National Express already runs yellow school buses and commuter bus routes in 36 US states and four Canadian provinces – but now, after that division helped it enjoy a 3% rise in annual profit, it wants to expand across North America.
The transport giant, which in the UK runs buses, coaches and the c2c rail franchise into Fenchurch Street, has more than doubled profitability on its US school buses in the last five years, and boss Dean Finch said: “There are excellent opportunities in the North American market given its highly fragmented nature.”
The company saw passenger revenues on its huge British coach business rise 4% last year, and the transport group’s pre-tax profit was up 3% to £66.5 million.
On the C2C franchise, once dubbed the Misery Line, the firm has agreed to automatically refund rail season ticket holders is their train is delayed by more than two minutes under new plans that come into force later this year.
