Shares jumped almost 10% at Newcastle based transport giant Go-Ahead Group after it reported strong growth to put last year’s timetable troubles behind it.
Go-Ahead, which runs bus services across the 海角视频 and beyond, as well as Southeastern train services and its joint venture Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), the 海角视频’s biggest rail franchise, has posted the positive trading update for the period from December 30 to June 5.
The group said revenues for the year to June 5 had grown in all three divisions of buses, trains and international services in Ireland and Singapore.
Investors were pleased with the results, sending shares up 9.5% to 23.3p in early trading.
Revenues within its regional division increased 4%, with passenger journeys up 3.5%, although the firm admitted that profits generated from passengers fell due to targeted campaigns aimed at younger travellers.
Rail services under the Southeastern franchise saw passenger numbers rise 6% and journeys up 4%, although the figures were skewed by tough comparisons from the previous year following the reopening of London Bridge station.
On its London and international bus services, revenues fell 0.5%, with mileage down 4%, although bosses said this was due to losing contracts during the last year.
Within its GTR joint venture, in which Go-Ahead has a 65% stake in the operation of the Thameslink, Great Northern, Southern and Gatwick Express services, the company said the division remains unprofitable following a settlement with the Government which cut profit margins.
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A year ago, GTR and other train companies faced passenger fury after a new timetable rollout led to widescale disruption, with operators not having enough drivers to complete the new journeys.
More than one million claims were filed against GTR for delayed journeys in the six months between April and October last year.
The boss of the division at the time, Charles Horton, was singled out by Transport Secretary Chris Grayling and eventually stood down a year ago over the problems.
Go-Ahead chief executive David Brown said: “I’m pleased to report that we have delivered revenue growth in all three of our business divisions. This performance is driven by our commitment to continually improving services for our bus and rail customers and I’m delighted with our recent results in reliability and satisfaction levels.
In rail, Southeastern remains the best-performing large 海角视频 train franchise, with the highest levels of punctuality in its history.
“Service levels at GTR continue to improve, with punctuality for the month of April reaching 89.3%, a record level for the franchise, after nine consecutive months of year-on-year improvement.”