Britain’s largest and busiest commuter train service, Stagecoach Group Plc, has announced that its first half profit has fallen by 13 percent due to the reduced demand for travel brought about by the recession in addition to rising fuel and pension costs.

Net income for the group fell by £60.6 million to a total of £98 million at 8.4p per share. This represents a decline from the £69.4 million, or 9.6p per share, from the same period last year according to a statement released by the Scottish based company in a statement released today.

On a positive note, group sales were up by 3 percent to reach £1.08 billion.

The operator, whose South West Trains lines connections include London’s Waterloo station and Wimbledon has already made a range of layoffs this year to cope with falling demand. Stagecoach also attempted a takeover of the National Express Group Plc earlier this year which failed due to the target company claiming it would rather raise revenue through the selling of its shares. Martin Griffiths, group CFO, said that the outlook for 2010 remains challenging.

Stagecoach owns a 49 percent share in the Virgin Rail Group in addition to the running of the East Midlands rail franchise, operating inter-city services between Scotland, Manchester, Birmingham and London. The company has claimed that it still holds interest in ‘targeted acquisition opportunities’ despite the failure of the National Express bid. It is believed that it will look at East Anglia services after National Express lost the contract as of 2011.