First Glasgow has appointed Fiona Kerr as its new MD. Fiona was formerly the Regional Finance Director for FirstGroup’s Scottish bus operations, a post she has held since 2010. She began her career with PwC in Glasgow, qualifying as a Chartered Accountant before joining its corporate finance team. She later moved to John Menzies Plc […]
First Cymru has taken on four new young recruits as engineering apprentices at its Port Talbot and Swansea bus depots. All aged between 17 and 20 years old, the trainees have started fully funded four year full time apprenticeships. They were selected from 445 applications from across Wales. The company is particularly glad to welcome […]
Trade union Unite withdrew its submission to hold industrial action at First in Worcester and Hereford earlier this week. As such, all the company’s bus services operated as normal this week. Union members threatened to strike on two days this week and on 13 and 14 November. The action was over claims that drivers were […]
MAN has received an order for 106 Euro6 MAN Lion’s City buses from Hungarian transport company, Volánbusz Zrt. This is one of the biggest orders for city buses ever placed in Hungary. The operator will be putting the vehicles into service in Budapest in 2014. Powered by 280hp common rail diesel engines, they have been […]
New Transport Minister, Baroness Kramer, is to attend the UK Bus Awards ceremony in London on 19 November, honouring the commitment made by her predecessor, Norman Baker. The organisers have also confirmed that the awards will be presented by Lord Snape, Chairman of the Bus Appeals Board. Snape joined the board of Travel West Midlands […]
Go North East has improved its service for customers who buy their tickets on-line with the ‘key’ smartcard. Those purchasing a ticket before 21.00 via the internet can now be guaranteed to be able to use it the next day. Previously, the company asked customers to allow 48 hours between purchasing a ‘key’ smartcard ticket […]
Revised guidance for local authorities on best practice when procuring local bus services and other types of road passenger transport has been published. According to Transport Minister, Baroness Kramer, the recommendations in the guidance should help save money. The publication offers a range of advice for all those within local authorities involved in securing these […]
FirstGroup is trading in line with its management’s expectations, according to its half yearly results for the six months to 30 September 2013. At Group level, its revenue amounted to £3,300.7m (H1 2012: £3,250m), a rise of 1.6%. Its EBITDA was up 2.6% to £269.2m (H1 2012: £262.3m) and its operating profit was £109.9m (H1 […]