First group chief executive Moir Lockhead paid tribute to his staff last week after he became a knight in the Queen's birthday honours.

Lockhead, who has guided the Aberdeen-based bus and rail group into the FTSE 100, has been awarded a knighthood for services to transport. Responding to the news last week, 63-year-old Sir Moir said: "I am on a little bit of a high right now. I can't believe it really."

"It has been a massive 12 months for the company and I am very lucky to have so many good people around me - people who have done very well for the business. We have high expectations and these people really have exceeded those."

There were mixed reactions from the media. The Press and Journal, the newspaper for the North East of Scotland, congratulated Lockhead on his "thoroughly deserved and possibly rather belated" knighthood. The paper said: "Throughout this meteoric rise, the newly-designated Sir Moir has never lost his down-to-earth approach and easy manner which makes princes and paupers comfortable in his company."

However, the City Diary in The Times was less complimentary, pointing to poor performance at train operator First Great Western. "[First Group] deliberately misled the Department for Transport over the number of trains cancelled, the true number being so high that it was in breach of its franchise" the paper said. "This came to light in February and four months later the man in charge gets a knighthood.

"Shades of "Sir" Ian McAllister, chairman of Network Rail, who got his gong at Christmas, when large chunks of the network were in chaos, and has yet to hand it back. These people are beyond shame, obviously."