Stagecoach on track for rail positives

STAGECOACH has announced that it expects its UK rail division and Virgin rail group to remain profitable in the coming year.

The company had stressed that owing to the "challenges and uncertainties" facing its operations, its rail businesses were not immune.

But today it announced that "significant action" has been taken to reduce costs and further opportunities to "achieve further efficiencies" would be sought, allowing rail operations to remain profitable until April 2010.

The group expects to report a profit for the year ending April 30, 2009, in line with management's expectations, including around £12 million of restructuring costs which have saved around £50m of annual operating costs.