London Midland revenue up despite "operational issues"

TRANSPORT group Go-Ahead, which operates the London Midland rail franchise, has seen revenue growth in all its operations.

In a pre-close trading statement for the six months ending December 29, the firm said it had performed with resilience across its bus and rail divisions.

The firm expects London Midland revenue to be up by 13% at the half year point, despite well-publicised problems.

During the second quarter the firm faced what it describes as operational issues as a result of driver shortages.

“We acknowledge the impact this has had on our passengers and our priority is to ensure that a reliable passenger service is restored as quickly as possible,” it said.

Many trains are still being cancelled on key commuter routes across the West Midlands.

Go-Ahead said trading in the second quarter of the year has remained robust and its expectations for the full year to 29 June 2013 remain unchanged.

David Brown, group chief executive, said: “I am pleased to report a resilient performance across our operations, with all of our companies seeing growth in commercial revenue in the year to date.

“Our bus division continues to perform well in a challenging economic environment and we are well placed to meet our target to achieve bus operating profit of £100m by 2015/2016. Our passenger journey growth trends are sector leading and our London bus operations remain best in class.

“We continue to lead the transport industry in the development of smart ticketing. There are now over 300,000 passengers using our smartcard “the key” and the roll out of mobile ticketing across our bus operations is progressing well.

“We strongly believe that making travel more convenient for our passengers, combined with innovative and targeted marketing, will attract more people onto our services.

“All three rail franchises have delivered good passenger revenue growth in the year to date. We are committed to operating in the rail market and are helping to shape the future of the industry through our involvement in the Government’s review of rail franchising.

“Whilst we remain suitably cautious about the medium term wider economic outlook, we are encouraged by our robust performance.”