First London was a bus company operating services in east, west and south-east London, England. It was a subsidiary of FirstGroup and operated buses under contract to Transport for London. It was formed in the late 1990s through the acquisition of three London bus operators. First London's garages were sold off between December 2007 and June 2013 with the last closing in September 2013.
Company history
FirstGroup was formed as FirstBus on 16 May 1995, through the merger of Badgerline and the GRT Group.
Although what became First London was established in 1997, FirstBus could trace its involvement in London bus services back to 1990 when Badgerline acquired Eastern National, the Essex-based former National Bus Company subsidiary that had operated numerous routes in East London since tendering began in 1985. These operations were subsequently transferred to a new division, Thamesway Buses, before being recombined with Eastern National in the late 1990s as First Essex.
In March 1997, FirstBus purchased CentreWest, which had been established in April 1989 as a subsidiary of London Regional Transport before being sold in a management buyout during the privatisation of London bus services in September 1994. Since 1993 CentreWest had been using local identities based on each of its garages, such as Ealing Buses at Greenford garage and Challenger at Alperton garage, and in March 1996 it had acquired Southall based London Buslines from the Q-Drive group. All these identities were originally retained, buses receiving new-style fleetnames incorporating FirstBus's corporate f logo.
In December 1997, FirstBus rebranded as FirstGroup. Subsequently, CentreWest was renamed First CentreWest, while the buses' fleetnames were revised again so that "First" was prominent, the local identities becoming secondary.
On 8 July 1998, FirstGroup purchased Capital Citybus. It was subsequently renamed First Capital.
In March 2001, First consolidated the CentreWest and Capital operations under the First London brand. Both were managed from CentreWest's head office beside Paddington station, as was First Berkshire & The Thames Valley, the former Beeline operation that had also been acquired by CentreWest from Q-Drive in 1996. The London Buslines operation was wound down, with its routes, buses and license all being transferred to CentreWest by September 2001.
In December 2007 the company's Orpington business, which had been established by CentreWest in 1995, was sold to Metrobus, along with 35 buses. In March 2012, Northumberland Park garage was sold to London General.
In June 2013, FirstGroup sold Alperton, Greenford, Hayes, Uxbridge and Willesden Junction garages with 494 buses to Metroline and Atlas Road (Park Royal), Lea Interchange (Leyton) and Westbourne Park garages with 412 buses to Tower Transit.
First London ceased operating on 27 September 2013 after its remaining contracts with Transport for London expired.
Fleet
As of June 2013 the fleet consisted of 1,034 buses, the majority passed on to Tower Transit & Metroline West, some were retained to operate routes out of Dagenham before moving on to other First operations.
First Capital East Limited
Operated one bus garage in Dagenham.
Dagenham (DM) Dagenham garage operated London bus routes 165, 179 and 252, and 24-hour route 365 until 27 September 2013 when their contracts expired. They all passed to Stagecoach London.
History
Previously operated a garage in Harold Wood which closed in 2004, and was an outstation of Dagenham.
On 26 March 2011, First Capital commenced operating route 368.
On 3 September 2011, First Capital commenced operating routes 608 and 648.
On 10 March 2012, First Capital commenced operating route 667.
On 30 March 2012, the Northumberland Park allocation for route 58 was transferred.
On 22 June 2013, routes 193, 368, 498 plus school routes 608, 646, 648, 652, 656, 667, 679 and 686 passed to Blue Triangle.
On 17 August 2013, Essex route 265 passed to Amber Coaches.
First Capital North Limited
Operated one bus garage, sold to Tower Transit on 22 June 2013.
Lea Interchange (LI) Lea Interchange garage in Leyton operated London bus routes 26, 30, 58, 236, 308, 339, RV1, W14, W15, 24-hour route 25, night bus N26 and school route 686.