Chairman's Statement

National Express Group PLC
27 April 2000

                          National Express Group PLC
                                       
                      Annual General Meeting - Statement

Commenting  at  today's  AGM,  Michael Davies, Chairman,  made  the  following
statement:

'I  am  pleased  to announce that all of the Group's operating  divisions  are
trading  in line with expectations. The positive growth trends experienced  in
1999  have  continued  into the first few months of this  year  and  passenger
numbers are up on last year's levels.

Our  UK  bus division continues to report passenger growth. This is  a  direct
result  of  our  policy  of working in partnership with local  authorities  to
improve  the  quality of services across the West Midlands' bus  network.  Our
fourth  and largest Quality Partnership corridor, a key section of  which  was
launched  a year ago, is attracting double-digit growth in passenger  numbers.
Two  projects  have  been  completed under our  West  Midlands  Infrastructure
Investment Partnership. These schemes will reduce bus journey times  and  will
increase ridership by making our services more attractive to more people.

Our  UK  trains division has recorded a 10% increase in passenger  revenue  on
1999  levels for the first three months of 2000. We have introduced a  further
11  new  trains bringing the total number of new trains now in service to  58.
The remaining 64 will be operating by the end of this year, bringing the final
total of new trains to 122. We were pleased with the SSRA's announcement of 19
April  which  confirmed that we had qualified to bid for our existing  Central
Trains  passenger  rail  franchise and the new  Trans-Pennine  franchise.   We
believe that we can make a major contribution to the long-term development  of
the  railway  network  provided  we can be satisfied  that  such  a  long-term
commitment  to  passenger  rail  services can  deliver  good  returns  to  our
shareholders.

AirLinks,  our  airport  coaching operation, has won  new  contracts  for  the
movement  of  airline  crew  at Heathrow and Gatwick  airports  and  passenger
transfers  between  car  parks  and the terminal  buildings.  These  contracts
further  enhance AirLinks' position as a premier supplier of high quality  bus
and coach services to our airport and airline customers.

At  East  Midlands Airport in the UK, the new DHL facility is operational  and
strong growth in cargo tonnage for the first quarter was recorded. In the USA,
the  99 year lease of Stewart Airport in New York State commenced on 31  March
2000.  We  began  operating  the  airport on  1  April  and  look  forward  to
implementing the plans we have in place for its development.

Our  USA  bus  businesses  continue to perform well. The  integration  of  our
student  transportation and public transit bus divisions is  progressing  well
and we have achieved annualised savings of $2m to date.

In  Australia we have placed orders for 62 new trains and 59 new trams for our
Melbourne  operations worth £193m and we will be ordering  a  further  25  new
trains  worth £70m later this year. The new vehicles are to be delivered  from
2002.

There  are many opportunities for growth in the international public transport
market. The quality and strength of the Group's operations, together with  our
financial headroom will enable us to capitalise on these opportunities. We are
confident that 2000 will be another successful year for National Express.'

For further information, please contact:

Phil White, Chief Executive
William Rollason, Finance Director
Helen McCorry, Group Communications Manager
National Express Group PLC                        020 7529 2000

Nicola Marsden/ Steve Jacobs
Financial Dynamics                                020 7831 3113