Introduction

Go-Ahead is a business that supplies transport and support services for transport. These cover bus, rail and aviation. It provides around 800 million journeys each year. It employs 24,000 people. Go-Ahead's success can be seen from its higher turnover and profits.

Growth

Go-Ahead's growth is linked to two main factors. These are:

• deregulation - this let any business compete to run a bus service
• privatisation - this was when businesses owned by the Government were sold into private hands.

Go-Ahead started by running bus services in much of the North-East. In 1994, it became a public limited company. Its bus services have since spread to many places in the South. When British Rail (the public sector body that ran the railway service) was sold, Go-Ahead was there to buy a franchise (the right to run a service). It is now the largest commuter train operator in London. Customers should gain from privatisation. Greater competition should lead to a better service. The government sets standards for public transport. These help transport to be more efficient. When a franchise is won, companies agree to run it in a certain way. Poor performers can be fined. They will also find it hard to renew the franchise.

To compete, Go-Ahead needs to find out what customers want and then to provide it. It found that there were certain key factors for customers. They wanted the service to be safe, regular, convenient and at a price they could afford.

Types of growth

A business can grow in two ways. It can grow:

• organically - this means using its own profit to finance expansion in existing businesses
• by taking over or buying other businesses.

Go-Ahead has expanded in both ways. Profits have allowed it to expand its bus and rail business. It saw that the private car was its biggest competitor, so it bought Meteor Parking. In this way, it can provide parking so that car journeys can be linked with public transport. This is called integrating services.

Integrating transport

Integration means helping different types of transport to work together efficiently. It is a key issue for the future. The government has published a 10-year plan to encourage it to happen. Go-Ahead supports this plan because it will persuade people to use buses and other public transport instead of the private car. In this way, the government is trying to reduce congestion and pollution. Go-Ahead is the top public transport company in this field. It is the highest ranking transport company in the index used to measure good practice in this area. Its buses run on clean fuel and have other anti-pollution measures fitted.

Decentralisation

As well as buses, trains and car parking, Go-Ahead supplies a range of aviation services. These include cargo and baggage handling and check-in services. Each operation within the group has the freedom to develop in its own way. This is called decentralisation. Each can therefore respond better to its own customers' needs. This is vital because transport needs vary from place to place. Some key policies, such as environmental and social plans, affect all parts of the business. These are managed centrally.

Conclusion

Public transport is a key factor in any modern country. Go-Ahead is in a strong position in showing that public and private transport needs to be integrated. Its operations allow it to work towards this.