London Midland helps to keep Go-Ahead on the right track

LONDON Midland operator Go-Ahead Group has reported “robust perfromance”.

Speaking as the group delivered its pre-close trading update for the year ending June 30, group chief executive David Brown said: “Go-Ahead continues to perform well, with all our companies seeing revenue growth in the year to date.

“In line with our strategy to grow our bus division, we have acquired a number of businesses during the year and have driven organic growth through smart-ticketing and providing high quality value for money services.

“In rail, we are pleased with the performance of our three franchises despite the challenging economic environment.”

Go-Ahead said London Midland’s growth in passenger revenue and numbers remains strong, with full year expectations around 13.5% and 8% respectively.

The company said that in its bus division it expects full year growth in deregulated passenger revenue of around 7% and journey growth of around 4.5%.

In April it acquired HC Chambers & Son Ltd, a bus company operating on the Essex/Suffolk border.

“Overall, we remain confident that we will deliver a full year result in line with our expectations,” said Brown.