Bus and rail put Go-Ahead on track to hit annual targets

Transport company Go-Ahead Group said growth in its bus and train businesses would keep it on track to hit full year targets.Go-Ahead, which runs buses on the south coast and in London, north east England and Oxford, said first quarter trading had been robust and its expectations for the year to June 28th 2014 remained unchanged.The group's deregulated bus business increased revenue by 3.5% and passenger numbers rose about 1%. Revenue in its contracted London buses lifted 7%.Revenue in its rail division, which runs the Southern, Southeastern and London Midland rail franchises, rose between 7% and 9% while passenger journeys were up between 4.5% and 6%.It said in an update ahead of its annual meeting that trading in rail will remain challenging in the short term, but it was committed to UK rail.Chief Executive David Brown said: "Our bus division is performing well and we are on course to deliver our £100m target by 2015/16."In rail, our bid team is working hard to deliver strong bids for the Thameslink and Crossrail franchise competitions and we have begun discussions with the Department for Transport regarding the proposed extension for Southeastern."Overall, I am pleased with the group's performance and remain confident that the full year result will be in line with our expectations."PW