David Stretch, Serco's Partnership Director for Transport said:

"We plan to build on this success by focusing on rebids of existing contracts and seeking new opportunities. We continue to focus on maintaining our portfolio in rail, and in parallel we are seeking opportunities in the ferries market based on our experience of successfully running the Northern Isles ferries contract since July 2012.  We have signed a cooperation agreement with Strömma Tourism & Maritime enabling us to jointly bid to manage and operate the ferry services in Stockholm's archipelago and harbour from 2014. By seeking the right partners, we can jointly tender for opportunities that allow us to provide an affordable, innovative, world class service to our customers."

Serco delivers innovative transport solutions to road and public transport authorities, government departments and commercial enterprises around the world.

Our operations in the Transport market have contributed to Serco UK & Europe's overall success for 2012. This includes our London based contracts, comprising the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme and traffic management operations, which have all achieved excellent operational performance during the year. 

Serco continues to support growth in regular journeys as well as annual events such as the London marathon, and successfully executed the significant additional workload involved in the Diamond Jubilee and the 2012 Olympic Games.  The DLR in particular was a key part of the London 2012 Games transport network, with the Stratford International Extension opened last summer adding four new stations and connecting five Games venues.  According to Transport for London and the Olympic Delivery Authority, during the period of the Olympic Games, the DLR carried 7.2 million passengers, up by over 100 per cent on normal levels.  On the busiest day, the DLR carried a record-breaking 500,000 people.  Also impressive was the fact that in July 2012, Barclay's Cycle Hire rentals exceeded a million for the first time in any month.  Serco was named 'Light Rail Operator of the Year' in 2012 and our DLR contract was recently extended to September 2014.

Serco's other UK rail franchises in Northern Rail and Merseyrail are also supporting growth in passenger numbers and continued strong operational metrics.  At Northern Rail, our performance has led to a further extension of the contract through to 1 April 2014.

In July 2012, Serco began operating a new contract for lifeline freight and passenger ferry services to the Northern Isles in Scotland, building on our experience of managing and transforming other critical local transport services such as Northern Rail and Scatsta Airport on the Shetland Islands.  Serco also has extensive operations in the international marine market including services for the Royal Navy through which it operates more ships under the UK flag than any other company.  This six-year contract has a total value of approximately £350m.