AGM Statement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

                                                           Thursday 3 July 2003

                                FirstGroup plc                                 

   Extracts from the presentations to be made to shareholders at the Group's   
                   Annual General Meeting in Aberdeen today:                   

This has been another year of achievement for the Group with good progress in
all areas of our operations. We continued to deliver on our successful strategy
to grow profits and earnings in our three core businesses UK Bus, UK Rail and
North America.

North America continues to be the growth engine of the Group. We are encouraged
by progress in the current bidding round and we are on course to achieve our
growth target to operate an additional 1,000 school buses from September this
year (this is in addition to the recently awarded management contract to
operate 683 school buses in Boston).

We were pleased to announce in May the acquisition of the transit business of
Coach USA for $22.5 million. This acquisition provides us with contracts to
operate an additional 1,200 urban transit buses in states such as California,
Florida, New York, Washington and Pennsylvania and is expected to generate full
year annualised operating profit before depreciation of $7 million.

We are actively pursuing new franchise opportunities in UK Rail. We are
shortlisted for the new TransPennine franchise and we have submitted our
proposals for the interim consolidation of the Thames Trains franchise with
Great Western from 2004. We are also bidding for the Scotrail and Northern
franchises and we will shortly be submitting proposals for the new Integrated
Kent Franchise.

All of our businesses are performing well in markets which are relatively
resilient. We remain committed to delivering shareholder value by utilising our
strong cashflows to invest for growth, increase dividends, buy back equity and
reduce debt as appropriate. Trading in the first 3 months of the year has
started well and is in line with our expectations.

Contacts on 3 July 2003:

FirstGroup plc

Moir Lockhead, Chief Executive 01224 650102

Michael Mitchell, Corporate Communications Director 07770 647353