Birmingham-based rail and bus group National Express is on track for a steady period of growth.

In a full-year trading update, the Edgbaston company said trading across the group had remained positive across all sectors of the business.

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 track to deliver the board’s expectations for this year.

The UK bus operations, which includes Travel West Midlands, reported that like-for-like commercial revenue had improved throughout the year and is expected to be three per cent higher overall in 2013.

The update said: “We continue to invest in new fleet, improved on-bus quality, technology to enhance operational efficiency, customer mobile information and the progressive roll out of commercial smartcards. Our industry-leading agreement with Centro in the West Midlands is also driving service and punctuality improvements.”

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. 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.

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