First Bus crowned Scotland’s Public Transport Operator of the Year
First Bus has been named Scotland’s Public Transport Operator of the Year 2025 at the Scottish Transport Awards in Glasgow.
The award, which is open to all Scottish bus, rail, tram and ferry operators, celebrates the performance of First Bus across Greater Glasgow and Aberdeen over the last year. The operator completed over 96.5 million passenger journeys, growing year-on-year, connecting more people and communities with employment, education and leisure activities.
First Bus was recognised for its efforts to improve customer experience, reduce journey times and improve reliability, while showcasing its value in the communities it serves and attracting new customers to bus.
Its investment in zero-emission buses and infrastructure was also commended as the operator continues its commitment to running a fully zero-emission fleet by 2035 with over 270 zero-emission buses in operation across Greater Glasgow and Aberdeen.
First Bus also extended its B2B electric charging offering to support businesses across the city in their transition to zero-emission transport with Openreach, Police Scotland, Ember Coaches and West Coast Motors all using the First Bus charging infrastructure, showcasing the benefits of partnership working inside and outside the transport sector.
The operator collected a second award on the night for Excellence in Technology and Innovation, receiving recognition for its ground-breaking use of AI-driven timetables to improve reliability for customers on its services across Scotland.
Using the latest AI technology and First Bus network planning expertise, the operator has introduced new timetables on over 60 services in the last 12 months to improve their performance.
This combined approach means the new timetables reflect real life experience, taking into consideration external factors such as road conditions and congestion, with several routes experiencing improvements in punctuality by over 30% as a result.
Duncan Cameron, First Bus Scotland Managing Director, said: “I am delighted First Bus has been recognised as Scotland’s Public Transport Operator of the Year.
“We have worked extremely hard to make real, tangible changes to the overall customer experience while also doing everything in our power to ensure our services across Greater Glasgow and Aberdeen are more reliable for passengers.
“The award belongs to our thousands of colleagues across the country whose tireless efforts every day ensure we continue to deliver for our customers.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
About First Bus
At First Bus, we’re on a mission to grow bus usage – so we’ll get behind initiatives that move people out of cars and onto the bus.
We’re one of the UK’s largest bus operators, transporting more than 1.5 million passengers a day. Our local bus services serve more than 25% of the population of Great Britain and over half of the UK’s top 15 most populated urban areas.
We are a leading operator in the majority of our local areas, including major urban centres such as Glasgow, Bristol and Leeds.
We have proudly launched our First Bus London operation and now operate 83 routes in west and central London from 10 garages serving 180 million passengers annually.
The combined operation now manages a fleet of over 5,750 buses across the UK.
Transforming our business for the better, we’re putting our people and customers at the heart of everything we do. That’s why we’re the UK’s largest national bus operator to achieve real Living Wage employer status, cementing our position as an employer of choice in the sector.
First Bus is committed to operating a zero-emission bus fleet by 2035. We will have over 1000 zero-emission buses in operation across our UK fleet by the end of 2025.
We’re passionate about giving back to the communities we serve, which is why we’re helping local businesses to progress their decarbonisation journeys – giving them access to our charging hubs while our buses are on the road.
We also operate, Specialist Passenger Solutions, First Travel Solutions, York Pullman Bus Company, Lakeside, Ensignbus, Anderson Travel - and the Aircoach network and Matthews in Ireland.
First Bus is a division of FirstGroup.
Find more information on our website here: https://news.firstbus.co.uk/