Bus boost for Yorkshire cities

BUS passengers in Sheffield and Hull are to benefit from a record £71m investment by operator Stagecoach.

The group, which runs around 7,000 vehicles from Devon to Inverness and carries two million passengers a day, is to order 584 new buses – a record for the Perth-based group.

Customers in both the Metropolitan and shire areas will benefit from the massive

investment in services following increased profits at the group's UK Bus

division.

Estimated passenger volumes at Stagecoach's bus operations have grown

year-on-year by 3.9%.

The company said that the growth has been driven by continued fleet investment, industry-leading marketing campaigns, partnerships with local authorities,

excellent value fares and additional travel under concessionary fares schemes.

Les Warneford, managing director of Stagecoach UK Bus, said:

“Stagecoach is leading the way in getting Britain back on board the bus. We are committed to reinvesting our profits in making further improvements to

our quality of service to passengers so they share in our success.”

Mr Warneford added that buses were a key part of the solution to the growing problem of traffic congestion in our towns and cities.

” We believe there is a huge opportunity to attract more and more people out of their cars and on to public transport in the future,” he said.

Stagecoach, which is one of the UK's biggest bus and coach operators, was named UK Bus Operator of the year in 2005 and 2006 and has won more awards than any other operator at the 2007 UK Bus Awards.

It today reported a 9% rise in first-half underlying profit and said it was confident of its prospects for the rest of the year.

Revenues rose 9% to £821m, with UK bus revenue up 8%, and UK rail revenue up 15%.

Profit before tax and exceptional items was £84.6m in the six months to October 31, compared with £77.4m a year earlier.