FirstGroup to outline plans to boast bus division

Transport operator FirstGroup will this week provide an update on how its plans to boost its bus division are helping to offset shortfalls at its rail business, which has lost a series of franchises.

By SCOTT REID

Published 28th Feb 2019, 14:03 GMT

Buses services in Glasgow will be affected this coming weekend

The Aberdeen-based group is in the middle of “advancing cost efficiency plans” for the bus division including “a number of changes to our depot portfolio” as it targets higher profit margins.

It currently runs around 6,300 buses in 40 towns and cities, including Edinburgh, from around 70 depots. But bus restructuring work has been complicated by a combination of squeezed local authority budgets and a programme of roadworks in a number of major urban areas.

FirstGroup now operates only one significant rail franchise, Great Western. However, it has been shortlisted for two new franchises, TransPennine and Greater Anglia.