Transaction in Own Shares

23 January 2004

                                FirstGroup plc                                 

              Buyback of 400,000 ordinary shares for cancellation              

FirstGroup plc announces that on 23 January 2004 it purchased for cancellation
400,000 ordinary shares of 5p each at an average price of 259.0289p per share.

Since FirstGroup plc started to buyback its ordinary shares on 7 June 2002 it
has repurchased for cancellation a total of 15,379,626 ordinary shares. There
are now 405,451,321 ordinary shares in issue.