Blackfriar: It's FirstGroup's passengers that really deserve a medal

As a daily traveller on the group's First Capital Connect service into the City of London, Blackfriar knows first hand the misery that FirstGroup can inflict on its passengers.

Last month transport secretary Lord Adonis threatened to strip FirstGroup of the London franchise, describing its service as "unacceptable".

He even went so far as to say that the company's "substandard" performance is "a matter of acute concern to me and my department".

But FirstGroup doesn't just single Londoners out – oh no it has inflicted misery on passengers across the country.

In Yorkshire the group operates First Hull Trains, which has come in for a barrage of abuse from passengers including former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

The Hull East MP has complained about delays and problems on the route and in a video posted on website Youtube, he said: "I have constantly been on about the lousy service of First Hull Trains.

"The toilets do not work, trains are cancelled, the delays, and no hot or cold food. Despite all my complaints, it makes no difference." This is a common gripe among First's passengers, the service gets worse and worse and still nothing happens.

Former BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan summed up the anger and frustration among passengers when he described FirstGroup as "an organisation which specialises in taking functioning transport services and reducing them to chaos. It is carefully working through all the bits of its empire, one by one".

Indeed passengers on First Great Western were so cheesed off they launched fare strikes in a bid to vent their fury on a company that seems to believe it is above the rules that apply to other transport groups.

It may be referred to as "Cursed Group" by its passengers – one of the politer terms – but its shareholders love FirstGroup. It rakes in the profits for them. Why should they care if passengers are left fuming?

And so now in an act of apparent lunacy, the Olympic Delivery Authority has appointed FirstGroup to run the 2012 transport.

Maybe it is keen for the Olympic spectators to really feel involved in the 2012 Games.

One thing is for sure, they will know the true meaning of the word marathon after a trip with FirstGroup. They have two years to get their act together.

History has repeatedly demonstrated the pitfalls awaiting businesses that rely too heavily on one customer. In the old days when contracts with Marks & Spencer made up a third of pizza and pie-maker Northern Foods' revenues, profits warnings were a regular occurrence at the Leeds-based manufacturer.

Across the border in Scotland, Edinburgh microchip company Wolfson Microelectronics used to do more than quarter of its business with Apple – until the electronic gadgets group abandoned it and forced Wolfson to its first annual loss.

Similarly, rail maintenance group Jarvis's reliance on "one very demanding customer", Network Rail, has given the York company an almighty headache over the past year. Network Rail contracts made up about 90 per cent of its rail division's earnings, so its decision to defer spending on a 4bn portion of its track renewal programme hit Jarvis hard. Volumes of work collapsed forcing Jarvis to cut its 3,000-strong workforce to about 2,200. It is likely to report a 5m operating loss this year.

Blackfriar believes new chief executive Stuart Laird is going about transforming Jarvis the right way, with a target of 25 per cent of non-Network Rail revenues this year.

Winning a 55m contract with Chiltern Railways and a small signalling deal with London Underground demonstrates sound progress. It's been a painful lesson to learn.