Transport magnate Brian Souter yesterday predicted �a complete change in people�s attitudes to public transport� on the back of research showing 10% of the population is making greener transport choices.

Transport magnate Brian Souter yesterday predicted "a complete change in people's attitudes to public transport" on the back of research showing 10% of the population is making greener transport choices.

Souter said a high-powered research project for his Stagecoach empire had revealed a marked acceleration in "modal shift" - people switching from car to bus or rail. This underlined Stagecoach's own dramatic results in areas where services had been improved and modernised.

Concerns about a healthier lifestyle and the environment, even before the spike in petrol prices and a looming recession, were driving the changes, and prompting more "in- telligent car use", Souter said.

He added: "At the moment, the modal shift we are getting on the railways from these issues is compensating for the economic shrinkage which of course everyone is experiencing at the moment. The question is will it keep going as strong. Our market research suggests it is going to continue to be a really significant factor."

On the economic climate, Souter commented: "The bottom line is it's very good for Stagecoach."

Earlier this week in a bullish trading update, rival FirstGroup reported strong growth in bus and passenger revenues buoyed by modal shift.

Souter said: "We have had some exceptional results in a number of places. What I have to do is turn them into policies that make money for shareholders, and roll them out. That is the challenge."

He said the research project, piloted in Oxford and Cambridge and now being extended to Manchester and Newcastle, suggested one person in 10 had already made a modal shift in the past three years.

"Healthier lifestyle was a significant issue - you can't find a railing to chain a bike to outside a railway station in the south of England now."

On the roads the issue was to "destigmatise" bus travel, as had been demonstrated by the former Bluebird company in northern Scotland, where the "coach travel" image had always delivered high passenger usage, Souter said. When Stagecoach's park-and-ride service from Ferrytoll in Fife to Edinburgh had been relaunched last year, but with higher frequencies, leather seats and wi-fi, it had sparked passenger growth of 46%.

The upgrading of the Mega-bus vehicles used on the Ayr- to-Glasgow route had prompted a rise of 25%. "These are the sort of results you get from technology companies," Souter said. "If you change the product and get the environment right, you will get people modal shifting."

Souter said he was still hopeful of mustering support for the proposed hovercraft service on the Firth of Forth. "We are still working away behind the scenes."

On the economic outlook, Souter commented: "There are two worlds out there, the financial services world and the normal world which is still chugging away. At some point it will begin to hit the man in the street very heavily, it is not a question of if, but when."

However, he added: "Bus companies are a great place to be in a recession, we remember that from the last time."