FirstGroup
Martin Gilbert, Chairman
First Group PLC, also known under the short form First, is a British transport company, which operates in the UK, Ireland, North America and Germany and railways, trams and buses operates. The company is based in Aberdeen Scotland. It is listed in the FTSE 100, ISIN GB0003452173.
First has an annual turnover of over £ 6 billion and employs more than 124,000 people in the UK and the USA. It carries more than 2.5 billion passengers per year.
- 2.2.1 United Kingdom
- 2.2.2 Ireland
- 2.2.3 North America
- 2.2.4 Germany
History
The company was established in June 1995 under the name Firstbus and was created by the merger, based in Bristol Badgerline Group operating out of Aberdeen from GRT Group. Headquarters of the new company, Aberdeen. The predecessor companies had arisen as a result of the performed 1986 deregulation of the British bus market and united in each case the activities of various bus companies in the UK, which are usually negotiated to privatized, formerly publicly owned enterprises.
When the company in 1998 after the privatization of British Rail in the railway passenger transport was active, the renaming followed in FirstGroup. First won the franchise of the Great Eastern routes and bought the company, based in Swindon Great Western Trains, which held the Great Western and North - Western franchises. At the same time it took a majority stake in Bristol Airport, which was however rejected again in 2001. Since 2000, First results in the operation of the tram in Croydon Greater London by the name Tramlink merchant, the railway company Hull Trains and GB Railfreight for First came through an acquisition in 2003. With GB Railfreight First was first active in the freight.
In the bus sector, the company expanded in 1998 to Hong Kong, where you held a minority stake in the newly formed company New World First Bus. First sold these shares in late 2000, expanded at the same time, however, through the purchase of additional bus companies in the UK and in North America where it has been particularly active in the operation of yellow school buses. 2003 saw the acquisition of the Dublin-based company aircoach, with the First worked in Ireland for the first time.
On the track they won in 2004 the ScotRail franchise, which includes the majority of the rail transport in Scotland. At the same time they took together with the French transport group Keolis on the operation of franchises newly formed TransPennine Express, which was created from parts of several existing franchises and serving on regional direct connections in northern England. However, they lost in the same year franchises Northwestern and Great Eastern in their new tender to competitors. Since 2005, First, in collaboration with BAA to a designated as Heathrow Connect connection between London Heathrow Airport and Paddington Station in central London. In further tenders were obtained in 2006 a new, as First Capital Connect franchise -operated and could defend the expanded in scope Great Western service.
In February 2007, First announced its intention to acquire the US-based company Laidlaw, which operates nationwide long distance buses and school buses there. The acquisition, which was approved in October the same year, including contributing to Greyhound Lines, the largest bus company in the USA. Also in 2007, climbed a ridge in the German market, where it was in May of this year taken over by the bus company Merl from Speyer, together with its investments and renamed FirstGroup Rhein- Neckar.
Divisions
Rail transport in Great Britain
First operates in the UK six railway companies, five of which are active in passenger and a freight train operates. In addition, a tram operation belongs to the group of companies.
Passenger
- First Capital Connect ( north-south commuter traffic through London )
- First Great Western ( London-Bristol-Wales/Cornwall and branch lines )
- First TransPennine Express ( via regional east-west traffic in the North of England )
- First ScotRail (entire Scottish railway network )
- First Hull Trains (London- Hull)
The first four companies operate by the British government awarded franchises, while First Hull Trains is one of them independent, so-called open access business.
Freight traffic
- GB Railfreight
Trams
- Tramlink ( tram Croydon )
Bus
Great Britain
First is the largest bus operators in the UK, serving more than one fifth of all bus services in the country. First is active in more than 40 cities, and carries it daily with a fleet of nearly 9,000 buses 2.9 million passengers. Specifically, the following operations to the group, most of which are named after their service area include:
- First Aberdeen
- First Berkshire
- First Bristol
- First Cheshire & The Wirral
- First Cymru (Wales )
- First Devon & Cornwall
- First Eastern Counties (East Anglia)
- First Edinburgh
- First Essex
- First Glasgow
- First Hampshire & Dorset
- First Leicester
- First London
- First Manchester
- First Northampton
- First Somerset & Avon
- First South Yorkshire
- First West Yorkshire
- First Wyvern ( Herefordshire and Worcestershire )
- First York
Ireland
- Aircoach ( Shuttle and parking traffic to Dublin Airport )
North America
In North America First is active under the name of FirstGroup America. The subsidiary, which operates in the U.S. and Canada, is headquartered in Cincinnati and is composed of the following business areas:
- First Transit (public bus service in over 50 cities, including Denver, Houston and Los Angeles )
- First Student ( school buses in the U.S.) Firstbus Canada ( school buses in Canada)
Germany
FirstGroup Rhein- Neckar, including subsidiaries and participations were sold in September 2011 to the Marwyn European Transport.
Market presence
The corporate identity of the First Group is strong and most of the names of the operating branches start with the word First. The company logo and corporate colors white, magenta and dark blue are used especially in Britain almost consistently.
The subsidiaries operating in the bus service in the UK are indeed divided legally and organizationally into individual companies present themselves to the customer, however, uniform throughout the country as first without any further additions. The bus companies belonging to the Group all have lost their former names with local relevance. Since 1997 a uniform coating is used, which is now worn by almost all buses. Exceptions are only used in London buses that are painted red because of the requirements of the task carrier Transport for London.
In addition, a variety of bus services in the UK in the context of so-called route branding is marketed as a separately identified, some stand-alone products. These buses there are rarely characterized in most cases by means of color coding foils on the normal finish, even by their own finishes.