THE former operator of the East Coast Main Line rail franchise is on track for a steady period of growth.

In a full-year trading update, train and bus group National Express said trading across the group had remained positive across all sectors.

Revenue had maintained strong growth in UK coach, rail and bus divisions with upward trends also reported in North America and Spain.

It said it remained on course to deliver the board’s expectations for this year.

Dean Finch, group chief executive, said: “Trading continues to be encouraging. UK Coach in particular has seen strong revenue growth, driven by more passengers using our competitively-priced services.

We are focusing investment in those areas of the group where it makes the biggest impact to our customers and we are seeing increasing numbers of people choosing to travel with National Express, whether by coach, bus or rail.”

The UK Coach business continued its strong performance with volume up by eight per cent. National Express coach revenue is expected to increase by six per cent in the full year and benefit from a new Christmas Day service, putting it ahead of rival operators which shut down, the firm said.

In rail, the company has been selected by Transport Scotland for the shortlist to bid for the ScotRail franchise.

The group will now be submitting three rail tenders in the UK in the next four months; Essex Thameside, Crossrail and ScotRail, as well as starting work on the Berlin Ringbahn bid.

National Express continues to bid for further rail contracts in Germany and contracts in North America.

The Government was forced to step in and take over the East Coast rail line, which links the North-East with London and Scotland, in 2009, after National Express admitted it could no longer afford to run it.

The line is now run under state-owned Directly Operated Railways, but is due to return to private ownership in early 2015.

National Express will announce its results for the full year to December 31 on February 27.