In addition to providing reliable services, we seek to ensure the safety of our passengers, staff and others. Health and safety matters are discussed on pages 17 and 18 of this Annual Report. Safety is monitored in various ways, including through a range of KPIs. Disposed businesses are excluded from the safety KPIs.

Five of the more important safety KPIs are reported below:

	Target	Year ended	Year ended	Year ended
		30 April 2009	30 April 2008	30 April 2007
UK Bus – number of blameworthy accidents per 1 million miles travelled	To decrease each year – ultimate target is zero	see below	see below	see below
US – number of blameworthy accidents per 1 million miles travelled		see below	see below	see below
South West Trains – workforce lost time injuries per 1,000 staff		1.7	1.9	2.1
East Midlands Trains – workforce lost time injuries per 1,000 staff		2.6	2.1	N/A
Virgin Rail Group – West Coast Trains – workforce lost time injuries per 1,000 staff		1.6	1.5	2.2

Following recent acquisitions in UK Bus and the US and ongoing development of our safety reporting systems, work is underway to standardise and further enhance the reporting of safety indicators. The updated consolidated data for UK Bus and the US is not yet available.

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:

		Year ended 30 April
	Target	2009 pence	2008 pence	2007 pence
Adjusted EPS	To increase in excess of inflation	22.9p	20.3p	11.7p

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 the Group’s three divisions:

• UK Bus – 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 (excluding closed units) 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, not all of the revenue in North America is determined on a “per passenger” basis.

Throughout this Annual Report, references to passenger volume growth for UK Bus or Rail businesses mean growth determined on the basis set out here.

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.

The organic growth KPIs were as follows:

	Target	Year ended 30 April 2009 Growth %	Year ended 30 April 2008 Growth %	Year ended 30 April 2007 Growth %
UK Bus passenger journeys	Positive growth each year	3.2%	3.6%	6.6%
UK Rail passenger miles
– South West Trains		2.2%	5.7%	8.9%
– East Midlands Trains		1.6%	2.9%	N/A
– Virgin Rail Group – West Coast Trains		(1.5)%	8.3%	11.1%
North America revenue		7.2%	4.6%	9.1%

The growth in passenger miles shown above for East Midlands Trains in the year ended 30 April 2008 represents the growth for the period from 11 November 2007 (when the Group began operating East Midlands Trains) to 30 April 2008 when compared to the equivalent businesses under their previous ownership for the corresponding prior year period. During the year, 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. Virgin Rail Group is pressing for major improvements in Network Rail’s performance contract to ensure there is a more effective way of maintaining service.

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

• UK Bus – reliability measured as the percentage of planned miles to be operated that were operated, adjusted to exclude the discontinued London operations.
  
  
• 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.

Due to the nature of the North American business, there is no single measure of service delivery for the North American division as a whole.

The service delivery KPIs were as follows:

		Year ended 30 April
	Target	2009 %	2008 %	2007 %
UK Bus lost mileage	>99.0%	99.5%	99.4%	99.4%
UK Rail punctuality
– South West Trains	>90.0%	93.3%	92.2%	90.1%
– East Midlands Trains	>85.0%	89.3%	87.2%	N/A
– Virgin Rail Group – West Coast Trains	>85.0%	79.7%	85.9%	85.8%

We are disappointed but not surprised by the deterioration in West Coast Trains’ punctuality, which is caused by the significant disruption to its train services from Network Rail engineering work and ongoing issues with Network Rail operational performance. Virgin Rail Group is pressing for major improvements in Network Rail’s performance contract to ensure there is a more effective way of maintaining service.

As noted on page 16, 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:

		Year ended 30 April
	Target	2009 %	2008 %	2007 %
UK Bus staff turnover	To decrease each year	18.3%	24.0%	23.3%
UK Rail staff turnover
– South West Trains		11.3%	10.7%	9.6%
– East Midlands Trains		8.3%	5.8%	N/A
– Virgin Rail Group – West Coast Trains		5.3%	5.5%	5.7%
North America staff turnover		20.2%	21.7%	21.2%

The increases in staff turnover at South West Trains and East Midlands Trains are driven by redundances in relation to cost reduction plans.