Passenger revenue and journeys both show significant increases for London Midland operator

THE operator of the London Midland rail franchise has said it welcomes the decision by the Department for Transport to extend the franchise.

The Go-Ahead Group said in a pre-close trading update for the six months ending December 27, 2015 that the rail operation had continued to show improvements.

Figures in the statement have predicted that passenger revenue will be up 12% over the period, with the number of passenger journeys increasing by 8% in the six months.

David Brown, Group Chief Executive of Go-Ahead, said: “We were pleased to be awarded by the Department for Transport (DfT) a direct award contract for London Midland from March 2016 to October 2017.”

The original London Midland franchise will remain on its existing terms until April 2016. London Midland will then begin the new direct award contract under revised terms that runs to October 2017.

The Go-Ahead rail division operates the GTR, Southeastern and London Midland franchises through its 65% owned subsidiary Govia.

In outlook, the group, which also operates a number of bus services, said current trading was satisfactory and it remained on course to meet full year expectations for both the bus and rail divisions.

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