FirstGroup in ‘shock’ over Croydon tram crash
The boss of FirstGroup, the operator of the tragedy-struck Croydon Tramlink service, said he was “shocked and saddened” by last week’s crash which killed seven people.
The comments from Tim O’Toole came as First admitted that fewer Britons going shopping on the High Street together with more road traffic was hitting demand for bus travel.
The transport giant, which runs about a fifth of the UK’s local bus services, as well as owning Greyhound coaches, a big US school buses business and Great Western Railway, blamed the bus blues for pre-tax profit slipping 2.2% to £21.9 million in its traditionally less lucrative first half of the year.
On the Croydon crash, it has emerged a passenger wrote to bosses to warn them a tram had “tipped on one side” a week before the tram lethally derailed at the same corner.
O’Toole added that First was “working with the authorities to provide assistance in any way possible to those who have been affected and to the ongoing investigation”.
