On Sunday 26th June, 25 DGS members and guests enjoyed a tour of a number of the Exeter bus routes operated by Devon General and Exeter City Transport during the 1950s and 1960s. The tour belatedly marked the 50th anniversary of the takeover of ECT by DG in 1970, which brought to an end the 1947 Joint Services Agreement that had governed their operations within a 12 mile radius of Exeter.
Our transport for the day was the Devon General Omnibus Trust’s open-platform AEC Regent V VDV 817, which is representative of 23 such DG vehicles bought for Exeter city services between 1955 and 1957. Here’s 817 arriving at St David’s Station at the rather wet start to the day: bit.ly/3a7r2Ub (thanks to Terry Bennett for the video).
With the many changes in the Exeter road network since 1970 it wasn’t possible to follow the exact routes in all cases, and – with the notable exception of Crossmead – most of the turning circles which marked the terminii of city services are now inaccessible. However, photo stops were made nearby and 817 stood in as a green/cream bus on the ECT routes. Two forays were made out on to Joint Service Agreement country routes, visiting Clyst St George, Topsham and Broadclyst.
Posted 2nd July 2022