ABERDEEN, Scotland FirstGroup, the corporate parent of Greyhound Lines, reported last month that revenue at Greyhound climbed 3.4 percent during the three months ended June 30.

FirstGroup largely attributed the year-over-year increase to a more stable U.S. economy.

The gain at Greyhound, said FirstGroup, was a continuation of "the improving trends" occurring at North Americas largest line-run operator during the past year, excluding the impact of the severe winter weather during the three months ended March 30.

Additionally, "there was strong demand for our long-distance operations and Greyhound Express, which benefits from the passenger feed from our unique national network," said FirstGroup.

Greyhound Express posted revenue growth of 6.9 percent during the three months ended June 30, compared to the same period a year ago.

FirstGroup said the expansion of Greyhound Express continues to be profitable with the new services in the Southwest.

In FirstGroups fiscal first quarter trading update, the company said the ambitious program to bring airline-style yield management to the traditional Greyhound route system continues on schedule, including the necessary information technology development, staff recruiting and training.

Greyhound also is continuing to expand its sales channels, driving increased online transactions through dedicated mobile applications and the recent launch of a mobile version of its website.

FirstGroup has a medium-term goal of achieving a 12 percent profit margin at Greyhound. The fiscal 2013/14 profit margin at Greyhound was 8.3 percent.

Regarding FirstGroups other North American operations:

First Student continued to make progress with its contract portfolio pricing program

First Transit continued its strong financial performance with modest capital requirement

FirstGroup reiterated that delivering a turnaround at First Student "is a key priority. We have accelerated our program to address contract portfolio pricing, insuring an appropriate level of return on contracts won or retained.

"Our results to date in this year's bidding season, which we are currently two thirds of the way through, are at the upper end of our planning range. We have achieved average price increases of 4 percent, with many instances of significantly greater rises."