Hmmm. I'm not finding southern much good this year. I feel as though they have given up, are expecting to lose the franchise, and are making no further investment and minimal effort in running the service.

I'm somewhat worried that they will run it into such a state that it will take the next franchisee some time to recover, recruiting and training staff and the like.

Taking the franchise away from Southern early would seem too kind. Instead they should be fined heavily, as that's possibly the only thing they would react against. However I doubt the rail franchise contacts include such provision, and if they did, it would be so woolly that some appeals and re-appeals process would just sink lots of money into a protracted legal battle yielding little real justice.