FirstGroup plc is the world’s leading transport company with annualised revenues of over £6 billion a year. We employ approximately 136,000 staff throughout the UK and North America and transport more than 2.5 billion passengers a year.

UK Bus

§         The Group is Britain’s largest bus operator running more than one in five of all local bus services. A fleet of nearly 9,000 buses carries approximately 3 million passengers a day in more than 40 major towns and cities.

UK Rail

§         The Group operates one quarter of the UK passenger rail network, with a balanced portfolio of intercity, commuter and regional services, carrying almost 275m passengers per annum.

§         The Group is the UK’s largest rail operator with four passenger franchises - First Capital Connect, First Great Western, First ScotRail and First TransPennine Express - and one open access operator, Hull Trains. 

§         The Group operates rail freight services through First GBRf and operates the Croydon Tramlink network on behalf of Transport for London carrying over 26 million passengers a year.

North America

§         On 1 October 2007 the Group completed the acquisition of Laidlaw International, Inc. the leading operator of school and intercity bus transportation, a supplier of public transit services and Greyhound, the only national provider of intercity coach operations in North America.

§         In North America the Group has four operating divisions: Yellow School Buses (First Student), Transit Contracting and Management Services (First Transit), Vehicle Fleet Maintenance and Support Services (First Services) and intercity bus services (Greyhound). Headquartered in Cincinnati, FirstGroup America Inc. operates across the US and Canada.

o                    First Student is the largest provider of student transportation in North America with a fleet of approximately 60,000 yellow school buses, carrying nearly 4 million students every day across the US and Canada.

o                    First Transit is one of the largest private sector providers of transit management and contracting, managing public transport systems on behalf of city transit authorities.  It is one of the largest providers of airport shuttle bus services in the US and also manages call centres, paratransit operations and other light transit activities.

o                    First Services is the largest private sector provider of vehicle maintenance and ancillary support services in the US. Providing fleet maintenance for public sector customers such as the Federal Government and fire and police departments it also provides support services such as vehicle maintenance, logistics support and facilities management to public and private sector clients including the US Navy and Air Force.

o                    Greyhound is the only national provider of scheduled intercity coach services in the US and Canada.  Based in Dallas, Greyhound provides scheduled passenger services to approximately 3,800 destinations throughout the US and Canada carrying approximately 22 million passengers annually.

In mainland Europe we operate some 150 buses in south west Germany and, from January 2009, we will operate, with our partner DSB, the Øresund rail franchise which includes routes in and between Denmark and Sweden.