Key facts:
- We are a major employer, with over 30,000 people working for us
- We had revenues of c.£1.4bn in 2024/25
- We carried over 2m passengers per day in the UK in 2024/25
- We operate a fleet of more than 9,000 buses and rail vehicles across the UK
We are a market leader in the public transport industry. Our bus and rail operations have a critical role in creating a connected, healthy, zero carbon world, while supporting our Vision to provide easy and convenient mobility, improving quality of life by connecting people and communities.
FirstGroup has a clear purpose to provide efficient, reliable, safe and increasingly sustainable transport links that connect communities, and our services are critical to ensuring local economies are vibrant and robust. Public transport networks are the lifeblood of successful towns and cities, and they are essential to achieving global net-zero carbon ambitions. The sector has a key part to play to help resolve some of society’s most important challenges, including climate change, congestion and air quality.
Demand for our services is growing due to increased urbanisation and a greater desire to make sustainable travel choices. As a private sector operator, we are well placed to deliver innovative and efficient urban transport options that improve air quality, reduce congestion and respond to cost of motoring challenges.
Enhancing public transport connections is integral to economic growth agendas. As well as serving a huge range of passengers, we work with national and devolved governments, city regions and local authorities to meet their transport needs. Partnership is at the heart of our success across our businesses. We work closely with procuring authorities, industry partners and communities everywhere, so we can best understand and respond to their specific needs and deliver solutions to congestion, helping stimulate local economies and deliver good value for customers. In turn, stakeholders know that by working with us, they have access to our depth of knowledge and the best of our long-standing expertise.
Our services have a vital role to play in decarbonising transport, through modal shift from cars to buses and trains, and the transition of our own fleets to low/zero emission technologies. Public transport creates new green jobs and services, with opportunities in our business and throughout the industry supply chain.
Furthermore, we are at the forefront of the industry in the use of innovative, real-time data to sustain efficient, value for money services and increase passenger demand and convenience through responsive ticketing options, real-time information, and mobile/contactless payments.