Purchase of Own Securities

30 January 2003

                                FirstGroup plc                                 

              Buyback of 250,000 ordinary shares for cancellation              

FirstGroup plc announces that on 30 January 2003 it purchased for cancellation
250,000 ordinary shares of 5p each at an average price of 206.2p per share.

Since FirstGroup plc started to buyback its ordinary shares on 7 June 2002 it
has repurchased for cancellation a total of 6,499,015 ordinary shares. There
are now 414,331,932 ordinary shares in issue.