National Express executives go without pay as fewer travel on buses
Executives across the National Express Group, which runs bus services in the West Midlands, will go without pay for the duration of the coronavirus crisis.
The Birmingham-based group is also in advanced discussions with its banking group to secure additional short-term facilities as further security should market conditions worsen.
Commercial bus revenue – which accounts for 70 per cent of the Birmingham-based group's income – has so far seen a decline of around 20 per cent since the start of the outbreak in the UK.
Concession income represents 19 per cent its revenue and so far it has seen around a 40 per cent decline in pensioner passenger numbers.
For now at least it is continuing to be paid by the concession reimbursement as normal from the West Midlands authority.
UK coach is experiencing a significant decline in passenger numbers which will be mitigated through significant network reductions, with it reverting to a network similar to its Christmas Day service. This has the effect of removing up to 80 per cent of capacity.
UK bus is also reducing its networks similar to a typical Sunday service, which amounts to the removal of around 40 per cent of bus mileage.
Discussions are on-going with national government and local authorities to maintain existing payments and to enhance support for employee costs.
Dean Finch, group chief executive, said: "These are unprecedented times and have had an immediate and direct impact on our business. Nevertheless we are taking action everywhere to reduce our cost base, whilst both our contractual customers and governments are being very supportive.
"At this stage we cannot give precise guidance to what this means for our profitability this year, but our cash flow over the next three months is still anticipated to be positive even in light of the material downturn in passenger volumes. Our balance sheet is strong and we have borrowing headroom of around £500 million, while we are holding discussions to increase this further.
"National Express has a diverse portfolio of high quality transport assets that provide an essential service to millions of passengers daily. We will work through these challenges to continue to provide those services for the benefit of customers and shareholders alike and I would like to thank all our management and staff for their enormous efforts."
The group was trading strongly in the first two months of the year, with revenue up 17 per cent compared to 2019 with the UK up five per cent.
Across the Group it has taken swift action to stop all non-critical cash flow. All acquisition and capital expenditure programmes are on hold. All meetings and events and non-essential travel have been cancelled and all external spend is subject to increased scrutiny and reduced approval limits.
National Express is also discussing with relevant authorities how idle vehicles and drivers can be used to support local health and welfare services.
It is advising coach passengers to check online before they travel as it introduces an extensive reduction to its timetable with effect from Tuesday.
It will be temporarily running limited services across its scheduled national network.
Chris Hardy, managing director of National Express UK Coach, explained: “We are implementing significant short notice changes and cancellations following the latest Government advice. We will do our best to let customers know about the changes but strongly advise that if they still intend to travel, to check the National Express website before they start their journey.
“For any passengers that turn up to find their service no longer running, we will accept their ticket on any available alternative service or accommodate their travel by other means. “For passengers who no longer wish to travel as planned, we will honour a change to their booking, free of charge, regardless of the ticket terms and conditions. This can be done anytime within 12 months so customers do not need to contact us until they wish to re-book.
“If a passenger does not want to re-book and their coach journey has been cancelled directly by National Express, a full refund will be issued in line with our terms and conditions.
“We know this is a worrying time for everyone. We take the welfare of our customers and employees extremely seriously and are doing everything we sensibly can to keep them safe. We are monitoring the situation very closely and will revert to normal service as soon as we can.
“We will continue to support staff providing our services and would like to thank customers for their understanding at this time.”
