First Chester & The Wirral

First Chester & The Wirral

First Chester & Wirral was formerly a division of bus operator First Manchester Ltd., running local bus services in and around Chester and the Wirral, north west England. The company was a subsidiary of FirstGroup plc, one the largest bus operators in Britain. In November 2012, it was announced that Stagecoach Merseyside had purchased the business from First Group.

The operation consisted of two depots, one in Chester and one in Rock Ferry, Wirral. Both depots originally belonged to the former Crosville Motor Services, and were purchased (along with the since-closed Ellesmere Port depot) by Potteries Motor Traction in February 1990.

The first takeover saw the company known as PMT and then First PMT before being split into two groups, both of which still had the headquarters in Stoke-on-Trent under First Potteries. The original Potteries Motor Traction was named First Staffordshire & South Cheshire and the north Cheshire and Wirral operations being called First Chester & The Wirral.

First Chester & The Wirral remained part of First Potteries until 2010, when the company was split into two, with the Staffordshire operations being passed to First Midlands, with its headquarters based in Leicester and the Chester & Wirral operations passing to First Manchester, with its headquarters based in Oldham.

The company also operated eleven Blue Bird AARE 60-seat school buses in the Wrexham area. Wrexham depot was classed as an outstation of Chester depot, although a separate operator's licence was held for those operations, as Wrexham is located in the Welsh Traffic Area.