Newcastle’s Go-Ahead Group is celebrating a two-year extension to a bus operating contract in Singapore.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) of Singapore has granted a two-year contract extension to Go-Ahead Singapore to continue operating around 450 buses in the Loyang region of the island.
The extension begins next September and will run until 2023. It follows the group’s entry into the Singapore bus market in September 2016.
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The Singapore contract will come as a welcome boost for Go-Ahead, which has seen its bus and train services in the 海角视频 effectively underwritten by the Government after the coronavirus lockdown all but wiped out passenger numbers.
Go-Ahead CEO David Brown said: “Go-Ahead Singapore has been a great addition to the group and I am delighted that we will be running buses in Singapore until at least 2023. Our experienced management team has led the delivery of remarkable performance on behalf of the LTA in recent years and has played an important part in Singapore’s response to the COVID-19 crisis.”
Andrew Thompson, Go-Ahead Singapore managing director, said: “Today’s announcement is the result of much hard work by the 1,000 colleagues based at Loyang Depot.
“We are grateful to the Authority for the trust they have put in us and will continue to serve passengers with a safe and reliable bus network.”
Go-Ahead runs bus services in a number of 海角视频 regions and also has rail franchises in the South East and London as part of the Govia consortium. It is responsible for almost a third of all rail journeys in the 海角视频.
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But it has also been moving into the provision of bus and rail services overseas, winning contracts in recent years in Ireland, Germany, Australia and Norway, as well as Singapore.
Full year results for the firm will be released in September, but in its most recent trading update - released in May - the company said that it expected profits for the year ending June 27 would be between £63m and £75m.
At the time Mr Brown said the coronavirus outbreak had been a time “unlike any other”, and outlined how bus and rail services had been operating well below normal passenger levels.
Now the rail industry has announced that train services will be ramped up from next month as more schools reopen,.
The Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents train operators and Network Rail, said services across Britain will be increased to around 90% of pre-coronavirus pandemic levels from September 7.
But services were increased to around 80% of normal levels following uplifts in May and July.
Latest confirmed figures from the Department for Transport show rail usage in Britain is at 33% of pre-pandemic levels.