page_title: East Kent Road Car Company
section_title: Post-war
hierarchical_section_title: East Kent Road Car Company / History / Post-war
caption_attribution_description: British English: East Kent AEC Regent V, registration PFN 853, fleet number 853, on Southsea Common, 1989. Scanned from a Kodachrome 35mm slide.
context_page_description: 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.
context_section_description: After the war, orders were placed for 50 Leyland Tiger 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 PD1As with Leyland bodywork. These were delivered in 1947 and 1948. East Kent was one of many operators to use rebodied buses as a way to extend their service life. Prewar Leyland Titans went to ECW for this treatment whilst 28 Leyland Titan TD5s were rebuilt as coaches by Beadle at Dartford. The company began to standardise on Guy Arabs for double decker buses and AEC Reliances for single deckers and coaches, although Dennises and Leylands were also acquired. In the mid-1950s, two of the company's bus stations were rebuilt, Folkestone and Canterbury - both surviving today in refurbished form.
  In the late 1950s, East Kent launched its first open-top bus service with conversion of some of the wartime Guys. 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 Vs arrived. These were delivered to Thanet and were bodied by Park Royal to a full front, front entrance 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 1980s. AEC also became the main supplier of single-deck buses and coaches, too, with batches of BET style bodied AEC Reliances entering the fleet as well as Park Royal, Plaxton and Duple bodied coaches.
caption: East Kent AEC Regent V on Southsea Common
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