First Aberdeen

:"Grampian Regional Transport and Aberdeen Corporation Transport" redirect here."

Infobox Company
company_name = First Aberdeen
company_
company_type = Public
foundation = 1998
location = 395 King Street, Aberdeen
area_served = Aberdeen
homepage = [http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/scotland/nescot/home/ www.firstgroup.com]
footnotes =

First Aberdeen Ltd is the main bus company serving Aberdeen, Scotland and is part of FirstGroup. It was renamed First Aberdeen Ltd in 1998, having previously operated buses in Aberdeen as Aberdeen Corporation, Grampian Regional Transport and First Grampian.

History

Aberdeen Corporation

Aberdeen Corporation Tramways was formed in 1898. The company became Aberdeen Corporation Transport Department when it became solely a bus operator as trams ceased on May 3rd 1958.

Grampian Regional Transport

Under local government reorganisation in 1975, the Aberdeen Corporation bus operations transferred to Grampian Regional Transport, a department of the Grampian Regional authority.

As part of the bus deregulation process in the UK, GRT was incorporated as Grampian Regional Transport Ltd in 1986, owned and operated by the council as an arms length company.

On 20 January 1989 the company was privatised, bought by its employees under an Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP) [ [http://www.firstgroup.com/corporate/our_company/hq_history.php FirstGroup official site] company history page, accessed 10 September 2008] . At the time GRT comprised a fleet of 200 buses and 500 employees [http://www.railwaypeople.com/rail-news-articles/andy-milne-talks-to-moir-lockhead-chief-executive-of-first-group-1030.html Interview with Moir Lockhead by www.railwaypeople.com] , 11 April 2006] .

First Grampian

While the company continued to operate as GRT in Aberdeen, its holding company GRT Group went on to acquire other bus companies, eventually becoming FirstBus plc in 1995. At the same time, GRT adopted the First Grampian branded subsidiary of FirstBus, while legally remaining GRT ltd. In a further re-organisation of FirstBus into FirstGroup, First Grampian became First Aberdeen Ltd in 1998.

Liveries

Aberdeen Corporation employed a dark green and white livery [ [http://glasgowbuses.fotopic.net/p29950471.html Image of a preserved Aberdeen Corporation dark green liveried bus] ] , later becoming pea-green and cream [ [http://tails-prower-2040.fotopic.net/p41151221.html Image of a preserved Aberdeen Corporation pea-green liveried bus] ] [ [http://themunicipals.fotopic.net/p37716791.html Image of Aberdeen Corporation pea-green liveried buses, 1976] ]

Council owned GRT changed this livery, by removing the upper green band, replacing it with a thinner orange band, and 'Grampian' fleetnames and a council crest [ [http://themunicipals.fotopic.net/p37716795.html Images of a Grampian Region liveried buses, 1980] ] [ [http://stevekempbuses.fotopic.net/p45906934.html Image of a preserved Grampian Region liveried bus] ] . On being sold to its employees, GRT used a scheme of a larger area of cream base colour, supplemented by a two-tone green stripe pattern. The fleet name was still 'Grampian', but with a thistle emblem over the 'i' [ [http://www.kingstreetdepot.fotopic.net/p33524678.html Image of buses in the GRT Group Grampian corporate livery, 1986] ] .

The cream base and stripe layout would go on to become a corporate livery for the GRT Group, albeit with different colours for the stripes. The First Grampian livery consisted of the GRT livery, with the fleetname changed to the FirstBus corporate style with the stylised "f" symbol. Some new buses were introduced with a modified Gold Standard version of the green livery.

First Grampian livery persisted until 1998. On renaming to First Aberdeen, corporate First white and pink livery was introduced, but it took a number of years before it was used on all buses.

Fleet

A mainstay of the GRT fleet in the 1970s up to 1983 was the Leyland Atlantean double-decker bus with Alexander AL Type bodywork, supplemented by the Leyland National single-decker bus. In 1985 it moved to the Leyland Olympian double-decker with Alexander RH Type bodywork until 1988. From 1991 to 1997 the company steadily bought the Mercedes-Benz O405 single-decker.

GRT was one of the first UK users of articulated buses, trialing a Mercedes Benz. As of 2008, Aberdeen was one of the major locations for articulated buses in the United Kingdom.

Services

A Metro network was introduced on 13 May 2001 as a series of colour-coded high-frequency routes with the promise of no reduction in services in the following three years. In September 2004, a small number of services were withdrawn and minor revisions were made to some existing services.

Metro was later renamed the Overground network in line with other First companies. This was a group wide initiative to rationalise route networks into high frequency colour coded networks running on main routes, to reduce the amount of confusing overlaps and divergences of routes on minor roads.

Overground

Park and Ride

The company operates a park and ride service within the city serving two locations from the Bridge of Don and Kingswells to the city centre.

Other

Revenue

The majority of services are operated commercially, with some services partially subsidised through Aberdeen City Council. The company operates an exact fare policy, whereby no change is given by the driver.

Competitors

As the incumbent city bus operator since the tram era, First Aberdeen has retained control of almost all of the bus services in Aberdeen over the years. Stagecoach is the only other major bus operator but only through its Stagecoach East Scotland (Bluebird Buses Ltd) operating along major trunk routes and a single city centre service

King Street Headquarters

The company has occupied a historic depot site at 395 King Street at the heart of the city since 1914. It was built in 1862 and bought by Aberdeen Corporation Tramways [ [http://www.firstgroup.com/corporate/our_company/hq_history.php www.firstgroup.com The History of 395 King Street 1862 – 2007] ] The site also served as global headquarters of FirstGroup since its creation. On 21 June 2007 First gained permission to redevelop the site into a new Aberdeen bus depot and global FirstGroup headquarters building, due to be completed in early 2009 [ [http://www.firstgroup.com/corporate/media/newsreleases_more.php?id=255 FirstGroup official site press release about new global HQ] , accessed 10 September 2008]

See also

* List of bus operators of the United Kingdom
* Transport in Aberdeen

References

External links

* [http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/scotland/nescot/home/ First in Aberdeen official site]