first sells part of London

[the trainbasher]

http://hsprod.investis.com/servlet/HsPublic?context=ir.access&ir_option=RNS_NEWS&item=1504673072677125&ir_client_id=2899&transform=newsitem

UK Bus We are working through our comprehensive plan to recover performance and equip our UK Bus business to achieve sustainable revenue and patronage growth, and are seeing early positive signs in some of our markets. During the period we achieved steady growth with like-for-like passenger revenue expected to increase by 2.4%. As previously stated, we expect the full year operating margin to be approximately 8%. In line with our strategy to pursue selected business and asset disposals, today we are pleased to announce the sale of five of our London depots to Metroline, an existing London bus operator, and three of our London depots to Transit Systems Group, an Australian transport company, for a combined consideration of approximately GBP80m. Both disposals are subject to the necessary regulatory approvals including contractual obligations with Transport for London.[/url]

[winston]

http://hsprod.investis.com/servlet/HsPublic?context=ir.access&ir_option=RNS_NEWS&item=1504673072677125&ir_client_id=2899&transform=newsitem

UK Bus We are working through our comprehensive plan to recover performance and equip our UK Bus business to achieve sustainable revenue and patronage growth, and are seeing early positive signs in some of our markets. During the period we achieved steady growth with like-for-like passenger revenue expected to increase by 2.4%. As previously stated, we expect the full year operating margin to be approximately 8%. In line with our strategy to pursue selected business and asset disposals, today we are pleased to announce the sale of five of our London depots to Metroline, an existing London bus operator, and three of our London depots to Transit Systems Group, an Australian transport company, for a combined consideration of approximately GBP80m. Both disposals are subject to the necessary regulatory approvals including contractual obligations with Transport for London.

First has sold all its London bus operation, the tiny bit unaccounted for is Dagenham depot, that currently has a Pvr of 84 buses, but this will be reduced by half once Stagecoach London take up their new Tfl tender wins later in the year

http://www.firstgroup.com/corporate/latest_news/?id=009241

[Gareth]

Just saw this story on Route Ones Facebook page. I wonder how long the Australians will last, or if they will sell on to someone else.

[winston]

Just saw this story on Route Ones Facebook page. I wonder how long the Australians will last, or if they will sell on to someone else.

I was expecting the other 3 depots to be sold to RAPT or Abellio rather than someone completely new. Is Transit the outfit that bought Diamond's MAN/MCV's?

[the trainbasher]

I'm surprised NX haven't gone back into the London game yet

[winston]

I'm surprised NX haven't gone back into the London game yet

I'm surprised NX didn't end up buying the entire First London business, part of the reason they left last time was because Travel London didn't have scale & would taken too much money to grow it. First London had 11.57% share of the bus London market & a fleet of around 900 buses

[Dylan4579]

Just saw this story on Route Ones Facebook page. I wonder how long the Australians will last, or if they will sell on to someone else.

I was expecting the other 3 depots to be sold to RAPT or Abellio rather than someone completely new. Is Transit the outfit that bought Diamond's MAN/MCV's?

Yes it is but they are based in New Zeland

[busfan2847]

Just saw this story on Route Ones Facebook page. I wonder how long the Australians will last, or if they will sell on to someone else.

I was expecting the other 3 depots to be sold to RAPT or Abellio rather than someone completely new. Is Transit the outfit that bought Diamond's MAN/MCV's?

Different Transit in New Zealand. Transit Systems (Australia) is an umbrella organisation, which was formed to oversee the operations of Swan Transit (Perth), Torrens Transit (Adelaide), Bay Islands Transit (Brisbane), Gladstone Ferries (Gladstone) and the combined Stradbroke Ferries and Big Red Cat (Brisbane). The London operation will be their first international fleet ( http://www.transitsystems.com.au/articles/315-australian-public-transport-innovator-acquires-first-international-fleet ). They also have been awarded Contract 3 in Sydney for 200 buses which will transition to Transit from October 2013.

[tank90]

Typical First spent loads of money in London and now have sold most of it off what was the point in that?
They should have leased the buses instead of buing them which would have ment some areas would have had new buses earlier.

[Dylan4579]

Hydrogen buses?

[John]

Hydrogen buses?

Powered by hydrogen rather than Diesel or Hybrid engines. They are on the RV1. Here is one -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/john-s-91/7274842450/

[sconehead85]

Oh dear!  I warned against this move as it will deprive First of a supply of mid-life low floor double decks.  Now they will have to buy new or second hand, or perhaps come to some agreement to buy some 200 ex First LFDDs once the new owners have finished with them.

sconehead85

[Wolves256]

I think this will help First.
Cascading old London vehicles to the non London operations is one of their problems. It starves the provincial fleets off new vehicles as all the investment goes towards the London fleet.
When Stagecoach re acquired the London opeartions they clearly stated that all new London vehicles would be leased and returned at the the end of the contact to avoid dumping them all on the provincial fleets.
This was also an issue with Nat Ex, I seem to remember the 2009 Enviro order for 60 vehicles for the West Midlands was reduced to 30 (4800> batch) the remaining 30 were sent to London

[winston]

I think this will help First.
Cascading old London vehicles to the non London operations is one of their problems. It starves the provincial fleets off new vehicles as all the investment goes towards the London fleet.
When Stagecoach re acquired the London opeartions they clearly stated that all new London vehicles would be leased and returned at the the end of the contact to avoid dumping them all on the provincial fleets.
This was also an issue with Nat Ex, I seem to remember the 2009 Enviro order for 60 vehicles for the West Midlands was reduced to 30 (4800> batch) the remaining 30 were sent to London

Many London operators are now going down the leasing route rather than buying them outright, plus Tfl are hsifting towards supplying their own buses with buying 600 Borismasters to lease to operators over the next couple of years.

First could still buy batches of ex London / ex lease buses on the secondhand market, but may not have their preferred specifications etc and get the quantities they want?

NX also diverted most of the double deck order in 2005/6 to Travel London as large quantities of Gemini & Early E400 were delivered there, TWM only took the 10 x B7TL (4687-4696), 1 x Omnicity Double Decker (4697) & 1 x ADL E400 (4698) in 2005 & 38 x B7RLE (1750-1787) & 18 x B7TL (4700-4717) in 2006. It was the focus on expanding Travel London back then that is catching up with NXWM now, as the majority of its decker fleet are now getting on for between 9 - 14 years old

[Justin Tyme]

I also think this will help First.

With the big disposals now sorted, this should enable the business to concentrate on getting itself back into shape.