First Group suffers through bad winter

Blizzards affected the firm's rail and bus networks in the UK as well as operations in the United States, where it runs school buses and Greyhound coaches.

First said its underlying performance was in line with management hopes for the year to March 31 in spite of the disruption and a "challenging" trading environment.

The City had been expecting operating profits of around 450m from First this year.

The main impact of the snow fell on its US school bus business, where many operating days were cancelled as schools closed because of the weather.

Its UK rail arm – including First Great Western and First Capital Connect franchises – was least affected as the firm receives compensation payments from Network Rail when it cannot gain access to the network.

Higher volumes in a gradually recovering economy gave the division a stronger-than-expected final quarter with passenger revenue growth of 3.2 per cent, well ahead of the 1.7 per cent seen in the three months to December.

First is also the UK's biggest bus operator carrying around three million passengers a day in major cities. The bus division saw "steady" trading in the final quarter, with annual revenue growth of 1.8 per cent at the upper end of its forecasts.