New Nat Express chief goes hands-on

Dean Finch, the former boss of Tube Lines, who took over as chief executive of embattled bus and rail group National Express in February is to take direct "hands on" control over each of its businesses to try to turn its fortunes around.Finch says his aim is to deliver greater operational focus to the group, which was stripped of its East Coast Mail Line rail franchise last year and still has hefty debts.In a trading update, Finch said National Express expects to hit profits expectations this year despite little or no revenue growth in the first three months."A good start has been made to 2010 with cost saving programmes and stronger operational focus driving improved margins. As a result, the group is on track to meet expectations for margin and profit in the full year and continues to build its financial strength", he said.US school bus revenues fell by 4% underlying in the three months, with the freezing weather contributing about 1.5 percentage points to the this dip.UK bus income dropped by 1% as the group cut back mileage by 5%. In UK rail, revenue was unchanged at the East Anglia franchise though its other franchise, c2c, saw sales improve. Alsa in Spain also had a flat three months in underlying revenue terms.