Member Article

Go Ahead performance picks up after poor weather

Newcastle-based transport operators, Go-Ahead Group plc say their bus business has picked up following weeks of poor weather, and is on course to reach £100m profit by 2015.

The Group anticipate passenger growth for the year will stand around 3%, and revenue is expected to increase 8%.

Across Go-Ahead’s rail business, profitability is expected to be lower next year given the contract extension on Southeastern and challenging trading across the Southern franchise.

The firm hope the Government’s Spending Review will address investment in public transport.

David Brown, Group chief executive of Go-Ahead, said: “I am pleased to report continuing resilience across our operations. Both our bus and rail divisions have seen improved growth in passenger numbers in recent weeks, following the effect of adverse weather previously reported in the third quarter.

“Our bus division continues to trade well and is on track to deliver a better than expected result for the full year as we start to see the benefits of cost initiatives coupled with continued revenue growth. We are making good progress towards our target to organically grow bus operating profit to £100m by 2015/16.

“In rail, our team is working hard to deliver strong bids for both the Docklands Light Railway and Thameslink franchises. We also look forward to working with the Department for Transport in the coming months to agree terms for the full franchise extensions for Southeastern and London Midland announced in March.

“Whilst our overall expectations for the full year remain unchanged, we now expect a greater proportion of Group operating profit to come from the bus division.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .