First South West

First South West

A First South West Dennis Dart, seen operating Coypool Park & Ride in 2006.
Parent	FirstGroup
Headquarters	Camborne
Service area	Cornwall Somerset
Service type	Bus services
Routes	82
Depots	6
Fleet	419 (September 2015)
Website	firstkernow.co.uk, busesofsomerset.co.uk

First South West is a bus company operating services in the English counties of Somerset and Cornwall. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup.

First South West includes the First Kernow, Buses of Somerset and Buses of Taunton brands.

First South West was known as 'First Devon & Cornwall' until 2015. This had been formed from two previous FirstGroup companies: Western National in Cornwall and south Devon, and Red Bus in north Devon. FirstGroup purchased independent Cornish operator Truronian in April 2008 and merged it into First Devon & Cornwall.First Somerset & Avon routes around Taunton and Bridgwater were transferred to First Devon & Cornwall in 2014 and rebranded as The Buses of Somerset.

On 6 September 2015, the Plymouth, Dartmouth and garages were taken over by Stagecoach South West. Torpoint depot is being used to store the unused members of the fleet. At the same time, First Devon & Cornwall changed their name to First South West to reflect their new area of operation which is only in Cornwall and south Somerset.

First South West routes cover much of Cornwall. It operates the Park & Ride service in Truro. In March 2015, First Kernow commenced operating some of Western Greyhound following its sudden closure.

As at March 2013 the fleet consisted of 240 buses and coaches.

First South West operate one of the older FirstGroup fleets with an average of 11.6 years. New purchases are rare with most buses transferred from other group fleets.