Virgin Rail revenues up almost 6% after new franchise agreement
TRANSPORT group Stagecoach, minority shareholder in Virgin Rail Group, has said it remains on course to meet expectations.
The company said in a trading update ahead of meetings with analysts that the launch in June of the West Coast Trains franchise, which is run by Virgin on behalf of the Department for Transport (DfT), had been a welcome boost.
The new contract for the West Coast Main Line service is planned to run until at least March 31, 2017 and the DfT has the discretion to extend the contract, on pre-agreed terms, by an additional year to March 31, 2018.
Stagecoach said trading to date under the new franchise had been strong and in the 24 weeks to October 12, 2014 it had seen like-for-like revenue growth of 5.8%.
The group as a whole also includes bus and rail services, together with a North American operation.
It said in the update: “The overall profitability of the group has remained satisfactory and there has been no material change to our expected adjusted earnings per share for the year ending April 30, 2015.
“Although there are a number of challenges to growing profit in the year ending April 30, 2015, overall current trading is satisfactory and we are on course to meet our expectations for the year.”
The group said it planned to announce its interim results for the six months ended October 31, 2014 on December 10.
