|
First Student UK is the brand used by FirstGroup for student transport in the United Kingdom. The brand was originally used in the United States for school transport there, and was expanded to the United Kingdom in 2000.〔(About First Student UK )〕 First Student UK is a pioneer in the introduction of task-specific school buses in Britain, usually painted school bus yellow to distinguish them from conventional buses. ==Development== :''For a background to the development of First Student UK, see Student transport#Switch to dedicated school buses'' First Student and First in West Yorkshire successfully piloted one of the first yellow school bus schemes in the Huddersfield and Calderdale area in 2000. In 2002, another early scheme began in Wrexham, Wales. It was also contracted to First, who began to operate the scheme in June of that year. FirstGroup's chief executive Moir Lockhead said "we believe that the yellow school bus offers the safest, most reliable way to transport children to and from school". As with other schemes, including one in Runnymede in Surrey set up around the same time, First had to open new bases to operate the school buses, having no other operations in the respective areas. The first schemes also had buses built like traditional US school buses, whereas later schemes have more conventional UK bus shapes. By October 2002, FirstGroup's first Welsh scheme had proved successful enough for the fleet of buses to be doubled. As further schemes developed, First became more involved in setting up schemes. First Berkshire, already running the Runnymede First Student service, won the contract from Surrey County Council in 2005 to operate the Ride Pegasus! school bus scheme, although using buses in a different livery. However, this ended in July 2010 following the withdrawal of funding.〔(First Berkshire & The Thames Valley - "About us" ) Accessed 30 April 2008〕〔(Surrey County Council - Access Buses ) Accessed 10 May 2008 〕 In December 2007, a yellow school bus visited Perth, Scotland, to test reactions. FirstGroup suggested that their research shows 86% of British parents would like to send their children to school in dedicated buses. To develop this system in the United Kingdom the company decided to bring in American knowledge in the form of managing director Linda Howard, who had owned and operated her own school bus company in the States before it was acquired by First.〔(Putting students first (1 of 2) )〕〔(Putting students first (2 of 2) )〕 In 2008, one bus toured the country on trials.〔(BBC News Video - "Bus boss explains yellow buses" ) Accessed 22 July 2008〕 The campaigns continued. Former Home Secretary David Blunkett supports the use of yellow school buses, and in 2008 worked with First to campaign for wider use of the school bus system. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「First Student UK」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|