Birmingham-based transport group National Express said it had made a good start to the year with trading in line with management expectations.

The bus, coach and rail operator, which owns Travel West Midlands, said it had been encouraged by the performance of its whole UK division while it was also pleased with its revenue growth in Spain.

The company has also partly insulated itself from rising fuel prices by hedging 85 per cent of its fuel requirement for this year and 40 per cent for 2009.

Chief executive Richard Bowker said in an interim statement: "The integration process announced in July 2007 is substantially complete, with the £11 million of annualised cost savings achieved.

"We are now seeing the benefit of having a single management team responsible for all activities in the UK, particularly in the areas of revenue and yield management."

The group, which runs East Coast mainline services, said its trains business was performing to expectations and it had achieved an overall revenue growth of nine per cent despite a softening of demand on its Stansted Airport routes resulting from lower footfall through the airport.

On its National Express East Coast (NXEC) service, which began in December, the company said it had seen revenue growth of 11 per cent. It has also relaunched its National Express East Anglia (NXEA) franchise.

The firm’s bus business, which operates more than 2,000 buses, employing 7,250 people, saw six per cent revenue growth and Mr Bowker said that in the West Midlands, the company was seeing passenger growth in excess of ten per cent on the Quality Partnership routes launched to date.

The QP agreement with Centro saw the launch of a further 44 routes in Dudley last week.

In London, it said its regulated bus operations had achieved a seven per cent year-on-year increase in operated kilometres.

Mr Bowker added: "The National Express Coach network saw encouraging revenue growth of five per cent despite the lower footfall at Stansted Airport.

"We expect our continued focus on providing excellent value fares to drive sales in the important summer months. Our plans to grow new revenue streams are proceeding well, particularly in the special events business."

Thursday's update adds to the firm’s showing seen in 2007, when underlying annual profits came in slightly ahead of market expectations at £205.6 million, up 11 per cent from 2006.

It added: "Despite the current economic back drop, all operations have made a good start to the year and we have seen no adverse impact on trading in the first quarter."

In Spain it said it had achieved the five per cent revenue growth assumption set out in its business plan for acquiring Continental Auto, adding that the integration of the two businesses was going to schedule and it was on target to achieve planned synergies.

"Our position as the number one private operator of public transport services in Spain leaves us well positioned for the expected further liberalisation of the Spanish transport market," said the firm.

Its North American school bus business saw revenue growth of seven per cent, driven by a combination of the 2007 bid season and organic route growth. This was in line with expectations.

The firm said the 2008 bid season was not yet complete but it was pleased with the performance to date.

The above expectation results match recent updates from rivals Go-Ahead and Stagecoach.

National Express also said that senior independent director and remuneration committee chairman Barry Gibson would be stepping down from the board in the near future and it expected to announce his replacement shortly.