Statement re Great Western franchise

FIRSTGROUP PLC
STATEMENT RE GREAT WESTERN FRANCHISE

FirstGroup plc notes that the Department of Transport (DfT) is now assuming that it will exercise its option to extend the Great Western direct award by 13 reporting periods to April 2020 in its latest franchise timetable, published today.

Contacts at FirstGroup:
Faisal Tabbah, Head of Investor Relations
Stuart Butchers, Group Head of Media
Tel: [phone]

Notes
Great Western Railway (GWR) provides long distance, commuter, regional and branch line train services, carrying more than 100 million passengers every year across the Great Western rail franchise area, which includes South Wales, the West Country, the Cotswolds, and large parts of Southern England. FirstGroup signed an agreement in 2015 with the DfT to operate the franchise until 1 April 2019, which could also be extended by up to one further year (13 reporting periods) at the DfT’s discretion. The Group brings experience of managing the route over many years to ensure the successful delivery of the Great Western Mainline modernisation programme, which is the biggest investment on the route since Brunel. During this time GWR are introducing new or refurbished trains on every part of the network meaning additional and more frequent services, reduced journey times and more seats.

FirstGroup plc (LSE: FGP.L) is a leading transport operator in the UK and North America. With £5.2 billion in revenues and 110,000 employees, we transported around 2.2 billion passengers last year. Each of our five divisions is a leader in its field: In North America, First Student is the largest provider of student transportation with a fleet of around 47,000 yellow school buses, First Transit is one of the largest providers of outsourced transit management and contracting services, while Greyhound is the only nationwide operator of scheduled intercity coach services. In the UK, FirstGroup is one of Britain's largest bus operators running a fleet of some 6,200 buses, and we are one of the country's most experienced passenger rail operators, carrying around 140 million passengers last year.

Our vision is to provide solutions for an increasingly congested world... keeping people moving and communities prospering.

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