Keeping people moving & communities prospering 2017/18 a focus on Glasgow
Introduction from
the MD
Welcome to the latest edition of our annual report which focuses on what we’re doing to keep people moving and communities prospering across Greater Glasgow. First Glasgow plays a vital role in supporting the economy of Scotland’s largest city, and through our network of over 100 routes, we’re working with customers, colleagues and stakeholders to encourage greater use of public transport in the region. We’re seeing excellent uptake of our contactless payment and M-ticketing options by our customers and we’re continuing to encourage more people to make the switch to these options in our driver to reduce boarding times and speed up journeys. Glasgow is also the first city in Scotland to make preparations to implement a Low Emission Zone (LEZ) from 2019, and we’re already on track to meet the year 1 requirement of operating over 20% of our fleet with Euro 6 compliance through the designated zone. We’ve also started taking delivery of a batch of 75 brand new buses for use across the network, which is the result of the latest fleet investment of over £14m. I hope that you enjoy reading our report. If you have any comments or questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch. Andrew Jarvis Managing Director
Glasgow 2017/18
Improving our customer offer Technology
63%
of customers using cashless travel
Technology is continually playing a greater part in making the customer travel experience easier than ever before. We’re continuing to promote the rapid growth of our M-tickets app, as well as the use of contactless payments, with a view to having 80% of all journeys being made on a cashless basis by 2022. We’re also the first national bus operator to have successfully rolled out a contactless payment system across all of our services in the UK. Our improved First Bus travel app additionally gives our customers access to real time information across our network.
Satisfaction
89%
We achieved a customer satisfaction score of 89% in the latest Transport Focus Bus Passenger survey. We’re determined to make sure that every journey with First delivers, and we’ve rolled out the ‘Tell FirstBus’ feedback web form so that customers can tell us about their journeys with us in real time.
Supporting service delivery for our customers
Staff & training
2042 staff We continually invest in our staff through ongoing training and development. The successful roll-out of our ‘Journey Makers’ programme gives our drivers and customer-facing staff new skillsets to use as part of our drive to continually improve passenger satisfaction. Also, we offer a variety of apprenticeships delivered to nationally recognised standards, with each apprentice supported and developed with the essential skills and knowledge required to gain a qualification and, in turn, build a rewarding career in the transport industry.
Our buses
Our FirstBus Apprenticeship programme was recognised at the 2018 National Transport Awards by winning the ‘Apprentice Champion of the Year’ category.
806 vehicles Our fleet of 806 buses travel over 33 million miles each year to keep the city connected with its communities for the purposes of work, leisure and tourism. Glasgow is well prepared to meet Scotland’s very first Low Emissions Zone (LEZ), and given that one double decker bus can take up to 75 cars off the road, our network has an integral part to play in encouraging commuters to ditch the car and take the bus. With an investment of £14m in 75 brand new buses from 2018, First Glasgow is well placed to meet the targets and be fully compliant by 2022.
Glasgow 2017/18
Focus on performance Dedicated to Safety All of our operating companies across Scotland actively promote our ‘Be Safe’ programme, which encourages every employee to have a personal stake in the safety of ourselves, our colleagues and our customers. Also, driving standards are monitored through the DriveGreen system to ensure the delivery of safe journeys for our customers and staff. First Glasgow also successfully achieved ISO14001: 2018 Transition.
Reliability
Over 33m miles operated in the past year
We always aim to operate every journey in our network to schedule, although we have had challenges to overcome across our network in the form of congestion and a programme of road closures throughout the year. The ‘Beast from the East’ weather event in particular at the end of February 2018 caused widespread disruption but the dedication of our staff and assistance from the authorities meant that we were the first operator in the city to have buses back out and running on our network less than 24 hours later. The recent roll out of real time tracking through new ticket machines and working closely with our key transport partners, will make sure that we continue to improve our service reliability.
Strengthening our partnerships
Community
£1.5m raised
First Glasgow, along with our sister operating companies across the UK, raised over £1.5m in funds for Prostate Cancer UK to help in the fight against a disease that kills one man every 45 minutes in the UK. Our new charity of choice was voted for by FirstGroup employees earlier this year. Action for Children are a UK children’s charity dedicated to helping vulnerable children, young people and their families across the length and breadth of the UK.
Journeys
Over 95m passenger journeys per year
The First Glasgow network consists of more than 100 routes that together allow our customers to make over 95 million passenger journeys each year. Many of these routes form part of our SimpliCITY network – a high frequency network of routes that offer a bus every 10 minutes or better along many of the city’s key corridors. Our network of 9 weekend night bus routes play a key role in terms of supporting the city’s night-time economy. Our Glasgow Airport Express route connects Glasgow Airport with the City Centre 24 hours a day, 364 days of the year and we were delighted to see the service shortlisted for both a Scottish Transport Award and a National Transport Award.
Glasgow 2017/18
Glasgow
Contact us
First Glasgow Ltd 100 Cathcart Road, Glasgow, G42 7BH Twitter: @FirstinGlasgow Facebook: First Glasgow Customer Services phone number: 0345 646 0707 Customer Services opening times: 0700-1900 Mon-Fri 0900-1700 Weekends and bank holidays Or visit firstgroup.com/greater-glasgow and select ‘Help and Contact’ Traveline Scotland: 0871 200 2233
www.firstgroup.com
Our numbers in summary
Over 95 million
passenger journeys per year
33 million miles
operated per year across our region
2042 employees A total of 806 buses 89%
customer satisfaction
Over ÂŁ14 million
investment underway in 75 brand new buses
63% of customers using cashless travel
First Glasgow Ltd is part of FirstGroup Plc. Our vision is to provide solutions for an increasingly congested world... keeping people moving and communities prospering.