First Glasgow is the largest bus company serving the

Greater Glasgow Greater Glasgow is an urban settlement in Scotland consisting of all localities which are physically attached to the city of Glasgow, forming with it a single contiguous urban area (or conurbation). It does not relate to municipal government ...

area in Scotland. It is a subsidiary of

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.Strathclyde Partnership for Transport Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) is a regional transport partnership for the Strathclyde area of western Scotland. It is responsible for planning and coordinating regional transport, especially the public transport system in the ar ...

, a public body responsible for helping to co-ordinate public transport services in the Greater Glasgow area.

History

First Glasgow was created through

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.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 Kelvin Central Buses was a bus operator in Scotland. Formed as a subsidiary of the Scottish Bus Group in July 1989 from the merger of Kelvin Scottish and Central Scottish, it was sold in a management buyout and in July 1998 became part of Fi ...

(an amalgamation of

Kelvin Scottish Kelvin Scottish Omnibuses Ltd was a bus operating subsidiary of the Scottish Transport Group based in Bishopbriggs, Strathclyde, Scotland. It was formed in March 1985 from parts of Walter Alexander & Sons (Midland) Ltd and Central SMT, initia ...

and Central Scottish, owned by the state-owned Scottish Bus Group). First Glasgow has two operator's licences: *First Glasgow (No. 1) Limited - the former Strathclyde Buses licence *First Glasgow (No. 2) Limited - the former Kelvin Central Buses licence Buses carry legal signwriting for First Glasgow Limited, despite this having been a dormant company since at least 2008.

Services

First Glasgow mainly run services in Greater Glasgow and

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark ( gd, Siorrachd Lannraig; sco, Lanrikshire), is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the central Lowlands of Scotland. Lanarkshire is the most populous county in Scotl ...

areas of Strathclyde. However, some services also 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. First Glasgow reintroduced route branding in the form of SimpliCITY in May 2013 as a way to improve bus services in Glasgow, after a period of taking consultation from residents of Glasgow about the planned route changes. Buses were installed with free Wi-Fi and were branded with SimpliCITY logos, while routes were simplified in order to make more frequent journeys in and out of the city centre. A Low Emission Zone (LEZ) covering Glasgow city centre was introduced on 31 December 2018; the first phase of this applying solely to local service buses. In October and November 2018, to comply with the new emission standards, First Glasgow placed orders for 150 new buses from Falkirk-based

Alexander Dennis Alexander Dennis is a British bus manufacturing company based in Larbert, Scotland. The largest bus and coach manufacturer in the United Kingdom with a 50% market share in 2019, it has manufacturing plants and partnerships in Canada, China, E ...

, partly funded by the Scottish Green Bus Fund, a

Transport Scotland Transport Scotland ( gd, Còmhdhail Alba) is the national transport agency of Scotland. It was established by the Transport (Scotland) Act 2005, and began operating on 1 January 2006 as an Executive Agency of the Scottish Government. Organisa ...

subsidy. The new buses started coming into service from October 2018, many in route-specific coloured branding, with launch events organised involving buses being wrapped in model-style packaging.

Fleet

First Glasgow operate a diverse fleet of buses. They include: BYD/Alexander Dennis Enviro400 EV BYD/Alexander Dennis Enviro200 EV Alexander Dennis Enviro400 City

Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMC The Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMC (sold as the Alexander Dennis Enviro400) is a low-floor double-decker bus produced by the British bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis since 2014, replacing the Alexander Dennis Enviro400. The Enviro400 MMC is pr ...

Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMC The Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMC (sold as the Alexander Dennis Enviro200) is a single-decker city bus produced by Alexander Dennis since 2014, as the successor to the Enviro200 midibus and Enviro300 full-size bus. The first Enviro200 MMCs e ...

Alexander Dennis Enviro300 The Alexander Dennis Enviro300 (previously known as the TransBus Enviro300) is a light-weight full-size single-decker bus that was built by Alexander Dennis and its predecessor TransBus International between 2001 and 2015. The design was the fir ...

Alexander Dennis Enviro200 The Alexander Dennis Enviro200 (previously known as the TransBus Enviro200) is a midibus that was manufactured by TransBus International and later Alexander Dennis between 2003 and 2018. The original TransBus Enviro200 design was innovative but ...

Alexander Dennis Enviro400 The Alexander Dennis Enviro400 is a twin-axle low-floor double-decker bus that was built by the British bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis between 2005 and 2018. It replaced the Alexander ALX400, Dennis Trident (from which the Enviro400 was d ...

Wright Eclipse Gemini The Wright Eclipse Gemini is a Low-floor bus, low-floor double-decker bus body that was built by Wrightbus since 2001, based on the single-deck Wright Eclipse design. The second-generation Eclipse Gemini 2 was launched in 2009, followed by the ...

Wright StreetLite The Wright StreetLite is a low-floor midibus introduced by Wrightbus in 2010. It was originally available in only one body style (wheel forward) before the door forward and StreetLite Max variants were introduced in 2011 and 2012 respectively. ...

Optare Solo SR The Optare Solo is a low-floor minibus/midibus with one or two doors manufactured by Optare in the United Kingdom since 1998. The Solo name is a play on its low-floor status, the manufacturer marketing its vehicle as having an entrance that is ...

(Owned By SPT)

Depots

First Glasgow currently operates out of five depots: *

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

(Caledonia,

Gorbals The Gorbals is an area in the city of Glasgow, Scotland, on the south bank of the River Clyde. By the late 19th century, it had become densely populated; rural migrants and immigrants were attracted by the new industries and employment opportun ...

) *

Dumbarton Dumbarton (; also sco, Dumbairton; ) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. In 2006, it had an estimated population of 19,990. Dumbarton was the ca ...

(Birch Road) *

(South Street,

Scotstoun Scotstoun ( gd, Baile an Sgotaich) is an area of Glasgow, Scotland, west of Glasgow City Centre. It is bounded by Garscadden and Yoker to the west, Victoria Park, Jordanhill and Whiteinch to the east, Jordanhill to the north and the River Cl ...

) *

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilto ...

(Glasgow Road,

Blantyre Blantyre () is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with an enumerated 800,264 inhabitants . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, L ...

) * Overtown (Castlehill Road) In May 2013, the

Cumbernauld Cumbernauld (; gd, Comar nan Allt, meeting of the streams) is a large town in the historic county of Dunbartonshire and council area of North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is the tenth most-populous locality in Scotland and the most populated t ...

depot closed with staff, buses and services transferred to Larkfield, Parkhead and Blantyre depots. The Larkfield depot in Glasgow's

Govanhill Govanhill ( gd, Cnoc a' Ghobhainn) is an area of Glasgow, Scotland, situated south of the River Clyde between Pollokshields, the Gorbals, Strathbungo, Crosshill, Glasgow, Crosshill, Polmadie and Queen's Park, Glasgow, Queen's Park. Shires of Sco ...

closed on 18 October 2014,Plans for homes on former Larkfield bus depot site in Govanhill submitted
Evening Times, 13 January 2018 with all staff, buses and services moving to a new purpose-built facility on the site of the former Gushetfaulds railfreight terminal on nearby Cathcart Road. The new depot and head office, known as Caledonia Depot, opened on 14 October 2014. It was officially opened by

First Minister of Scotland The first minister of Scotland ( sco, heid meinister o Scotland; gd, prìomh mhinistear na h-Alba ) is the head of the Scottish Government and keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland. The first minister chair ...

Nicola Sturgeon Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon (born 19 July 1970) is a Scottish politician serving as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) since 2014. She is the first woman to hold either position. She has been a member of ...

on 12 December that year. In January 2016, the

Parkhead Parkhead ( sco, Pairkheid) is a district in the East End of Glasgow. Its name comes from a small weaving hamlet at the meeting place of the Great Eastern Road (now the Gallowgate and Tollcross Road) and Westmuir Street. Glasgow's Eastern Necrop ...

depot closed after 93 years of operation, and services and drivers transferred to the new Caledonia Depot on Cathcart Road.

Fares

First Glasgow operates an 'exact fare' payment policy which was also used by predecessors Trans Clyde and Strathclyde Buses. In November 2017, First Glasgow introduced a contactless card payment system which is compatible with

Apple Pay Apple Pay is a mobile payment service by Apple Inc. that allows users to make payments in person, in iOS apps, and on the web. It is supported on these Apple devices: iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, and Mac. It digitizes and can replace a cred ...

, Google Pay and

Samsung Pay Samsung Pay (stylized as SΛMSUNG Pay) is a mobile payment and digital wallet service by Samsung Electronics that lets users make payments using compatible phones and other Samsung-produced devices. The service supports contactless payments usin ...

. Customers can also buy various tickets such as 5 single journeys, 10 single journeys, day, weekly, monthly and 10-week passes through First's official app. Due to this, plans were also put in place for First buses to eventually discontinue cash payments. First Glasgow is also a partner in ''Glasgow Tripper'', an unlimited day pass which can also be used on McGill's,

Stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are dra ...

within the Glasgow area,

Glasgow Citybus Glasgow Citybus is a bus company operating services across Glasgow and Dunbartonshire. It is a subsidiary of West Coast Motors. History Glasgow Citybus was formed in November 1999, by Russell Arden. The company was acquired by Campbeltown-based ...

and Whitelaw's.Glasgow Tripper Media Release
Glasgow Tripper, 5 November 2017

References

External links

*
Company website
{{FirstGroup Bus operators in Scotland FirstGroup companies Transport in East Renfrewshire Transport in Glasgow 1998 establishments in Scotland British companies established in 1998