Transaction in Own Shares

17 February 2004

                                FirstGroup plc                                 

              Buyback of 250,000 ordinary shares for cancellation              

FirstGroup plc announces that on 17 February 2004 it purchased for cancellation
250,000 ordinary shares of 5p each at an average price of 255.275p per share.

Since FirstGroup plc started to buyback its ordinary shares on 7 June 2002 it
has repurchased for cancellation a total of 17,879,626 ordinary shares. There
are now 402,951,321 ordinary shares in issue.