FIRSTGROUP PLC : - Confirmation of West Coast Partnership award

FIRSTGROUP AND TRENITALIA WELCOME CONFIRMATION OF WEST COAST PARTNERSHIP AWARD

Further to the announcement on 14 August 2019, FirstGroup plc and Trenitalia UK Ltd are pleased to announce that the Department for Transport yesterday (28 August 2019) formally signed the new West Coast Partnership agreement with our 70:30 joint venture First Trenitalia West Coast Rail Limited, following the customary ‘standstill period’ of at least ten days. As with other UK rail franchise awards, a ‘phase one review’ of the award will also be carried out by the Competition and Markets Authority. The new Partnership will operate from 8 December 2019.

For more information on our plans for the West Coast Partnership, please visit www.westcoastrail.co.uk.

Contacts at FirstGroup:
Faisal Tabbah, Head of Investor Relations
Stuart Butchers, Group Head of Media
Tel: [phone]

Contacts at Brunswick PR:
Andrew Porter / Alison Lea, Tel: [phone]

Contacts at Trenitalia UK:
Chris Atkinson 07770 947332
Giovanni Sanfelice di Monteforte, Tancredi, 07775 858152
Catrina Daly, Tancredi, 07727 153868

About FirstGroup
FirstGroup plc (LSE: FGP.L) is a leading provider of transport services in the UK and North America. With £7.1 billion in revenue and around 100,000 employees, we transported 2.2 billion passengers last year. Whether for business, education, health, social or recreation – we get our customers where they want to be, when they want to be there. We create solutions that reduce complexity, making travel smoother and life easier. We provide easy and convenient mobility, improving quality of life by connecting people and communities. Each of our five divisions is a leader in its field: In North America, First Student is the largest provider of home-to-school student transportation with a fleet of 42,500 yellow school buses, First Transit is one of the largest providers of outsourced transit management and contracting services, while Greyhound is the only nationwide operator of scheduled intercity coaches. In the UK, First Bus is one of Britain's largest bus companies with 1.6 million passengers a day, and First Rail is one of the country's largest and most experienced rail operators, carrying 345 million passengers last year. Visit our website at www.firstgroupplc.com and follow us @firstgroupplc on Twitter.

Legal Entity Identifier (LEI): 549300DEJZCPWA4HKM93. Classification as per DTR 6 Annex 1R: 3.1.

About Trenitalia
Trenitalia is Italy’s primary rail operator and one of the leading railway operators in Europe. Trenitalia is the only high-speed operator in the world that faces domestic rail competition while giving exceptional service to its customers and producing revenues of over €5.37bn.

Trenitalia offers two major services: high-speed rail and regional transport. The company is best known for its iconic Frecciarossa high-speed services. With the recent introduction of the state-of-the-art, Italian-made Frecciarossa 1000 trains, Trenitalia operates one of the most advanced rail services in Europe.

High-speed rail in Italy revolutionised people’s lifestyle and transport in the country. Over the last 10 years, with the rise of the high-speed rail in Italy, over 260 million tickets for high-speed journeys have been sold, and the high-speed train fleet has doubled from 74 in 2008 to 142 in 2018. Passengers who travelled with Trenitalia high speed trains went from 6.5 million in 2008 to 40 million in 2018, a 517% increase.

Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, the ultimate shareholder of Trenitalia, is the main Italian transport company with €58bn of investments in its business plan for 2019-2023. The Group is contributing to the overall investment volume in the country and supporting the development and the improvement of the transport, infrastructure, logistics and tourism sectors. FS Italiane’s operating revenue grew to €12bn in 2018, producing an EBITDA of €2.5bn with a net result of €560m.

The FS Italiane Group employs about 83,000 people that operate, in Italy and abroad, about 10,000 trains and 200 million bus/kilometers a day. In 2018, the FS Italiane Group transported one billion people and 50 million tonnes of freight. Trenitalia provides mobility solutions to people with over 8,000 trains a day and is revolutionizing regional railway transport in Italy with an ongoing €6bn investment program to purchase 600 new commuter trains. The rail network, managed by Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, is over 24,500 kilometers long, of which more than 1,400 of high-speed rail. Anas is the company of FS Italiane that manages the national road network with over 30,000 km of state roads, highways and motorway junctions.