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First Bus
First Rail
FirstGroup plc Annual Report and Accounts 2025
We continued to grow our leading First Bus and First Rail businesses during FY 2025 demonstrating that we are a resilient, focused and profitable business, well positioned to deliver further growth and value for our stakeholders.
"FirstGroup has long been instrumental in benefiting the communities where we operate, and we have delivered unique and significant levels of private sector investment into our businesses, aligned to the Government’s aims for UK economic growth."
"I am pleased to report another positive set of results for our 2025 financial year. We have further strengthened our businesses and continued to deliver against our strategy, including growing and diversifying our earnings in both First Bus and First Rail."
Highlights of the year
FirstGroup’s four strategic pillars will support us to drive value-accretive sustainable growth and lead the way in our sector:
The Group has a disciplined capital allocation framework to drive further growth and returns:
Case studies
In December 2024, First Bus launched a refreshed brand alongside a new campaign, ‘Moving the everyday’, highlighting the integral role buses play in connecting people to their local communities. The launch was the culmination of extensive planning and hard work from teams across the business and incorporates feedback from First Bus’s customers and employees. It represents a key milestone in the transformation of First Bus, reinforcing its focus on its customers and people with a clear, consistent brand that is easier to recognise and engage with.
By making rail services accessible, reliable, affordable and attractive to passengers, we are at the forefront of driving modal shift. The increased economic activity and the creation of new business opportunities along transport routes demonstrates the added benefits that open access operations bring to local communities. During FY 2025, we have continued to build on the success of our two open access operations, Hull Trains and Lumo. As well as adding capacity and growing demand in our existing operations, we have acquired and applied for new and complementary routes where there is proven demand. This has included the acquisition of track access rights for two new open access rail services, from London to Stirling and from London to South Wales, which will more than double our existing capacity and establish Lumo as a national brand.
As a leading transport operator carrying millions of passengers a day, we have a critical role to play in the climate transition. Investing in decarbonisation, enhancing our operations and driving modal shift reduces our environmental impact and supports growth and prosperity in the communities we serve; it is also a key driver of our commercial success. The publication of our first Climate Transition Plan was an important step in our sustainability journey. It sets out our comprehensive strategy to meaningfully reduce emissions, manage climate-related risks, drive modal shift and contribute to growth and prosperity in the communities we serve.
In February 2025, we completed the acquisition of RATP London, a well-established business with a c.12% market share and a strong operational footprint in West and Central London. Now First Bus London, the business has ten depots, c.1,000 buses, more than a third of which are fully electric, and c.3,700 employees. This was a significant acquisition for the Group that has seen us enter London at scale as the market recovers. It will also transform First Bus, allowing us to diversify and materially grow our earnings in the medium term and will bolster our credentials as we participate in future franchising opportunities across the UK.
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