The Government has revealed the companies in the running to take over the South Eastern rail franchise.

South Eastern is one of the busiest franchises in the UK, and passenger numbers have doubled since the privatisation of the railways 20 years ago.

There are four companies in the running to take over the franchise.

South Eastern Holdings Limited, a joint venture that will be wholly owned by Abellio Transport Group and East Japan Railway Company and Mitsui & Co Limited are one of the bidders, competing with London and South East Passenger Rail Services which is a subsidiary of Govia Limited.

The third bidder is Stagecoach South Eastern Trains Limited, a subsidiary of Stagecoach Group and finally Trenitalia UK Limited.

640,000 passengers use South Eastern on 1,900 train services every weekday.

MORE: The consultation on the south eastern rail franchise has been extended

Chris Grayling, the Transport Secretary, said: “South Eastern is one of the busiest franchises in the UK, running almost two thousand services every weekday.

“We want passengers to be at the heart of everything that the new operator does, enjoying modern, spacious trains on a more punctual and reliable service.

“We will listen to what passengers say in the current public consultation, and we will seek to make changes and improvements only with their support.”

The public consultation was recently extended until June 30.

Passengers using the service are asked to feedback on proposals that would scrap some commuter services and potentially introduce metro style trains.

A spokesman for the Department for Transport said: “DfT’s ambitions for this franchise include creating more space for passengers by running longer trains and upgrading or replacing older trains and increasing reliability and reducing delays by the train operator working closely with Network Rail.”