East Kent Road Car Company

The East Kent Road Car Company Ltd was a bus company formed in 1916 and based in Canterbury, Kent. The company operated bus and coach services in Kent. In 1993 it was one of the first companies to be acquired by the Stagecoach Group, which eventually rebranded the operation as Stagecoach in East Kent, and made it part of the Stagecoach South East bus division.

East Kent serves the area after which it was named and at one time also served part of East Sussex, operations in Rye and Hastings passing to Maidstone & District Motor Services in return for that company's Ashford interests. Since acquisition by the Stagecoach Group, the company has made some radical alterations to its traditional route network, linking some services into long distance circulars.

East Kent Road Car Company Limited was officially formed on 11 August 1916. It was an amalgamation of Deal & District Motor Services, Wacher & Co (Herne Bay), Margate Canterbury & District), Ramsgate Motor Coaches, and Folkestone & District. The new company began trading on 1 September 1916. From 1928, the Southern Railway became a significant (49%) shareholder in the company. From 1929, an arrangement was made with the British 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, with the trams being quickly replaced with motor buses.

During the Second World War, East Kent vehicles were regular targets for enemy aircraft and their long-range guns from across The Channel, on the French coast, before the fall of France. To try to combat this, the cream-coloured roofs of the buses were repainted grey to help make them less visible. The company experienced many vehicle losses during this time, especially at Dover where the garage suffered a direct hit in 1942, killing several staff. Lots of the vehicles had been lent out or contracted away, some stationed in the Midlands; and this, coupled with those written off by enemy action, led to severe shortages. This was alleviated, somewhat, with the delivery of 10 Guy Arabs with utility Park Royal bodywork.

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