All FirstGroup articles – Page 2

  • Hull Trains Paragon station
    Rail Business UK

    Hull Trains MD appointed

    2021-09-29T14:12:00Z

    UK: David Gibson has been appointed as Managing Director of open access operator Hull Trains with effect from October 1. Gibson left the Royal Air Force in 2003, joining Hull City Council as Assistant Chief Executive before moving to Capita’s Consulting & Transformation division as a ...

  • FirstGroup has unveiled Lumo as the brand name for the East Coast Trains open access service between Edinburgh and London which is set launch on October 25
    Rail Business UK

    Lumo aims to be the green alternative to Edinburgh – London flights

    2021-09-06T23:01:00Z

    Having unveiled Lumo as the brand name for its Edinburgh to London open access service, FirstGroup explains to Rail Business UK how it is taking a different approach to rail travel with the aim of winning passengers from air and coach.

  • gb Transpennine Express Class 185 between Stalybridge and Huddersfield (Tony Miles)
    Rail Business UK

    Rail needs to be ‘relevant and wanted’ in an era of changed travel demand

    2021-05-28T06:00:00Z

    UK: ‘How we go about our daily lives and conduct our businesses has changed for a lot of people’, said Steve Montgomery, Managing Director of FirstGroup’s First Rail business at the TransPennine Express RE-Connect 2021 conference. Before the coronavirus ‘we were seeing customer numbers at record ...

  • TransPennine Express train (Photo: Tony Miles).
    Rail Business UK

    FirstGroup agrees National Rail Contracts for SWR and TransPennine Express

    2021-05-24T05:00:00Z

    UK: The Department for Transport has finalised the first of the National Rail Contracts under which formerly franchised passenger services are to be operated over the next few years. The directly-awarded NRCs are envisaged as an interim step between the current Emergency Recovery Measures Agreements and ...

  • Matthew Golton
    Rail Business UK

    Matthew Golton to lead TransPennine Express

    2021-05-21T10:52:00Z

    UK: FirstGroup has announced the appointment of Matthew Golton as Managing Director of TransPennine Express from June 1. He will take over from Acting Managing Director Liz Collins, who is retiring from her current full-time role and taking up a new part-time position as Finance & ...

  • FirstGroup has reached agreement with the Department for Transport on the fee payable for termination of the TransPennine Express franchise (Photo: Tony Miles).
    Rail Business UK

    FirstGroup agrees £6m termination fee for TransPennine Express

    2021-05-12T09:44:00Z

    UK: FirstGroup plc announced on May 11 that it had reached agreement with the Department for Transport on the fee payable for termination of the TransPennine Express franchise. The move is part of the process agreed with DfT as the Covid-19 pandemic saw operators moving into ...

  • FirstGroup and the Department for Transport have reached agreement on the termination of the South Western Railway and West Coast Partnership franchise agreements
    Rail Business UK

    South Western and West Coast franchise termination payments agreed

    2020-12-10T11:21:00Z

    UK: FirstGroup and the Department for Transport have reached agreement on payments for the termination of the South Western Railway and West Coast Partnership franchise agreements, which were signed before the pandemic, and are negotiating new directly-awarded management contracts which would come into effect when the current ...

  • gb SWR Claire Mann
    Rail Business UK

    Claire Mann named South Western Railway Managing Director

    2020-12-03T11:34:00Z

    UK: Claire Mann has been appointed as the next Managing Director of South Western Railway, and will take up the post in early 2021. Mark Hopwood, currently Interim Managing Director of SWR, will return to his former role as Managing Director of Great Western Railway on ...

  • The Department for Transport has exercised its option to extend the Emergency Measures Agreement covering FirstGroup’s Great Western franchise until at least June 26 2021.
    Rail Business UK

    GWR Emergency Measures Agreement extended

    2020-09-01T09:47:00Z

    UK: On September 1 the Department for Transport exercised its option to extend the Emergency Measures Agreement covering FirstGroup’s Great Western franchise until at least June 26 2021. FirstGroup Chief Executive Matthew Gregory said this ‘provides important clarity and continuity for our customers, employees and wider stakeholders’. ...

  • us Fort-Carson-autonomous-vehicle-First-Transit-Perrone-Robotics
    Metro Report International

    Autonomous shuttles to be tested in US army base

    2020-08-17T06:00:00Z

    USA: The US Ignite smart city accelerator has selected First Transit and Perrone Robotics to provide autonomous shuttles for a Smart Transportation Testbed project at the Fort Carson army base in Colorado. The $4m project is being funded and managed by the US Army Engineer Research & ...

  • 1st day of face coverings Man Picc 150620 TM16
    Rail Business UK

    Messaging rethink urged as rail faces slow recovery

    2020-07-13T13:25:00Z

    UK: Rail industry insiders are urging a rethink of government messaging to avoid using public transport, amid suggestions that a recovery of rail traffic to pre-Covid levels may not be achieved within two years.

  • tn gb-firstgroup-eastcoast-hitachi-at300-kgx-impression2
    Rail Business UK

    Edinburgh – London open access service takes shape

    2020-05-01T06:00:00Z

    UK: With the first of five Hitachi-built trainsets delivered to the UK for fitting out, FirstGroup has appointed the leadership team for its low-cost open access service between Edinburgh and London, which is scheduled to start running from October 2021. Helen Wylde has been appointed as Managing ...

  • tn_gb-gbrf-73s-hauling-infrastructure-wagons.jpg
    News

    Eurotunnel buys GB Railfreight from FirstGroup

    2010-06-01T12:19:00Z

    EUROPE: Groupe Eurotunnel’s freight operating subsidiary Europorte has bought UK operator GB Railfreight from FirstGroup for £26∙3m in cash. Announcing the acquisition at a press conference in London on June 1, Eurotunnel Chairman & CEO Jacques Gounon said that the deal was ‘a strategic move to boost ...