Joint Ventures

Virgin Rail Group

Stagecoach Group has a 49% shareholding in Virgin Rail Group (“VRG”), which operates the West Coast and CrossCountry rail franchises. The other shareholder in VRG is the Virgin Group of Companies.

The joint venture has been shortlisted for the new expanded CrossCountry franchise, which is being retendered by the Government and will run from November 2007.

The West Coast franchise runs until 2012 and negotiations are underway to put the franchise, currently run on the basis of budgets set annually by the DfT, back on a commercial basis.

Scottish Citylink Coaches Limited

In Scotland , Stagecoach has a joint venture (Scottish Citylink Coaches Limited) with transport group ComfortDelGro to operate megabus.com and Scottish Citylink coach services.

Stagecoach owns 35% of the share capital of Scottish Citylink Coaches Limited and ComfortDelGro owns the remaining 65%.  The joint venture is the leading provider of express coach services in Scotland .