Celebrating Our Centenary
Founded in 1919 originally as the 'Devon General Omnibus & touring company' with a route between Exeter and Torbay, a route we are proud to continue operating to this day as the X46. We have been the backbone of travel for the county from the very first day, I 2019 we celebrated 100 years of buses in Devon.
British electric traction era 1922 - 1969Devon General is one of the oldest and most historic bus companies in the United Kingdom. Bought in 1922 by Torbay Tramways for £36,000 (About £1.8 million in 2019). By 1931 the company has become part of British electric traction (BET) with Torbay's tram network closing down in 1934 and being replaced by buses.
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National bus company era 1969 - 1986By 1969 the entire BET operations became part of the National bus company (NBC) a government controlled organisation which nationalised the entire bus network in the United Kingdom. By 1970 the City of Exeter's bus network "Exeter Corporation" was merged into Devon General but with the lettering based route system continuing, instead of the usual numbers as per the rest of the UK.
In 1971 Devon General was merged into Western National (WN) operations continuing to use the name but with WN's Green livery instead of the usual red & cream. By 1983 Devon General was once again a separate company taking back it's former territory but also expanding with Tiverton operations coming under their control for the first time. |
Transit holdings era 1986 - 1996By 1986 privatisation of the NBC network was under way and Devon General was the first company to be privatised, being sold to a management buyout led by Harry Blundred. An experiment earlier in 1984 has based 22 midibuses in Exeter to create high frequency routes by the time the sale of Devon General was completed more than 200 midibuses existed in the fleet. In 1990 all services were converted to midibus operations and the company split into Devon General (Exeter & Tiverton) and Bayline (Torbay) in 1992.
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The company today 1996 - presentToday Devon General is a thriving company operating over 250 buses across South, Mid & East Devon with some services into North Devon. Since 2015 the company has expanded the use of ultra low emission vehicles and in 2018 the company ordered it's first electric vehicles to improve air quality in Torbay & Exeter.
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