FirstGroup has announced that Steve Montgomery has been appointed as the new Managing Director of its Rail division.
Steve recently served as Managing Director of the highly successful First ScotRail franchise. Under his leadership, ScotRail achieved the highest ever levels of customer satisfaction and punctuality in the franchise's history and won countless awards including Rail Operator of the Year in 2014 and Scottish Public Transport Operator of the Year in both 2012 and 2013.
Steve's career in the railway industry spans almost 30 years, during which time he has gained significant experience in all aspects of rail management.
He started his working life with British Rail; he held various senior posts before becoming Operations and Safety Director when FirstGroup took over ScotRail in 2004. He was appointed Managing Director of the franchise in 2009. Steve begins his new role on 28 September.
FirstGroup Chief Executive Tim O’Toole commented:
“I am delighted to welcome Steve back to FirstGroup. In his new role our Rail division will benefit from his proven track record of leadership, successful franchise management and building strong relationships with customers, employees and stakeholders.
“The expertise that Steve brings will be invaluable in helping to build on our position in rail, continuing to improve operational delivery and standards within our existing rail businesses as well as leading our disciplined bidding approach in future franchise opportunities.
“I would also like to take this opportunity to extend my thanks and gratitude to Dave Gausby for his support and valuable contribution as Interim First Rail MD. Dave will continue to provide support to Steve, in his usual position as Director of Rail Strategy."
Steve Montgomery added:
"I'm thrilled to be returning to FirstGroup to run its Rail Division.
“Our train companies continue to go from strength to strength and we are about to enter an exciting phase of the franchising cycle, so I'm looking forward to the challenges and opportunities ahead."
ENDS
For more information, please contact Stuart Butchers, Group Head of Media at FirstGroup on 020 7725 3354 or email [email protected]
NOTES TO EDITORS:
FirstGroup plc is the leading transport operator in the UK and North America and our services help to create strong, vibrant and sustainable local economies. During the last year around 2.4 billion people relied on us to get to work, to education, to visit family and friends and much more and, each day, every one of our 110,000 employees works hard to deliver vitally important services for our passengers.
Our vision is to provide solutions for an increasingly congested world… keeping people moving and communities prospering.
First Rail
FirstGroup is one of the most experienced rail operators in the UK and the only one to run every sort of railway - long distance, regional, commuter and sleeper operations. We carried more than 280 million passengers in 2014/15.
o We operate two passenger franchises – Great Western Railway and First TransPennine Express – and one open access operator, First Hull Trains.
o We operate the Tramlink network on behalf of Transport for London carrying more than 32 million passengers a year and the Heathrow Connect service in partnership with Heathrow Airport.
For more information about FirstGroup and our divisions please visit www.firstgroupplc.com