First Group - year-to-date report.

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From Interactive Investor

This FTSE 250 UK^▸ (United Kingdom) bus and rail operator has rallied year-to-date. We assess prospects. Chief executive Graham Sutherland said:

“I am pleased by the Group’s progress in the second half of our 2023 financial year. We remain committed to working closely with our partners to deliver successful bus and rail networks that serve the needs of our customers and communities and to playing a central role in achieving many of society’s economic, social, and environmental aims.”

Bus and rail service operator FirstGroup  today raised its current full-year profit expectation as more passengers returned to use its services.

Bus passenger volumes had risen to 83% of their pre-pandemic 2020 levels, aided by English and Scottish government fare subsidy schemes introduced at the start of the year. Rail passenger demand had also risen for the two lines where it takes full revenue risk.

Is First Group really working first and foremost to ensure that customers (does he mean passengers, or organisations like the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about)) and societies aims are being addressed, is that a subsidiary objective to the profit motive, or is it more complex?    Question asked here as a poll so that members can register their views anonymously, but postings also welcome.

[ChrisB]

.... is that a subsidiary objective to the profit motive, or is it more complex? 

Of course it is - they wouldn't be long in business if they made losses

[eightonedee]

One of the results of becoming a member of this forum was the discovery quite how much micro management of rail services DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) engages in. While it could be argued that the vast amount of public money invested in the system justifies a degree of oversight, it is also clear that TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) (or whatever they are called now) have very limited freedom of action when running their trains. The recent enforced cuts in GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s rolling stock fleet are a good example of this.

It makes it very difficult to give a clear answer to a poll such as this. Now I don't commute during the week I am not subject to one of the biggest customer-facing failures that used to annoy me, namely a failure to communicate effectively with passengers when things go wrong, and don't really have a feeling for how good the day-to-day customer facing service (the "bit they do") might be.  I have though been impressed by Mark Hopwood's willingness to put his head above the parapet and speak to us.

[Mark A]

Tweet "This is hard to square with route cuts…"  with a link to an article in the Scotsman (which may or may not paywall itself)

https://twitter.com/BeateKubitz/status/1635205086379909123

Mark

[Mark A]

From the article: "In rail, the company added in its latest trading update that its Lumo and Hull Trains operations experienced better-than-expected passenger demand" throughout the past six months."

Mark