FirstGroup revenues rise 13.7% despite fall in bus passengers
By Frank Prenesti
Date: Tuesday 19 Feb 2019
(Sharecast News) - Transport operator FirstGroup on Tuesday said revenues grew 13.7% in the year to date as the company maintained its outlook for the full year.
The update came as the company sold one of its bus depots in Manchester and 163 buses for £11.13m to rival Go-Ahead.
FirstGroup said like-for-like passenger revenue growth at its rail division slowed to 4.2% in the period, reflecting "significant infrastructure challenges which resulted in disappointing operating performance for passengers towards the end of 2018".
"In addition to the reduced services caused by strike action, the performance of SWR has been affected by several operating incidents in the period that caused significant disruption."
Bus service passenger volume fell 1.9% driven by subdued high street footfall over the Christmas period and network restructuring.
Overall revenues were boosted led by 6.2% growth in the school bus division, which benefited from price increases and higher contract retention rates achieved during last summer's bid season.
Greyhound buses segment continued to face a difficult trading environment in certain of its markets as revenues grew just 0.2%.
"In Canada, our withdrawal of service in significant parts of the country from October 2018 has proceeded to plan, and we continue to take action to unlock value, such as the sale of a facility in Chicago for $38m at the end of January 2019," the company said.
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