He added: "Although it is early days in our multi-year plan to improve our returns, resilience and growth prospects, we are seeing clear indications that we are making progress. While there remains a significant amount to be done, we believe the foundations are now in place to deliver on our market-leading potential. For the six months to the end of September, the owner of the ScotRail franchise reported an underlying operating profit of £109.9m, up from £99.8m a year earlier, on revenues 1.6 per cent higher at £3.3 billion. Once one-off items such as losses on property disposals were taken into account, the firm recorded a pre-tax loss of £8m for the first half, which compares with a £20.6m deficit a year ago. Martin Brown, an analyst at Shore Capital said the figures were in line with expectations and the broker has a "hold" recommendation on FirstGroup's shares, which rose about 1.7 per cent to 118.1p in early trading. He added: "While we think progress is being made, it remains too early for us to make a leap of faith on FirstGroup."