Private company

First Northampton

Bus operator in Northampton, England

First Northampton was a bus company in Northampton. It was a subsidiary of FirstGroup and part of the First Midlands division. It ceased operating on 14 September 2013.2 It is part of FirstGroup plc.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 20, 2026.

Overview

1993Founded1

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K121 URP 38121 Volvo Citybus - Alexander RV, First Northampton, 26-6-2013 (9174194687) (cropped)
Photo: Charlie from United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons4

First Northampton was a bus company in Northampton. It was a subsidiary of FirstGroup and part of the First Midlands division. It ceased operating on 14 September 2013.2

Corporate structure

First Northampton is part of a group headed by FirstGroup plc. 56 entities, 5 countries on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

Built from parent and subsidiary links from GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (CC0); subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0). Each entity in the chart links to its source.

The story

First Northampton was originally a municipal bus company, Northampton Transport Ltd, owned and operated by Northampton Borough Council. In 1993 the council sold the company to the GRT Group, who in April 1995 became part of FirstGroup.

During July 2013 it was announced via Northamptonshire County Council's website that route 4 would be withdrawn on 11 August. It was also later announced that the remaining services would be withdrawn on 14 September 2013.

From Wikipedia’s article on First Northampton, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Products and brands

Fleet

Following the withdrawal of a number of services during June 2013, some vehicles were transferred to other FirstGroup operations. Following further reductions in services during August 2013 a number of older vehicles including the three remaining Volvo Citybuses followed. At the time of the final services being withdrawn the fleet consisted of nine Wright Axcess-Floline bodied Scania L113CRLs.

As at March 2013 the fleet consisted of 38 buses.

Services

First Northampton operated all of their services from Greyfriars Bus Station.

First Northampton confirmed via their Twitter account on 29 May 2013 that they would be withdrawing services 12, 23, 28, 29 and 30, most of the services were taken over by Stagecoach, Uno and Country Lion.

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First Northampton's school contracts concluded in July 2013 and were not renewed.

Service 4 to Obelisk Rise was withdrawn along with the Sunday operations of services 2 & 4A on 11 August. Services 2 was withdrawn on 13 September 2013.

From Wikipedia’s article on First Northampton, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Subsidiaries and ownership

Parent company

From Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. Sep 14, 2013Dissolved Dissolved1
  2. 1993Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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