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 Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. 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 (an amalgamation of Kelvin Scottish 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 (; ), is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area and registration county in the Central Lowlands and Southern Uplands of Scotland. The county is no l ...

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.

Fleet

As of January 2023, First Glasgow operates a fleet of over 600 buses on over 80 routes, a majority of these buses being built by either Alexander Dennis or Wrightbus. 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 into service a first batch of

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

s onto route 75, followed by an order for a further 53 Enviro400 MMCs, 10 Enviro400 Cities for the Glasgow Airport Express service, and 12 Enviro200 MMCs for delivery in 2019, partly funded by

Transport Scotland Transport Scotland () 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. Transport Scotland, an execut ...

's Scottish Green Bus Fund.

Battery electric bus A battery electric bus is an electric bus that is driven by an electric motor and obtains energy from on-board batteries. Many trolleybuses use batteries as an auxiliary or emergency power source. Battery electric buses offer the potential for z ...

es first entered service with First Glasgow in the form of two BYD Alexander Dennis Enviro200EV

single-deck bus A single-decker bus or rigid is a bus that has a single deck for passengers. Normally the use of the term ''single-decker'' refers to a standard two-axled rigid bus, in direct contrast to the use of the term double-decker bus, which is essent ...

es in January 2020, purchased with funding from SP Energy Networks for service on route M3. 22 more Enviro200EVs were later delivered to Caldeonia depot in November 2021, which were used as shuttle buses for the

2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as COP26, was the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference, held at the SEC Centre in Glasgow, Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, coun ...

being held in the city, followed by a repeat order for 50 more in September 2022. Orders were also made for 91 Alexander Dennis Enviro400EV

double-decker bus A double-decker bus is a bus that has two storeys or decks. Double-deckers are used primarily for commuter transport, but open-top models are used as sightseeing buses for tourists, and there are coaches too for long-distance travel. They app ...

es alongside 35 more Enviro200EVs in March 2021, the first of which began to enter service from December 2021, and 50 Enviro200EVs began to be delivered to Scotstoun depot from June 2023. First Glasgow aims to be an entirely zero-emission company by 2035, with over 30% of the fleet's buses being electric, and the vast majority of the remaining diesel buses being LEZ compliant. The company's Caledonia depot is the largest electric vehicle charging station in the United Kingdom, currently capable of charging 150 electric buses at once, with infrastructure work currently underway to expand this to a total of 350 charging points. 27 dual-head charging units are also situated at Scotstoun depot. Thirty Enviro200EVs were temporarily withdrawn by First Glasgow in January 2025 in order to resolve "structural failures", with diesel and electric buses being loaned in from across the FirstGroup to replace the fleet. The majority of these were repaired and had reentered service by March 2025, although a number of the loaned buses stayed in the fleet.

Depots

SO68HFT First Glasgow 34373 ADL Enviro400MMC

First Glasgow currently operates out of five depots: *

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

(Caledonia,

Gorbals The Gorbals is an area in the city of Glasgow, Scotland, and former burgh, 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 e ...

) *

Dumbarton Dumbarton (; , or ; or , meaning 'fort of the Britons (historical), Britons') is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven, Dunbartonshire, River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. ...

(Birch Road) *

(South Street,

Scotstoun Scotstoun () 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 Clyde (and Braehead ...

) *

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

(Glasgow Road,

Blantyre Blantyre is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with a population of 800,264 . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, Lilongwe. It is ...

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

Cumbernauld Cumbernauld (; ) is a large town in the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Dunbartonshire and council area of North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is the tenth List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, most-populous locality in Scotl ...

depot closed with staff, buses and services transferred to Larkfield, Parkhead and Blantyre depots. The Larkfield depot in Glasgow's Govanhill 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 () is the head of government of Scotland. The first minister leads the Scottish Government, the Executive (government), executive branch of the devolved government and is th ...

Nicola Sturgeon Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon (born 19 July 1970) is a Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) from 2014 to 2023. She has served as a member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) sin ...

on 12 December that year. In January 2016, the

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

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 2022, First Glasgow introduced a contactless card payment system known as Tap On Tap Off 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. Supported on iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro, Apple Pay digitizes and can replace a credit or debi ...

, Google Pay and

Samsung Pay Samsung Pay (stylized as SΛMSUNG Pay) is a mobile payment and digital wallet service, operated by the South Korean company Samsung Electronics. It lets users make payments using compatible smartphones and other Samsung-produced devices, accesse ...

as well as contactless payment cards. Customers can also buy various tickets such as 5 single journeys, 10 single journeys, day, weekly, monthly through First's official app. First Glasgow is also a partner in ''Glasgow Tripper'', an unlimited day pass which can also be used on McGill's,

Stagecoach A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) 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 ...

within the Glasgow area, Glasgow Citybus 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