FirstGroup already has three rail franchises in the UK

Connex learnt last week it was to be stripped of the franchise over its poor financial management.

Now FirstGroup, which already runs the North Western, Great Western and Great Eastern franchises, has confirmed it will bid to take over.

Connex became the first firm to be stripped of a franchise by the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) since the privatisation of the railways in the mid-1990s.

Bidding for franchises

FirstGroup's three current franchise deals sees it run trains in Wales, the South West and North West of England and East Anglia.

It has been shortlisted in the bidding process for the new Trans Pennine franchise, as has Connex, and has submitted proposals for extending its Great Western Deal from 2004.

It is also bidding for the Scotrail and Northern franchises and confirmed following its AGM, held on Thursday, that it will soon be submitting proposals for the South East region - being renamed the Integrated Kent Franchise.

Connex has come in for plenty of criticism from passengers

The company also runs trains in the USA and Canada and is one of the UK's largest bus operators.

Company spokesman Robin Etherington told the BBC he did not think FirstGroup was trying to spread its web too widely.

He said: "Even a large company like ours would have to work very hard to put forward successful bid proposals.

"But we do want to expand - we're a big company, we're a FTSE 250 firm, and therefore there are quite a set of resources that we can bring to bear."

French company Connex runs trains throughout Kent, in parts of East Sussex and Surrey and into London from all those counties and had a deal which ran until 2006.

But after the SRA's announcement last week it will only run the services until the end of the year after which an interim company will take ahead of a tendering process to find a new franchise holder, probably within 18 months.

Connex also lost the neighbouring South Central franchise in 2001, when its deal came up for renewal but it was beaten in the bidding process by Govia.