company to land £20m contractit will carry crowds to London games
Aberdeen’s FirstGroup wins the race for 2012 Olympics
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Aberdeen-based transport giant FirstGroup has won the race to provide fleets of buses for spectators at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
The company could be asked to lay on about 900 vehicles to help hundreds of thousands of people from all corners of the world get around the event, which runs from July 28 to August 12.
Nearly 80 firms expressed an interest but FirstGroup was yesterday named the preferred bidder for the prestigious deal, which is worth around £20million.
And last night the firm’s success was hailed as “great news” and an “inspiration” to other Scottish businesses.
The contract is expected to be signed by FirstGroup later this year.
Its chief executive, Sir Moir Lockhead, said: “We are pleased to be the preferred bidder for this important contract to transport spectators during the London games.
“We look forward to using our expertise and experience in working with the Olympic Delivery Authority to meet the travel requirements of spectators.”
The firm provided buses for athletes, officials and media at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. A spokesman said FirstGroup will be using vehicles from its own fleets in the UK for the London games, as well as sub-contracting work to other bus firms nationwide.
He said its drivers from Scotland would probably be offered the opportunity to work at the Olympics.
“We asked for volunteer drivers from our operations around the country for the Manchester games and are likely to do the same again for London,” he said.
The spokesman insisted there would be no impact on FirstGroup’s bus services in Aberdeen and other cities.
He added: “We will be making sure this doesn’t happen.
“Even if we only used our own buses, it would still be only about 10% of our vehicles in the UK, but we have already said we will be sub-contracting out some of the work to other bus firms.
“We have no plans to cut services elsewhere in the UK during the Olympics.
“That just wouldn’t work for existing customers.”
Minister for the Olympics, Tessa Jowell, said good bus services were essential to the smooth running of the games, and described FirstGroup as an essential player in the event.
“Hundreds of thousands of spectators will be using buses and coaches to get to Olympic venues in 2012, making this a very important contract,” she said.
“I congratulate FirstGroup for winning it – it is now as much a part of the 2012 team as the construction firms across the country building the park.”
Transport Minister Sadiq Khan said: “Good transport is absolutely vital to a successful games.
“This contract will provide crucial links. It also demonstrates that the benefits of London 2012 are being felt throughout the UK, providing a vital economic boost at a time of financial difficulty.”
Olympic Delivery Authority transport director, Hugh Sumner, said: “We are aiming for the first public transport games in 2012 – with spectators arriving at venues by rail, walking, cycling and coach services.
“About 10% of spectators will use direct coach services, and a further 11% will use park-and-ride services to get to events and venues across the country.”
North-east MSP Alex Johnstone, the Tories’ transport spokesman at Holyrood, hailed it as great news for an Aberdeen-based company.
“It is important that 2012 is Britain's Olympic Games and not just London's,” he said.
“Scotland must share in and benefit from this achievement, and it is a welcome development that FirstGroup becomes another Scottish company to provide a contract for the 2012 Olympic Games.”
Aberdeen Central MSP and Labour transport spokesman Lewis Macdonald said: “This is good news for FirstGroup and Aberdeen and also good news for Scottish business and jobs.”
Readers' Comments
Well let's hope the services provided are more reliable than those provided here in Aberdeen. But if the events are held at a place called "Sorry I'm NOt In Service", they'll have the best service, comparable to our own.
Ron Campbell
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God! can you imagine the state of the roads in London are going to be in with diesel spillages from First bus busses if our streets in Aberdeen are anything to go by. Check out the state of our bus lanes and bus stops in the town if any more proof is required.
Keith Stirton
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One good thing, in years to come, all the new buses that they've bought, will eventually end up in Aberdeen.
Ian Stewart
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Congratulations to FirstGroup but, unlike Labour's Lewis Macdonald MSP, I doubt whether many Aberdonians or other Scots will be dancing in the streets at the news. The original cost of staging the Games was put at a modest £2.4billion. The UK Government says this figure has risen to about £9.5 billion. However, William Hill will offer you odds of 11/10 that the final cost will soar to a staggering $20billion or more. The benefits to Scotland will be approximately zero -- in fact we will be worse off. A lot of your hard-earned income tax will be required to pay for this grandiose folly, as will most of the revenue raised from everything from North Sea oil to the that of the National Lottery. Even the official Games logo (which looks like a smashed chamber pot) cost £400,000 to design. Gordon Brown tells us not to worry. There will be financial benefits to London, including new transport links and the regeneration of a deprived part of the East End. All Scotland will get is a couple of football matches at Hampden or Murrayfield -- and it will even be a "Great Britain" team which is playing!
Stuart West
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Stuart you beat me to it. Still here you are. Now where is Minnie?
alan reid
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"London is one of the world's great cities" Kind of not surprising given the level of investment channelled into the British Capital and the rest of the South East, including the portion which is spun as a Scottish "investment" : . £30 billion subway upgrade program see - tinyurl.com/6sxrgv . £5.9 billion on one London railway station see - tinyurl.com/6yheht . £16 billion For another London rail line see - tinyurl.com/yphdwl . £1 billion to upgrade an existing railway station see - tinyurl.com/5sn8mm . three quarters of a billion on a Dome ! see - tinyurl.com/6h6ezn . Followed of course by yet another London regeneration project £5 billion see tinyurl.com/5l3jp3 . £6 billion Channel Tunnel Rail Link see - tinyurl.com/4pg53n . £2.5 billion -Roads just around the Docklands in London see - tinyurl.com/55wh6b . £3.2 billion For Another Tube line see - tinyurl.com/5qjoao . £1 billion improvement to an existing Light Rail Line see - tinyurl.com/6q2424 . £20 billion for a Second Thames flood barrier planned see - tinyurl.com/5uf79a . A £4 billion greenhouse tower over Batersea power station see- tinyurl.com/6ac8hn . £9.3 billion for the Channel Tunnel - see tinyurl.com/6s4vsb . £4.3 billion for a 5th Heathrow Terminal see - tinyurl.com/2h5hx6 . £5 billion Upgrade other London airport upgrades see - tinyurl.com/5oe82n . £10 billion Plans for Heathrow link to Channel tunnel see - tinyurl.com/568dzq . £13 billion for a third runway Heathrow runway see - tinyurl.com/3bgdtt . £9 billion for Brown's plans to transform Thames Gateway see - tinyurl.com/4kr3pt . £18 billion London Olympics ( including £200 + million stolen from the Scottish Lottery) see - tinyurl.com/olympicscam The London Olympics is just another example of Scotland building up the infrastructure of the South East and British Capital, and of course we are told the breadcrumbs we will get will be sufficient for us. 2% of the contracts Scottish companies are currently getting is hardly even a breadcrumb - see - tinyurl.com/3jbu2d So just what benefit is Scotland going to get from the London Olympics. From the official Economic Impact analysis of the London Olympics (see tinyurl.com/6my6gp ) we have : "The implication of this is that for the rest of the UK (excluding London), London 2012 will have a negative impact on GDP of c.£4 billion caused by the displacement of resources and activities towards London." "A change in the number of businesses created is also forecast and implies a considerable negative impact to the rest of the UK (excluding London) resulting from business closure or displacement towards the London economy." "Again this implies a huge negative effect on jobs in the rest of the UK (excluding London)" And this report was before the massive and obscene cost over runs from the original estimate of £4 billion to now at least £14 billion see - tinyurl.com/6p43bv Additionally £200+ million has been taken from the Scottish lottery. see - tinyurl.com/6pyd43 On top of all that the "positive" impact we are told the games will means that it counts towards Scotlands expenditure in the latest GER Report and will do so in subsequent GERS reports !! As of course do our involuntary contributions to Trident, The Iraq War, etc. see - tinyurl.com/6m9lsm Scotland is just being treated with absolute disdain and likely the most we will get out of this that our begging for breadcrumbs from the masters table might, just might mean we recover a small portion of our "investment". Scotland needs to be rid of these British parasites as quickly as possible.
alan reid
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And how about this waste of space that Scots are forced to contribute to - "Jack Lemley, the last man to run London’s Olympic Delivery Authority — which is spending the budget — has said that London’s final bill could be a dire £20billion. " "Extravagant: No amount of money is being spared on building the stadium" and what will happen with the latest White Elephant of inefficiency - "the 80,000-seat stadium is its post-Olympic future — or ‘legacy’, as Lord Coe likes to call it. Once the Games are over, most of the stadium will be torn down to leave a 25,000-seat athletics site. " "The Government is begging us to believe that the bill will not go any higher." Of course out sycophancy of our Brit Nat comrades ensures they will believe any spin from the proven liars in Westminster - talk about unbelievable naivity. And also as reminder of one of many other White Elephant tributes to the British Capital "the £750 million Millennium Dome was a good example of what happens when wishful thinking by grand public committees shunts commercial realism aside." see - tinyurl.com/dyx2za " impact on other parts of the 'country'" So just what impact is Scotland getting from the London Olympics. From the official UK Economic Impact analysis of the London Olympics (see tinyurl.com/6my6gp ) we have : "The implication of this is that for the rest of the UK (excluding London), London 2012 will have a negative impact on GDP of c.£4 billion caused by the displacement of resources and activities towards London." Why should any Scot sacrifice a single penny on areas like child poverty, health care, police, education, creating jobs in Scotland, instead of having the monies annexed to subsidise London yet again ? Perhaps the Brit Nats can tell what great benefits Scotland is getting from having our monies used for the London Olympics rather than being spent in Scotland for the benefit of Scots first and foremost ? I'll give you guys a clue we do not regard the following plan as a benefit - A useful FOI release highlights the lies within this Union. A while back there was a denial of any plans to dump huge amounts of toxic waste for the London Olympics in Scotland. Again just lies, this FOI release makes it clear that substantial planning has occurred to dump up to 36,000 tonnes of toxic waste from the London Olympics in Scotland. see - tinyurl.com/ce2jz4 Union dividends galore :) 2012 Olympic games to top 20billion ? William Hill believe there is every chance the the final official cost of the 2012 Olympics will top £20billion. With the government currently insisting that the cost will be £9.35bn, Hills have opened a book on what will be the final official cost of the London Olympics as confirmed by the government, and they offer 16/1 that it will come in at under £10bn. Hills offer 4/6 that the final cost will be between £10bn and £20bn, and quote 11/10 that it will soar to over £20bn. Hill's spokesman Graham Sharpe said: "With several years still to go it seems highly unlikely that the government will be able to keep costs down to under £10bn and in all likelihood the costs will continue to rise significantly. "We think there is every chance that it will eventually more than double." 16 Jan 2009 Steve Norris, the former Tory transport minister who is a key member of the Boris Johnson mayoralty, has admitted that the London 2012 Olympic Games could cost nearly £20bn.Independent - 19 Oct 2008
alan reid
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Still on the bright side at least a Scottish company gor some of our monet back. Another Union dividened!
alan reid
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