National Express (LON:NEX) shares rose over 2 percent on Wednesday morning, after the travel operator recorded a 6.2 percent revenue boost in the first quarter.

The UK-based bus and train service operator was boosted by an impressive performance at its North American bus business, with revenue from the operations growing 9 percent on a constant currency basis.

For the whole company, revenue grew by 1.7 percent. It was boosted by some recent acquisitions and ‘robust’ underlying trading, despite the impact of severe snow over the period, and a ‘sizeable proportion’ of the lost schools days were expected to be made up within the first half of the year.

The UK bus and coach businesses grew sales by 0.7 percent and 2.3 percent.

“Our diversified international portfolio continues to deliver broad-based growth and open additional opportunities for further expansion”, said chief executive Dean Finch said.

“We continue to focus on operational excellence to drive growing shareholder value by both delivering high quality services for our customers and generating cash to invest in future expansion.

“These opportunities will continue to be sought in a disciplined manner and we will only pursue them if they meet our strict financial criteria. We remain on track to meet our full year profit and cash flow expectations”.

Shares in National Express (LON:NEX) are currently up 2.51 percent at 416.40 (0942GMT).