This article is about the United Kingdom transport company. For the form of free-flow tolling for Queensland Motorways in Australia formerly known as "go via", see Linkt.
Govia[1] is a transport company based in the United Kingdom. It was formed in November 1996 as a joint venture between Go-Ahead Group (65%) and Keolis (35%) to bid for rail franchises during the privatisation of British Rail.
As part of the privatisation of British Rail, the Thames Trains franchise was awarded to Victory Rail Holdings,[2] a company owned by Go-Ahead (65%) and some ex British Rail managers (35%), with operations commencing on 13 October 1996.[3] Go-Ahead bought the remaining shares it did not own in June 1998.[4]
Southern[14] operating as Southern and Gatwick Express from August 2001 and June 2008 respectively until joining Govia Thameslink Railway in July 2015.
The partners also lodged an unsuccessful bid for the TransPennine Express franchise in 2015, but this was not being done through Govia, with Keolis holding a majority shareholding.[9]