FirstGroup Global News

While most of us know that FirstGroup operates in both the United Kingdom and North America, its activities in other countries are not so well known.

In 2007 the European Commission gave the go ahead for a consortium consisting of FirstGroup and Denmark 's national railway operator (DSB) to operate trains on the Oresund strait, which has a bridge-tunnel connecting the Danish capital of Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Malmo. It is the longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe. Previously this section of the route was completed by ferry.

DSB currently operates train services on the Danish side of the Oresund and will replace Sweden's SJ on the Swedish side after the deal. Denmark is expected to save more than 25 percent over what it currently pays DSB for service.

In a complicated set up DSB controls 75% of DSB First Holdings, with the remainder owned byFirstGroup. DSB First Holdings controls 100 percent of the Swedish operations (Öresundståg AB) and 25 percent of the Danish operations (DSB directly owns the remainder of Kystbanen AS , the Danish company).

FirstGroup in Germany

In addition to being a partner in the operation of the Øresund rail link between Denmark and Sweden, FirstGroup acquired a German bus operator, Omnibus-Reiseverkehr Arthur Merl GmbH & Co. KG on May 1, 2007. The company is based in Speyer, near Mannheim in southern Germany and has been re-named FirstGroup Rhein-Neckar GmbH.

The deal was managed by Michael Shabas who also negotiated the successful Øresund rail link bid and who, incidentally, gained his Masters Degree at Harvard University.

Included in the sale were the subsidiaries Fröhlich Reisen GmbH in Lorsch, where the focus is on school buses and Clarissa Schultz KG in Herxheim operating mainly mini-buses. Also included in the acquisition was a 25% stake in Nahverkehrs-Service GmbH (NVS), a joint venture of several bus companies in the South Hesse region. The Chief Financial Officer at one of the partner companies, Abellio, is Iain Lanaghan who was formely Group Finance Director at FirstGroup!

Sources in the German unions also report that FirstGroup is interested in acquiring German rail networks including the non-urban operations of Hamburger-Hochbahn.

The picture above shows a FirstGroup Rhein-Neckar Mercedes 405 bus parked in Mannheim