FirstGroup Reveals £20m Investment in 109 Brand New Buses for Glasgow 2014

• £20m new Bus Depot to be Operational for First Time Ahead of Glasgow 2014
• 700 Bus Drivers to Travel to Glasgow to Deliver Spectator Shuttle and Park & Ride Services

First Bus has announced an investment of £20M in 109 brand new vehicles which will carry customers for the first time at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. 

The new buses, which are currently being delivered, will form part of a 380 fleet that will move members of the Games Family, including athletes, officials, media and sponsors, and in addition operate specific shuttle and park & ride spectator services during the Games. These services, operated by First Bus, will augment First Glasgow's network of high frequency, regular services across the city.

The new fleet consists of StreetLites, manufactured by Wrightbus (part of the Wrights Group) and Enviro 400s manufactured by ADL, and will sport bespoke Glasgow 2014/First Bus branding emphasising the company's 'Personal Best' campaign.

First unveiled two of the new buses today at the site of First Glasgow's £20m new headquarters and depot on Cathcart Road in the south side of Glasgow. The site, which has been named 'Caledonia' by First Glasgow staff, will become partly operational for the first time during Glasgow 2014. Although not due to be officially opened until November this year, First factored in plans to the construction schedule to enable it to operate up to 280 vehicles during the Games (around 75% of the capacity of the ten acre site when fully operational).

“The arrival of our new vehicles is a key milestone as we put in place our final preparations for the Games,” said Andrew Scholey from First, who is heading up the company's Glasgow 2014 spectator and Games Family services. “I'm delighted that we've made this investment and delighted too that the vehicles sporting our Personal Best branding look so striking and so impressive.”

Andrew, who also headed up First's bus spectator contract at the London 2012 Olympics, continued: “We've been planning for Glasgow 2014 for over a year. We'll be operating thousands of journeys over the course of the Games with our shuttle services at some venues at certain times operating as often as every 20 seconds. We've got a great team in place and are really looking forward to the Games beginning on July 23.”

More than 700 bus drivers will travel to Glasgow to help deliver First's shuttle, park & ride and Games Family services. Around 200 First drivers from across the company's UK operations, including Plymouth, Bristol, Norwich, Manchester, Leeds and Livingston have volunteered to drive at the Games and will spend between one and five weeks in Glasgow. A further 500 drivers have been sub-contracted from other bus and coach companies.

One of the 200 First drivers heading to Glasgow is John Weaver who's been a Driver for First Scotland East at its depot in Larbert for 35 years. He said: “All 200 First drivers will be proud to be part of Glasgow 2014 and proud to represent First. We'll be going all out to set new driving and customer service Personal Bests.”

He added: “I'm hoping to be fortunate enough to transport some athletes, maybe even Usain Bolt! It's a great opportunity and I'm very excited to be part of Glasgow 2014.”

- Ends -

For more information, please contact:

Niall Dowds

Head of External Comms, First UK Bus

T: 01224 650011 / 07860 936671

E: niall.dowds@firstgroup.com

Notes to Editors:

FirstGroup plc is the leading transport operator in the UK and North America with revenues of more than £6.7 billion a year. We employ approximately 117,000 employees and transport around 2.5 billion passengers a year. Our vision is to provide solutions for an increasingly congested world… keeping people moving and communities prospering.

UK Bus

FirstGroup is one of Britain's largest bus operators running approximately one in five of all local bus services. A fleet of some 6,400 buses carries approximately 1.6 million passengers a day in a huge number of communities including 40 of the UK's largest towns and cities. We operate Greyhound UK providing regular intercity coach services linking South Wales and Bristol Airport, and we also operate some US-style yellow school buses and have a fleet of coaches available for charter. We also operate the Aircoach network in Ireland.

UK Rail

FirstGroup operates approximately a quarter of the UK passenger rail network, with a balanced portfolio of intercity, commuter, regional and sleeper services, carrying more than 330 million passengers a year.

We are 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,

First Hull Trains

We operate the London Tramlink network on behalf of Transport for London carrying more than 31 million passengers a year and the Heathrow Connect service in partnership with Heathrow Airport.

Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games

First Bus and First ScotRail are proud to be Official Supporters of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, providing passenger rail and bus services. First ScotRail is planning the most extensive train timetable that Scotland has ever seen in support of the Games with additional carriages and more frequent services running until late at night for spectators as well as regular customers. Our UK Bus division was awarded the contracts to transport athletes, technical officials, media and sponsors during the Games, and provide additional shuttle services to transport the large numbers of spectators expected.