THE new rail franchise for Kent, Southeastern, has been launched with a pledge to improve reliability and punctuality of trains.

Chris Moyes, overall boss of the new business, said the franchise presented an opportunity to revitalise the railways in the county.

He said: "It will contribute to the growth that Kent is set to experience over the next 10 years, and deliver a growing railway for a growing region.

"Southeastern will be passenger focused. It will be a safe, reliable and efficient railway and result in continuous improvement in customer satisfaction."

Managing director Charles Horton said there would be no quick fix solution to improving services.

"What is key is to improve reliability and punctuality of trains, and to ensure there are 12 cars to each train during the high peak to avoid overcrowding," he said.

"I shall be out meeting passengers at different locations every four weeks, to find out directly what they think of the service. We need to build an awareness of the speed and convenience of travelling by train."

Already Southeastern has made a number of commitments to improve services. These include:

* A £17.6million investment to install CCTV on the entire train fleet for better security.

* A £5.5million investment in better passenger information systems.

* £3million for new and upgraded ticket machines.

* Targets to remove graffiti within 24 hours.

* An improvement in the number of trains arriving within five minutes of their scheduled time.

However, the biggest development will be the introduction of the new high-speed domestic services over the Channel Tunnel Rail Link through Kent, scheduled for 2009 which is expected to dramatically cut journey times.

The best example is between London and Ashford, set to reduce from 83 minutes to 36.5 minutes.

The first high-speed train to run through Kent will be named after the county’s double Olympic gold medallist Dame Kelly Holmes.

The new trains will be used to operate the shuttle service to the Olympic Games centre at Stratford, east London, in 2012.