Tracking our Progress

The safety of our passengers, staff and others is our first priority. Safety is monitored in various ways, including through a range of key performance indicators (KPIs). Five of the more important safety KPIs are reported below:

Note: Businesses acquired or disposed of in the year are excluded from the safety KPIs. Due to development of our safety reporting systems to standardise and enhance the reporting of safety indicators, certain KPIs are not presented above as they would not be comparable to later years.

The Group seeks to increase long-term value to its shareholders. While the Group aims to take a long-term perspective on shareholder value, it also monitors the financial performance of each of its businesses in the shorter term. For the Group as a whole, the key measure of short-term financial performance is earnings per share before exceptional items and intangible asset expenses (“Adjusted EPS”). Adjusted EPS is calculated based on the profit attributable to equity shareholders (adjusted to exclude exceptional items and intangible asset expenses) divided by the weighted average number of ordinary shares ranking for dividend during the relevant period.

Adjusted EPS was as follows:

A key element underpinning the Group’s strategy is to deliver organic growth in revenue. The following measures of organic growth are monitored in respect of three of the Group’s divisions:

• UK Bus (regional operations) – growth in passenger journeys measured as the percentage increase in the number of passenger journeys relative to the equivalent period in the previous year.
• Rail – growth in passenger miles measured as the percentage increase in the number of miles travelled by passengers relative to the equivalent period in the previous year.
• North America – growth in constant currency revenue from continuing operations measured as the percentage increase in revenue relative to the equivalent period in the previous year.

The measures vary by division reflecting differences in the underlying businesses – for example, a significant proportion of the revenue in North America is not determined on a “per passenger” basis.

The organic growth KPIs were as follows:

Note: Organic growth KPIs are not reported for businesses acquired or disposed of in the year. All of these growth KPIs involve a degree of estimation in respect of passenger volumes and are normalised to exclude businesses that have not been held by the Group for the whole of both periods. During the year ended 30 April 2009, Virgin Rail Group experienced numerous Network Rail possessions, over-runs and days of poor performance and this is reflected in the decline in passenger miles shown above for that year. The declines in passenger volumes at UK Bus (regional operations) and UK Rail, and the decline in North America revenue, in the year ended 30 April 2010 shows the impact of the tough economic conditions during the year. At Virgin Rail Group the impact has been offset by the increase in services following a new timetable being introduced in December 2008.

We aim to provide a reliable service to support our organic growth strategy. Our measures of service delivery include:

• UK Bus (regional operations) – reliability measured as the percentage of planned miles to be operated that were operated.
• Rail – punctuality measured on the basis of the DfT’s Public Performance Measure (moving annual average) being the percentage of trains that arrive at their final destination within 5 minutes (or 10 minutes for inter-city services) of their scheduled arrival time having called at all scheduled stations.

The service delivery KPIs were as follows:

Note: Service delivery KPIs are not reported for businesses acquired or disposed of in the year. Due to the nature of the business, there is no single measure of service delivery for the North American division as a whole. Service delivery at our UK businesses for the year ended 30 April 2011 was adversely affected by the severe winter weather in November and December 2010.

The strength of our business is built on the quality of our employees. We monitor staff turnover, which is measured as the number of employees who left the Group (other than through business disposals) during the period as a proportion of the total average employees during the period. Staff turnover for the last three years in our continuing businesses was as follows:

Note: Staff retention KPIs are not reported for businesses acquired or disposed of in the year.