Latest News

Go-Ahead Group bus company Go North East has scored well above the national average in Passenger Focus'  Bus Passenger Survey published this week.

The company scored an impressive 92% for its routes in the Nexus Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive area - seven percentage points higher than the national average of 85%.  Brighton and Hove Buses scored  89% and Wilts and Dorset 85%.

The survey sampled 21000 passengers across 23 areas within England, outside of London.

David Brown, Go-Ahead's Group Chief Executive said: "It's great to see Go-Ahead's bus companies performing well in this important survey. The survey gives us valuable insights into passengers' views about the service we provide, but we aren't complacent and will use the findings to look closely at how we can improve in some areas such as the time it takes to board and value for money.

"Over the next few weeks we will be working with Passenger Focus on our annual Group-wide survey across all our bus companies outside London. Finding out what our passengers think on an annual basis gives us a good understanding of how we perform in every element of the  passenger  journey  and informs  decisions around  where we need to make changes and improvements."

Anthony Smith, Passenger Focus Chief Executive, said: “Passengers are telling us that while some of their bus journeys are good there is not always consistency within a particular area. This report helps transport authorities and bus companies in these difficult economic times to target valuable resources."

Passenger Focus’s findings provide a network-wide picture of customers’ satisfaction with bus travel and it is the largest survey of its kind. Passengers rate bus companies on both the journey experience on the bus and at the stop itself.  Details of the survey can be found at  www.passengerfocus.org.uk

For further information, please contact:

GO-AHEAD

Go-Ahead is a leading UK public transport operator, providing high quality services in the bus and rail sectors. Employing around 22,000 people across the country, over one billion passenger journeys are undertaken on our services each year. We are committed to operating our companies in a safe, socially and environmentally responsible way and are proud to have been awarded the Carbon Trust Standard after taking action on climate change. In addition to the travelling public, our customers include the Department for Transport, Transport for London (TfL) and local authorities.

BUS

Go-Ahead is one of the UK’s largest bus operators. With a fleet of around 3,900 buses, we carry, on average, around 1.7 million passengers every day. Our operations are focused on high density commuter markets. We have a strong presence in London, with around 21% market share, where we provide regulated services for TfL. We operate deregulated services in Oxford, East Anglia, the South East, Southern and North East England. We also have a yellow school bus joint venture in North America.

RAIL

Our rail division operates the Southern (including Gatwick Express), Southeastern and London Midland franchises through our 65% owned subsidiary Govia. It is the busiest rail operation in the UK, responsible for nearly 30% of all UK passenger rail journeys. In December 2009, Southeastern began operating the UK's first high speed domestic rail service between Kent and London, significantly reducing journey times.