FirstGroup

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
FirstGroup PLC

logo
legal form Public Limited Company
ISIN GB0003452173
founding 1995
Seat Aberdeen , UKUnited KingdomUnited Kingdom 
management Tim O'Toole, CEO

Martin Gilbert, Chairman

Number of employees 124,000 (2013)
sales 6.7 billion pounds (2012)
Branch traffic
Website www.firstgroup.com

FirstGroup PLC , or First for short , is a UK transport company operating in the UK, Ireland , North America and Germany, operating railways , trams and buses . The company is based in Aberdeen , Scotland . It is part of the FTSE 100 .

First has annual sales of over £ 6 billion and employs more than 124,000 people in the UK and USA . More than 2.5 billion passengers are carried every year.

history

A bus from First in Aberdeen (1998) still inscribed with the name of the predecessor company
First Great Western train in London Paddington Station

The company was founded in June 1995 under the name FirstBus and was created through the merger of the Bristol- based Badgerline Group with the Aberdeen- based GRT Group . The new company was headquartered in Aberdeen. The predecessor companies arose as a result of the deregulation of the British bus market in 1986 and each combined the activities of various bus companies in Great Britain, most of which were privatized , formerly publicly owned companies.

When the company started operating in passenger rail transport in 1998 after the privatization of British Rail , it was renamed FirstGroup . First won the franchise of Great-Eastern -Strecken and bought the in Swindon based company Great Western Trains that the Great Western - and North-Western held franchises. At the same time they took over a majority stake in Bristol Airport , which was sold again in 2001. Since 2000, First has been operating the Croydon tram in Greater London under the name Tramlink , and in 2003 the rail transport companies Hull Trains and GB Railfreight were acquired by First. With GB Railfreight, First was also active in freight transport for the first time .

In the bus sector, the company expanded to Hong Kong in 1998 , where it held a minority stake in the newly formed company New World First Bus . First sold these shares at the end of 2000, but expanded at the same time by acquiring further bus companies in Great Britain and North America, where they were mainly active in the operation of yellow school buses . In 2003, the Dublin- based company Aircoach was purchased, with which First first operated in Ireland .

In 2004, the ScotRail franchise was won on the rails , which covers the majority of rail traffic in Scotland . At the same time, together with the French Keolis Group, the newly formed TransPennine Express franchise was started up, which was created from parts of several existing franchises and offers direct national connections in the north of England . However, in the same year the North Western and Great Eastern franchises were lost when they were re- tendered to competitors. Since 2005, First has been working with BAA to offer a service known as Heathrow Connect between London Heathrow Airport and Paddington Station in central London . As part of further tenders, a new franchise operated as First Capital Connect was received in 2006 and was able to defend the expanded Great Western operation.

In February 2007, First announced that it would take over the US- based company Laidlaw International , which operates long-distance buses and school buses there nationwide . The acquisition, which was approved in October of the same year, also includes a stake in Greyhound Lines , the largest bus company in the USA. Also in 2007, First entered the German market, where in May of that year the Merl bus company from Speyer and its holdings were taken over and renamed FirstGroup Rhein-Neckar . In September 2011, the German subsidiary and its holdings were sold to Marwyn European Transport and renamed BRH Viabus GmbH .

As of April 2015, the FirstGroup lost the ScotRail franchise to Abellio .

Rail transport in Great Britain

First operates four rail companies in the UK, three of which are in the passenger transport sector and one of which operates freight trains . In addition, a tram company belongs to the group of companies.

passenger traffic

The former operate franchises issued by the British government , while First Hull Trains is an independent, so-called Open Access company.

Freight transport

Trams

Bus transport

Great Britain

First West Yorkshire public buses in Huddersfield

First is the largest bus company in the UK, serving more than a fifth of all bus traffic in the country. First is active in more than 40 cities and transports 2.9 million passengers a day with a fleet of almost 9,000 buses. In detail, the following companies belong to the corporate group, which are mostly named after their area of ​​operation:

  • 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

North America

Greyhound bus

In North America, First operates under the name FirstGroup America . The subsidiary, which operates in the USA and Canada , is headquartered in Cincinnati and consists of the following business areas:

Market presence

Route branding on a corporate livery First bus in Halifax

The FirstGroup's corporate identity is strong and most of the names of the branches of the company begin with the word First . The company logo and the company colors white, magenta and dark blue are used almost consistently, especially in Great Britain.

The subsidiaries operating in bus transport in Great Britain are legally and organisationally divided into individual companies, but present themselves to customers throughout the country as First without any further additions. The bus companies belonging to the group have all lost their former names with a local reference. A uniform paintwork has been used since 1997, which is now worn on almost all buses. The only exceptions are buses which are used in London and which are painted red due to the requirements of the transport authority Transport for London .

In addition, a large number of bus routes in Great Britain are marketed as separately labeled, partially independent products as part of so-called route branding . The buses used there are in most cases marked by colored marking using foils on the normal paintwork, more rarely also by their own paintwork.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c First Group: Our Company . As of October 25, 2007.
  2. ↑ Bus and Coach News: Union attacks First's Dublin takeover ( Memento from December 15, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). As of October 25, 2007.
  3. ↑ BBC News: FirstGroup buys Greyhound buses . As of October 25, 2007.
  4. ↑ Public transport competition: First also takes over Merl holdings . As of October 25, 2007.
  5. ↑ BBC News: FirstGroup sells German bus unit . September 30, 2011
  6. ^ Sean Farrell: FirstGroup loose ScotRail franchise to Abellio . The Guardian, Oct. 8, 2014
  7. ^ FirstGroup: Welcome to FirstGroup America ( Memento from August 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). As of October 25, 2007.