National Express today showed it was driving a steady path, with more bums on the seats of its UK trains, buses and coaches, more school buses in north America and even “resilient” revenues from its bus business in unemployment-struck Spain.
“We have made a positive start to the year,” Dean Finch, NatEx’s chief executive, said. Bus ticket sales in this country are up 3% since the start of 2013, although the firm admitted that “poor weather impacted overall passenger volume, especially in concessionary travel.”
The number of tickets sold on NatEx coaches rose 7% in the period, although cheaper tickets meant revenues only inched up 1%. In Spain, like-for-like revenue at NatEx’s city bus division rose 5%, but ticket sales at its Spanish intercity coach business were down 5% in the start of this year compared with last because of Spain’s austerity.
Revenues from North America yellow school buses jumped 18%, after NatEx bought a rival last May; underlying revenue, however, was broadly flat.
NatEx added that its c2c commuter rail service, which runs between London and South Essex, had delivered “good revenue growth” so far this year. It welcomes its “constructive negotiations” with the Department for Transport about the c2c contract, which goes up for bidding in September 2014.
