Statement re Great Western Railway franchise

FIRSTGROUP PLC

STATEMENT RE: GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY FRANCHISE

FirstGroup welcomes the publication by the Department for Transport (‘DfT’) of a new strategic vision for the railways which sets out a number of proposals to increase capacity and improve service for customers.

Accompanying this, the DfT has announced plans for the future of the Great Western rail network.  The DfT has confirmed it will exercise its option to extend the current Great Western Railway (‘GWR’) franchise contract by one year, to 1 April 2020.  The DfT has also announced that it intends to negotiate a direct award for the GWR franchise for a duration of two years to April 2022, with an option for an extension of up to two further years at the DfT’s discretion.

In addition, the DfT also begins a public consultation today on how rail services are delivered across the Great Western network in any future new franchise and as the current operator, we will work with the DfT to support this.

Our extensive experience of managing the Great Western route, in partnership with Network Rail, will be critical to the success of the £7.5bn Great Western Mainline modernisation programme and the continued delivery of passenger improvements.

Commenting, Tim O’Toole, FirstGroup’s Chief Executive, said:

“We welcome the publication of the DfT’s new strategic vision for the railways and look forward to progressing this with the Government.

“We are pleased that our strong track record at GWR is recognised, and that the DfT intend to extend the franchise and negotiate a further direct award lasting at least two years. A period of detailed negotiation will now follow, but this opportunity will create further stability on the Great Western route as our experienced team continue their work with our partners to transform a key part of the country’s transport infrastructure.

“GWR was recently awarded Rail Operator of the Year, and our passengers are already seeing the benefits of significant investment. We have introduced new suburban and long distance trains with more seats, and going forward the upgrade work will enable us to offer more frequent and faster services. These will help keep people moving and communities prospering across the network for generations to come.”

Notes to Editors

About FirstGroup plc

FirstGroup plc (LSE: FGP.L) is a leading transport operator in the UK and North America. With £5.7 billion in revenue and more than 100,000 employees, we transported around two 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 more than 40,000 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 coaches. In the UK, First Bus is one of Britain's largest bus operators, transporting 1.6 million passengers a day.

About 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 around 130 million passengers in 2016/17.

o     We operate three passenger franchises – Great Western Railway (GWR), South Western Railway (SWR) and TransPennine Express – and one open access service, Hull Trains.

o     We operate the Tramlink network on behalf of Transport for London carrying around 30 million passengers a year and the Heathrow Connect service in partnership with Heathrow Airport.

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

Visit our website at www.firstgroupplc.com and follow us @firstgroupplc on Twitter.

Contacts at FirstGroup:

Faisal Tabbah, Group Investor Relations Manager

Stuart Butchers, Group Head of Media

Tel: [phone]

Contacts at Brunswick PR: 

Andrew Porter, Tel: [phone]