LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Public transportation business Stagecoach Group plc (SGC) on Wednesday cited the official announcements on the continuation of recovery grant and said it was on course to meet the trading expectations for the year ending 30 April 2022.
Both the regional bus and London bus businesses were broadly performing in line with expectations, the company said.
The Department for Transport on Tuesday announced that recovery funding would be available for bus and light rail services in England for a period of six months from 6 April to October 2022. The Scottish Government had also recently announced a 94-million-pound bus grant scheme for the period from 1 April 2022, including 40 million pounds to support the recovery of demand for bus services in Scotland.
The additional recovery grant is expected to help offset the financial impact of the Omicron variant and allowing the business to provide critical transport services.
Prior to the recent period of poor weather, overall journeys for the regional business during the first half of February ranged between 70 percent and 78 percent of pre-COVID-19 levels on a rolling seven-day average.
Looking beyond April 2022, the company expects further recovery in demand, as it believes its services are central to delivering government ambitions around decarbonization, levelling up of communities, driving economic recovery, securing better health outcomes for citizens as well as helping secure the country's net zero ambitions.
Shares of Stagecoach closed Tuesday's trading at 84 pounds, down 2 pounds or 2.33 percent from the previous close.
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