Car drivers hop aboard at Go-Ahead

27th Oct 2011 07:53

Bus and rail Go-Ahead said company expectations for the full year to 30 June 2012 remain unchanged after a robust first quarter across all of its businesses.Its bus services enjoyed strong trading as the rising cost of running a car lured more passengers onto public transport. Take-up of its new smartcards was encouraging with over 200,000 passenger journeys a day now taking place using smartcards outside of London.Chief executive David Brown said, "I am pleased to report growth across all our businesses. A range of factors, including the quality of our services and high motoring costs for car drivers, has attracted passengers to our services and we continue to perform well."Outside London, its bus operations have remained resilient with the majority of growth coming from fare paying, rather than concessionary passengers, it explained. Deregulated revenue rose by over 4% while passenger numbers are consistent with the same quarter last year. Its rail businesses also performed strongly. "We are also seeing some interesting passenger trends with our High Speed services in Kent and the Gatwick Express showing good growth - demonstrating that passengers want to use fast rail links," Brown said. All three of its train franchises performed well. Southern saw passenger revenue increase 8% in the quarter while passenger journeys were up around 3%. In Southeastern, passenger revenue rose almost 9% and passenger journeys were around 2% above the same period last year. Its smallest franchise, London Midland, saw passenger revenue growth of over 12% and an increase in passenger numbers of around 9%. Looking ahead Go-Ahead added, "While we are encouraged by our performance in the first quarter, our expectations for the full year to 30 June 2012 remain unchanged as we continue to be suitably cautious about the medium term wider economic outlook."--cj