* Group's strike-hit rail services drew public anger
* FY adjusted operating profit of 157.4 mln pounds
* Compares with average forecast of 153.6 million
* Shares jump as much as 9 pct on results (Recasts, adds detail on CEO declining bonus)
By Sarah Young
LONDON, Sept 2 (Reuters) - British transport companyGo-Ahead, parent of strike-hit Southern rail company,reported a 17 percent rise in annual profit on Friday,potentially adding to the anger of London commuters that use itscancellation-prone train services.
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which is 65 percent owned byGo-Ahead alongside France's Keolis and operates Southern, hasfaced widespread criticism from passengers, politicians and themedia after months of strikes, cancellations and delays ontrains into London.
Some workers say they have even lost their jobs because theycould not get to work on time.
Go Ahead's Chief Executive David Brown apologised tocustomers on Friday in a statement, and said he did not want tobe considered for an annual bonus this year and had declined asalary increase.
But he defended the group's higher profits, which sent thecompany's shares up as much as 9 percent.
"I can't apologise for doing what I set out to do in otherparts of the business because that's where the profits have comefrom," he told Reuters after the results release.
Go-Ahead's annual adjusted operating profit of 157.4 millionpounds ($209 mln) topped an average analysts' forecast of 153.6million pounds, after growth in the group's bus unit and twosmaller rail contracts offset GTR's performance.
Brown said GTR was a problem franchise which does notcontribute to profits and which was being subsidised by thegroup's London buses and trains in central England andelsewhere.
"We're putting more and more resources into it (GTR) to tryto meet the performance targets and that's removed our profitmargin," Brown said.
Disruption on the GTR network has been due to theredevelopment of London Bridge station, a major London trainhub, which has been more complex than expected and caused manymore delays than forecast. That forced Go-Ahead to warn in Junethat the seven-year rail contract would produce margins nearerto 1.5 percent, not the 3 percent it previously expected.
Shares in Go-Ahead, whose rail services carry about a thirdof all passengers across Britain, were up 8 percent at 2,154pence at 1047 GMT, having slumped by as much as a quarter sincemid-June on the warning over margins and negative headlines.
"Operational challenges continue for GTR but we think busactivities alone should be worth about 2,500 pence per share,"Jefferies analyst Joe Spooner said in a note.
Britain privatised its rail services in the 1990s but poorservice on networks like GTR and perceptions of unreasonablyhigh fares have led to public anger and the leader of theopposition Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn, is calling for therailways to be renationalised.
While big profits are likely to further sway Britons againsttransport companies like Go-Ahead, Brown said the outlook forgrowth was not as rosy for next year. "We think it's going to bevery steady and very similar to this year," he said when askedabout next year's bottom line.
The company brought its results forward so that they did notcoincide with another strike on the Southern network due tostart on Sept. 7.
($1 = 0.7530 pounds) (Editing by David Holmes and Susan Fenton)