Press Release

Stagecoach sends support team to assist hurricane Katrina relief effort

3 September 2005

Coach USA subsidiary helps evacuation from New Orleans

Stagecoach, the international transport group, is sending a convoy of coaches from its United States operations to assist the Hurricane Katrina relief effort in New Orleans.

A group of 24 drivers and 12 coaches from the company's Coach USA division are being dispatched to the crisis-hit Gulf Coast.

The support team - from Coach USA's operations in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia - is expected to help evacuate some of the thousands of people made homeless by the disaster.

Coach USA employees have also donated bottled water, food items and toiletries, which are being loaded onto the vehicles. The aid will be delivered to the American Red Cross to be distributed to those in need.

Brian Souter, Stagecoach Group Chief Executive, said: "Hurricane Katrina has caused devastation and human suffering on a massive scale and one of the immediate priorities is ensuring people are transported to safety away from the worst-affected areas. We have had a tremendous response from our employees at Coach USA, and our support team will be working closely with the Federal Government and offering them every assistance they can."

The US Federal Government has asked for assistance from coach and school bus opertors as thousands of square miles of Louisiana and Mississippi remain under water.

The Coach USA team will assist the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the New Orleans area over the next two weeks. Evacuees from New Orleans are expected to be taken to Houston, San Antonio and other relief areas in Texas.