FirstGroup's bus and rail group chief Grant set to leave

She has resigned as managing director of the rail division and interim managing director of the bus division and will leave the company at the end of March.

Chief executive Tim O'Toole has hired transport veteran Giles Fearnley to run the company's bus division.

Grant has been with the group since 2003 and was part of the rail refranchising team. She led the bid for the ScotRail franchise and subsequently became managing director.

In 2009 she was appointed managing director of the UK rail division and was given additional responsibility, on an interim basis, for UK bus in June last year.

The company said that under her leadership ScotRail achieved more than 20 per cent growth in passenger numbers and record highs in customer satisfaction.

She recently restructured the UK bus division to create a stronger platform for future growth.

O'Toole said: "Although we respect her decision, we are sorry to see Mary leave. She has however, established a strong and capable team and built a solid foundation on which we can continue to build. On behalf of everyone at FirstGroup I would like to thank Mary for her contribution and wish her every success for the future.

Fearnley led the management buy-out of Blazefield Holdings which operated bus networks principally across Yorkshire and Lancashire.

He remained as chief executive for two years following the group's sale to Transdev in 2006. He was one of the founders of Prism Rail, which operated four rail franchises, and was appointed chief executive in 1997, leading the group prior to its sale in 2000. Most recently he served as chairman of Grand Central, the open access operator.