton. The franchise was originally due to run until 2006, but Connex South Central lost the franchise in October 2000. It was later awarded to Govia, who rebranded the line as South Central then as Southern in 2004.