First Glasgow

First Greater Glasgow
Parent FirstGroup
Founded October 1996
Headquarters Glasgow
Locale Greater Glasgow
Service area
Service type Bus services
Routes 118
Fleet 838 (Jan 2018)
Website First Greater Glasgow

First Glasgow is the largest bus company serving the Greater Glasgow area in Scotland. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup. The company operates within the area covered by the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, a public body responsible for helping to co-ordinate public transport services in the Greater Glasgow area.

History

UVG Urbanstar bodied Dennis Dart SLF in Glasgow in April 2008
Plaxton President bodied Dennis Trident 2 in Glasgow in July 2007

First Glasgow was created through FirstGroup's buyout of Strathclyde Buses (created from the former Greater Glasgow Passenger Transport Executive bus fleet, formerly the municipal Glasgow Corporation Transport), which had itself recently bought out the former Kelvin Central Buses (an amalgamation of Kelvin Scottish and Central Scottish, owned by the state-owned Scottish Bus Group).[1][2][3]

First Glasgow has two operator's licences:[4]

  • First Glasgow (No. 1) Limited[5] - the former Strathclyde Buses licence
  • First Glasgow (No. 2) Limited[6] - the former Kelvin Central Buses licence

Buses carry legal signwriting for First Glasgow Limited, despite of this having been a dormant company since at least 2008.[7]

Services

First Glasgow mainly run services in Greater Glasgow and Lanarkshire areas of Strathclyde. However, some services do run outside of these areas. It was one of the first bus operators to introduce an "overground", a colour-coded set of bus routes with route branding on the bus exteriors and timetables. As of 2006, route branding has been removed from buses but remained on timetables until mid 2008. In May 2013 the company introduced a new network in Glasgow called SimpliCITY

SimpliCITY

First Glasgow introduced SimpliCITY in May 2013 as a way to simplify bus numbers and routes. SimpliCITY services generally operate at least every 7/8 minutes, although this is in the core section only and outer termini are served less frequently. Many non-SimpliCITY routes still use the branded buses however. As of October 2017, the 9/9A became the first route to receive colour-coded 'SimpliCITY' branding, with a pink front. In 2018, this was followed by branding for the 61 and 240 routes, both coloured blue.

Depots

First Glasgow currently operates out of Five depots:

In May 2013 Cumbernauld depot closed with staff, buses and services transferred to Larkfield, Parkhead and Blantyre depots.

Larkfield depot closed on 18 October 2014 with all staff, buses and services moving to a new purpose built depot on the site of the former Gushetfaulds railfreight terminal on nearby Cathcart Road.[8] The new depot and head office, known as Caledonia Depot opened on 14 October 2014.[9] It was officially opened by First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon on 12 December 2014.[10]

In January 2016 Parkhead Depot closed and services and drivers transferred to the new Caledonia Depot on Cathcart Road.

References

  1. ↑ Takeover nets bus workers £35,000 The Independent 10 May 1996
  2. ↑ Bus takeover is finally cleared The Herald 1 August 1998
  3. ↑ FirstBus Plc and SB Holdings Limited: A freport on the merger situation Competition Commission
  4. ↑ About Us First Glasgow
  5. ↑ Companies House extract company no SC097299 First Glasgow No 1 Limited formerly Strathclyde Buses Limited
  6. ↑ Companies House extract company no SC127012 First Glasgow No 2 Limited formerly Kelvin Central Buses Limited
  7. ↑ Companies House extract company no SC129033 First Glasgow Limited
  8. ↑ "First's new £20m Glasgow depot". Bus and Coach Buyer. Retrieved 13 February 2014.
  9. ↑ "First Glasgow - We've moved!". 2014-10-14. Retrieved 2014-10-16.
  10. ↑ "First Minister Opens UK's Biggest Bus Depot in Glasgow" First Group 12 December 2014
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