AGM Statement and Interim Management Statement

Friday 15 July 2011

                                FIRSTGROUP PLC                                 
                AGM STATEMENT AND INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT                 


FirstGroup plc ("the Group") will provide the following update on trading
during the first quarter period ("the period" or "Q1") from 1 April to 30 June
2011 at the Group's Annual General Meeting in Aberdeen today.

The Group provided an update on trading as part of its preliminary results
announcement on 11 May 2011. Since then overall trading for the Group, during
the first quarter of the new financial year, has developed in line with
management's expectations.

Tim O'Toole, Chief Executive commented:

"I am pleased to report trading during Q1 of the new financial year is in line
with our expectations. We are encouraged by improving trends in UK Rail and
Greyhound and the continued steady performance in UK Bus and First Transit. In
First Student we are implementing our detailed plan to recover performance and
strengthen the operating model to enable the business to harness its potential.

"We will continue to build on our record of strong cash generation and are
targeting a net cash inflow of £150m in 2011/12. The Board is committed to its
key priorities of increased cash generation to support capital investment, debt
reduction and dividend growth of at least 7% per annum."

UK Bus

Like-for-like passenger revenue growth of 0.7% reflects a continued steady
progress against a tough regional economic backdrop. With new leadership in our
UK Bus division we have renewed our focus on delivering improved service
quality and growth through network development, simplified fares and marketing.
While retaining our cost discipline we believe we can transition to increased
growth by developing the significant opportunities that exist within our
established and well positioned networks.

UK Rail

We continue to see strong growth across our rail businesses with like-for-like
passenger revenue growth of 8.5% during the period. The increased demand for
rail services has continued during Q1 leading to good volume growth across all
of our rail franchises. We remain focused on retaining our leadership position
in rail and continue to take an active role in shaping the future of the UK's
railways including through the newly established Rail Delivery Group. We
continue to progress discussions with the DfT on the proposal to extend our
First TransPennine Express franchise and look forward to developing further
opportunities as we move through the tendering process for the next generation
of rail franchises.

First Student

During the period we made good progress in implementing the recovery plan to
address the performance of First Student, which is impacted by the pressure on
state and municipal finances in the US, and to strengthen the operating model
to enable the business to harness its full market leader potential. As
previously indicated, we anticipate pressure on margins to continue into the
first half of our financial year reflecting last year's disappointing trading
performance. A focused retention strategy and an improved performance during
the current bidding season has resulted in retention of our contracts that came
up for renewal returning to more normal levels of prior years for the school
year 2011/12. As the bidding season draws to a close we are pleased to have
secured new contracts including 8 conversions. We anticipate that the total
operating fleet for the new school year will be broadly in line with 2010/11.

First Transit

Our Transit division continues to perform well with trading developing in line
with our expectations. We have a solid pipeline of opportunities in the key
business segments in which we operate and continue to utilise our excellent
reputation and track record to retain contracts and win new business. During
the period we continued to develop our shuttle bus portfolio with new contracts
to operate bus services at the universities of Yale and Kennesaw in the US as
well as further new business in Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada.

Greyhound

Encouraging revenue trends have continued during the period with like-for-like
revenue growth of 3.7%, up from 1.6% during Q4 2010/11. Against the backdrop of
slow economic recovery this performance reflects the good progress made in
transforming Greyhound. We continue to develop sales channels and reduce the
cost of sale through a range of means including self service kiosks and website
enhancements which has led to online sales increasing to 30%. Greyhound
Express, our new point to point service launched in December 2010, has been
very successful and is delivering strong volume and sales growth. During the
period we expanded the service to additional locations in the midwest and
northeast of the US.

Contacts FirstGroup plc:

Jeff Carr, Finance Director

Rachael Borthwick, Corporate Communications Director

Tel: [phone]/ + 44 207 291 0512