Outline of “Face value”, April 4th-10th

Face value: Sir Moir Lockhead http://www.economist.com/people/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13403819

British public transport is miserable. I remember the accident which was happened when I went trip to the UK. In 2005, I went through London and used railway from Heathrow Airport to Stansted Airport. I rode the train, but it was stopped suddenly. There was almost no announcement in the train. Actually there was, but it was too fast and unclear for me to follow. An old couple kindly told me that it seemed railway or something was on fire, and the train could not run anymore. They said the announcement was unclear even for the native speaker... They recommended me to catch a bus, so I waited a long que to take one. Finally I got to the Stansted airport, however the accident took hours to get there so that I missed my flight. I claimed to the train company desk, but there was no compensation at all.

According to this week's Face value, there is a British transport company that make success both Britain and America. I wish it should offer a great service!

Par. 1. Introduction. In Britain, a numbers of companies which are respected abroad, receive bad reputation in their homeland. First Group is the one of that kind of companies. Sir Moir Lockhead is the chief executive of the group. Par. 2. First Group in Britain. Criticized so much for late arrival of their train, though First Group is the largest train operator in its country. Ironic customers call First Great Western service from "Worst Great Western". Par. 3. Personality of Sir Moir. He lives in a large farm at the Scotish city of Aberdeen, with breeding Aberdeen Angus cattle. He was the general manager of municipal bus company in Aberdeen. Due to political change, the company was privatised. After that, he made First Group to be emerged as one of Britain's leading private bus firms, by management buy-out of the other bus company. Par. 4. Career of Sir Moir; history of First Group. The Group moved into the American market, and tookover American bus companies such as Ryder Transportation and Laidlaw group. It made First the largiest operator of school buses in the US and Canada. Par. 5. Reputation of First Group these days. The company gained sales that is 57%  more than a year before.  The share price in March this year was quite high as the firm predicted solid results. Par. 6. Current status of First Group. There were rumours that First would sell Greyhound brand as it was losing its attractiveness. However First invested Greyhound to improve its service and punctuality. Although demand for ticket is weakened due to the economy, the company says cashflow and profits are improving. Par. 7. Stable position of First Group. Running public transport in both Britain and America works as a shelter for First Group. Customer's demand for outsourcing support their business as well.