First Bus has been named Scotland’s Public Transport Operator of the Year 2025 at the Scottish Transport Awards in Glasgow. The award, which is open to all Scottish bus, rail, tram and ferry operators, recognised the performance of First Bus across Greater Glasgow and Aberdeen over the last year. The operator reports that it completed over 96.5 million passenger journeys, a number which it says is growing year-on-year.
The company was recognised for its efforts to improve customer experience, reduce journey times and improve reliability, while showcasing its value in the communities it serves and attracting new customers to bus. Its investment in zero-emission buses and infrastructure was also commended, with over 270 zero-emission buses now in operation across Greater Glasgow and Aberdeen, and it has also extended its B2B electric charging offering to support businesses across the city in their transition to zero-emission transport with Openreach, Police Scotland, Ember and West Coast Motors all using the First Bus charging infrastructure.
The operator collected a second award on the night for Excellence in Technology and Innovation, receiving recognition for its use
of AI-driven timetables to improve reliability for customers on its services across Scotland, where it has introduced new timetables on over 60 services in the last 12 months to improve their performance to better reflect real life experience and resulting in improvements in punctuality of over 30%.
First Bus Scotland Managing Director Duncan Cameron said: “I am delighted First Bus has been recognised as Scotland’s Public Transport Operator of the Year.
We have worked extremely hard to make real, tangible changes to the overall customer experience while also doing everything in our power to ensure our services across Greater Glasgow and Aberdeen are more reliable for passengers.
“The award belongs to our thousands of colleagues across the country whose tireless efforts every day ensure we continue to deliver for our customers.”
