East Kent Road Car Company Limited

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The [East Kent Road Car Company Ltd] was officially formed on 11th August 1916. It was an amalgamation of Deal & District Motor Services, Watcher & Co of Herne Bay, Margate Canterbury & District, Ramsgate Motor Coaches and Folkestone & District. The new company began trading on 1st September 1916. From 1928 the Southern Railway became a significant share holder in the company, later from 1929 an arrangement was made with the Post Office where letter boxes would be installed on some vehicles. Moving into the 1930s saw the take overs of the tramways of Dover and Thanet, the trams were quickly replaced with motor buses.

During the second world war East Kent Road Car Company was right on the front line with the fall of France, indeed the vehicles were regular targets for enemy aircraft and the long range guns across The Channel on the French coast. To try to combat this the cream parts of the buses were repainted grey to help make them less of a target. The Company experianced many losses during this sad time especially at Dover where the garage had a direct hit in 1942 killing several staff. Lots of the vehicles had been loaned or contract away with some outstationed in the Midlands coupled with those written off by enemy action meant severe shorages. This was aided with the delivery of 10 Guy Arabs with utility Park Royal bodywork.

After the war orders were placed for 50 Leyland PS1 coaches and 60 Dennis Lancet single decker service buses. These arrived between 1946 and 1949. In September 1946 East Kent ordered 50 Leyland Titan PD1A 's with Leyland bodywork. These were delivered in 1947 and 1948. Also East Kent was one of many operators to use rebodying buses as a way to extend a vehicles life. Pre war Leyland Titans went to ECW for this treatment whilst 28 Leyland TD5's were rebuilt as coaches by Beadle at Dartford. This was a very busy period for East Kent as few people had cars and most holidayed in this country, the East Kent area being popular with holidaymakers. The company began to standardise on Guy Arabs for double decker buses and AEC Reliances for single deckers and coaches although Dennis' and Leylandswere also acquired too. In the mid 50's two of the company's bus stations were rebuilt, Folkestone and Canterbury- both which are around today in refurbished forms.

In the late 50's East Kent launched it's first open top bus service with some of the wartime Guys converted. Painted in the reverse cream and red livery they operated out of Thanet garage. Later Herne Bay, Dover and Folkestone also operated open top vehicles. Around this time the first AEC Regent's arrived. These were delivered to Thanet and were bodied by Park Royal to a full front, front enterance design and arrived in 1959. Later AEC Regents reverted to the half cab layout but all were bodied by Park Royal and many would survive into the late 1970s and early 80's. AEC also became the main supplier of single deck buses and coaches too with batches of BET style bodied Reliances entering the fleet as well as Park Royal, Plaxton and Duple bodied coaches.

East Kent was taken over by the National Bus Company on 1st January 1969, during this time the company's first rear engined double deckers arrived. These were 20 Daimler Fleetlines with Park Royal bodywork for Thanet garage. These were also the Company's first OMO (one man operated) double deckers. Later on some AEC Regents were also converted to OMO to reduce the cost of having 2 crew on each bus but these tended to be used only at peak hours. In 1971 the last buses were delivered in the traditional maroon and cream livery, these were 12 AEC Swifts with Alexander bodywork. Leyland Nationals started to enter the fleet in the 70's bringing with them the National Bus Company standard livery of Poppy Red and white, although this faded badly and was normally more akin to orange than red! In the mid 70's the Bristol VRT entered the fleet, the first batch having 14'6 ECW bodywork. Later batches had rare Willowbrook bodies before the final batch reverted to the standard 13'8 ECW body, by that time the NBC's standard vehicle. These cleared the last of the AEC Regents from normal passenger service in the early 80's although some had a swangsong on the park and ride for the Open Golf and Sandwich, whilst others were used on contracts and for driver training.

On Sunday 26th October 1986 (D -Day) all the bus companies were deregulated, East Kent amongst them. The management at East Kent entered into negotiations with the NBC sales team in October 1986 and following some hot competition from a French bidder the company was sold to management team on 5th March 1987. The NBC 'double arrow' was quickly removed from the vehicles to be replaced by a red EK in a white box. A new livery was introduced of cherry red and cream but it would take several years to compleatly remove all the NBC livery. Minibuses had entered the fleet in a big was, cutting a dash in bold yellow 'Minilink' livery. These vehicles were used to boost ailing passenger numbers by serving estates not accesible to larger vehicles and offering a better frequency of service. Also to help cover a new route network introduced, 12 Leyland Atlanteans from Northern General arrived. These were later replaced by more Atlanteans from Greater Manchester Transport. The Company's first new double deckers for nearly 7 years arrived in the form of 10 MCW Metrobuses. Meanwhile 2 new MCW Hi-Liner coaches were purchaised for the coaching fleet. More Metrobuses arrived the following year some fitted with coach seating. Later when MCW ceased production the Company turned to once again to Leyland for new buses, these being Olympians with Northern Counties bodywork.

1991 saw East Kent celibrate 75 years of service and MCW Metrobus 7755 (E755UKR) was repainted in the tradional livery. In the summer of 1993 the management sold out to a bid from the Perth based transport group, Stagecoach. The coaching side of the business was soon sold off by Stagecoach as was 2 garages and part of Westwood (Thanet) garage for redevelopment. The then standard Stagecoch livery began to creep into the East Kent . Eventually the maroon and cream was lost to the dredded stripes! Despite this Stagecoach invested heavily in new vehicles and upgrading routes. East Kent also gained the contract for operating the Canterbury Park and Ride around this time, a service they still operate today.

During 2002 Canterbury bus station was given a much needed makeover whilst in 2004 Folkestone bus station was refurbished too. Low floor buses on branded routes have become a big part of Stagecoach's business plans. They also introduced a much more attractive modern livery and the company now trades as Stagecoach in East Kent although the legal lettering remains unchanged. Today, branded routes such as The Loop, The Diamond, The Triangle, The Link, The Stars and The Heart operate in every major town in the area boosting passenger ridership with brand new low floor easy access buses. The old East Kent may have gone but some old habits remain- the vehicles are still know as cars for example. Hopefully under the wing of Stagecoach East Kent will continue to flourish and proudly serve the people of east Kent.