{"id":174005,"date":"2025-06-10T21:59:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T21:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/174005\/"},"modified":"2025-06-10T21:59:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T21:59:15","slug":"first-group-profits-bounce-back-after-transport-group-returns-to-london-following-ratp-takeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/174005\/","title":{"rendered":"First Group profits bounce back after transport group returns to London following RATP takeover"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"author-section byline-plain\">By DAILY MAIL CITY &amp; FINANCE REPORTER <\/p>\n<p class=\"byline-section\"> Updated:  17:01 EDT, 10 June 2025   <\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">First Group has returned to profit and cheered progress in its bus and rail operations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Shares in the Aberdeen-based transport operator rose 12.1 per cent as investors welcomed stronger-than-expected profits.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">First, which runs Avanti West Coast and Great Western Railway, recorded a profit of \u00a3169.6million for the year to March, swinging from a \u00a324.4million loss a year earlier.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The company saw a particular rise in profitability from its First Bus business, which has been boosted by a return to the London market after its \u00a390million takeover of RATP Dev Transit London.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">First Bus revenues rose 6.8 per cent to \u00a31.08billion for the year despite a \u00a317million reduction in funding, as passenger numbers rose 7 per cent year-on-year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Meanwhile, the group\u2019s rail business said it saw passenger numbers on its open-access lines, which include Hull Trains and Lumo, grow to 2.9m for the year, from 2.7m.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-43ef996e99113d80\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/99230015-14798735-image-a-1_1749574242585.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\" alt=\"All aboard: First Group\u00a0saw a rise in profitability from its First Bus business, which has been boosted by its return to the London market following its \u00a390m takeover of RATP Dev Transit\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">All aboard: First Group\u00a0saw a rise in profitability from its First Bus business, which has been boosted by its return to the London market following its \u00a390m takeover of RATP Dev Transit\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>DIY INVESTING PLATFORMS<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1749592753_911_A J Bell 2022_122X84.png\" alt=\"Easy investing and ready-made portfolios\" \/>AJ Bell<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1749592753_911_A J Bell 2022_122X84.png\" alt=\"Easy investing and ready-made portfolios\" \/>AJ Bell<\/p>\n<p>Easy investing and ready-made portfolios<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/HL-Logo_122x84.jpg\" alt=\"Free fund dealing and investment ideas\" \/>Hargreaves Lansdown<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/HL-Logo_122x84.jpg\" alt=\"Free fund dealing and investment ideas\" \/>Hargreaves Lansdown<\/p>\n<p>Free fund dealing and investment ideas<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/ii_thisismoney_122x84.png\" alt=\"Flat-fee investing from \u00a34.99 per month\" \/>interactive investor<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/ii_thisismoney_122x84.png\" alt=\"Flat-fee investing from \u00a34.99 per month\" \/>interactive investor<\/p>\n<p>Flat-fee investing from \u00a34.99 per month<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1749592755_977_122x84 Blue.png\" alt=\"Account and trading fee-free ETF investing\" \/>InvestEngine<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1749592755_977_122x84 Blue.png\" alt=\"Account and trading fee-free ETF investing\" \/>InvestEngine<\/p>\n<p>Account and trading fee-free ETF investing<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1749592755_400_T212Logo_Icon_130x90.png\n\" alt=\"Free share dealing and no account fee\" \/>Trading 212<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1749592755_400_T212Logo_Icon_130x90.png\n\" alt=\"Free share dealing and no account fee\" \/>Trading 212<\/p>\n<p>Free share dealing and no account fee<\/p>\n<p class=\"tim-affiliate-text\">Affiliate links: If you take out a product This is Money may earn a commission. These deals are chosen by our editorial team, as we think they are worth highlighting. This does not affect our editorial independence.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thisismoney.co.uk\/money\/diyinvesting\/article-1718291\/Pick-best-cheapest-investment-Isa-platform.html?ico=tim-affiliate_desktop_bottom-link-click\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"optional-btn-wrapper\" rel=\"noopener\">Compare the best investing account for you <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    Share or comment on this article:<br \/>\n                        First Group profits bounce back after transport group returns to London following RATP takeover<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By DAILY MAIL CITY &amp; FINANCE REPORTER Updated: 17:01 EDT, 10 June 2025 First Group has returned to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,1232,1284,1283,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-174005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-money","13":"tag-moneymarkets","14":"tag-thisismoney","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114661318227003272","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}