British Transport firm FirstGroup has seen passenger levels on its buses and trains improve since the start of the year, thanks to an easing of Covid restrictions.
Passenger volumes on First buses across the country were ‘more than 70 per cent’ of its pre-pandemic levels in the past couple of months, rising to around 75 per cent in England, the company said.
Meanwhile, performance at its railway operations was in line with its expectations, with Great Western Railway and Avanti West Coast trains ‘slightly above target’ for the current half-year.
Quieter: Passenger volumes on FirstGroup buses are still to return to pre-pandemic levels
‘Although the restrictions implemented by Government as a response to the omicron variant temporarily reduced demand levels, we are encouraged by the improving passenger volume trends subsequently,’ the group said in a trading update today.
In fact though, bus passenger levels appear to be the same as in December, when the company unveiled its half-year results.
The group said it has also started to see a decline in the number of bus staff off sick due to Covid, which has allowed it to run more services.
‘The reductions in mileage that we were experiencing in certain areas have begun to ease as the number of employees self-isolating has reduced in recent weeks,’ it said.
But all of its four train operations, which also include TransPennine Express and South Western, have moved to reduced timetables ‘for a period’ following agreement with the Department for Transport ‘in order to better manage staff shortages’ caused by Covid.
Meanwhile, its open access Hull Trains and Lumo are ‘marginally ahead’ of expectations thanks to ‘more resilient’ demand for leisure travel.
FirstGroup shares rose 1.1 per cent to 100p in afternoon trading on Friday.
The company is now focused solely on running its UK bus and rail lines after the sale of its Greyhound bus operation in the US.
It said it has now concluded a reinsurance deal to de-risk around $147million of Greyhound’s legacy self-insurance reserves, and also sold three Greyhound properties for around $32million.
FirstGroup chairman David Martin said: ‘We now have a focused and simplified Group and continue to enhance our financial strength and resilience by proactively managing the legacy assets and liabilities associated with last year’s portfolio rationalisation.
‘We are pleased that passengers are returning to travel again following the easing of the omicron-related restrictions put in place in December.’
He added: ‘Public transport has a key role to play in the UK’s economic, decarbonisation and levelling up agendas and I remain confident that FirstGroup is very well placed to capture our many opportunities to create long term, sustainable value.’
