To express a personal view for a moment, the UK transport franchise operators are just the sort of companies I dislike investing in. The earnings are notoriously lumpy and can be upset by the vagaries of the weather. The whole thing can be derailed (sorry about that) by some upset such as the loss of an important rail franchise.
FirstGroup is in the middle of a significant restructuring that should see it generating sufficient free cash to support its hefty debts. For every business in the group that is heading in the right direction, though — these transport metaphors seem unavoidable — there is another going into reverse. FirstGroup shares have been poor performers over the past year, as the graph shows, though they perked