First Bus, the UK’s leading bus operator, confirmed today that it has won a contract to provide around 260 coaches during The 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles.
First will provide the transport for Ryder Cup officials, the media, sponsors and VIPs. It will also run coaches for most of the event’s hospitality packages. First will begin its operations on Monday September 22 and will have transported around 10,000 passengers by the time the event comes to a close.
Antonia Beggs, Operations Director for Ryder Cup Europe, said: “We are delighted that First Bus will manage the transport of The Ryder Cup Family and our VIPs. First has a track record of providing transport solutions at major events and we’re especially delighted to have on board a company whose routes are firmly placed in Scotland.”
Managing Director of First Bus, Giles Fearnley, said: “We are proud of our Scottish heritage and the important role we play connecting people and communities up and down Scotland every day.
“We’ve got a great team working on our Ryder Cup contract and have been planning for the event at Gleneagles for almost a year. The Ryder Cup is one of the world’s leading and most popular sporting occasions so it is really exciting to be involved. We’re well prepared and very much looking forward to the event teeing off.”
First Bus is part of Aberdeen based transport operator, FirstGroup. Another of FirstGroup’s companies, First ScotRail, is running scores of dedicated trains to transport golf fans to and from the Ryder Cup. Up to 7,500 people each day are expected to arrive at Gleneagles by train, the largest number ever carried to a Ryder Cup event. The station has been upgraded and made fully accessible, with a new access road and improved facilities, as part of a collective investment involving Perth & Kinross Council and Transport Scotland.
ENDS
For more information, please contact Niall Dowds, First UK Bus Head of Communications, on 07860 936671 or email [email protected]
For all Ryder Cup queries, please email [email protected] or call 0131 226 2363.
NOTES TO EDITORS
FirstGroup plc is the leading transport operator in the UK and North America with revenues of more than £6.7 billion a year. We employ approximately 117,000 employees and transport around 2.5 billion passengers a year.
Our vision is to provide solutions for an increasingly congested world… keeping people moving and communities prospering.
UK Bus
FirstGroup is one of Britain’s largest bus operators with around a fifth of bus services outside London. A fleet of some 6,400 buses carries approximately 1.6 million passengers a day in a huge number of communities including 40 of the UK's largest towns and cities. We operate Greyhound UK providing regular intercity coach services linking South Wales and Bristol Airport, and we also operate some US-style yellow school buses and have a fleet of coaches available for charter. We also operate the Aircoach network in Ireland.