Stagecoach South West

Stagecoach South West is a bus operator providing services in Devon and East Cornwall along with coach services to Bristol. It is a subsidiary of Stagecoach.

The Devon General Omnibus and Touring Company commenced operations in South Devon in 1919 with two bus routes from Exeter to Torquay. In 1922, Torquay Tramways purchased the company, although it was operated as a subsidiary of the National Electric Construction Company (NECC) and the tramway company's motor buses were transferred to Devon General. In 1931, the NECC became a part of the British Electric Traction Group. British Electric Traction's bus operations, including Devon General, became part of the National Bus Company when it was formed in 1969. In April 1970, the Exeter City Council's buses and routes were transferred to Devon General but the city's unusual use of route letters (as opposed to numbers) continued. In January 1971, the bus operations of Devon General were transferred to neighbouring Western National but the Devon General name was retained as a brand. that operated in south and east Devon as the old Devon General had done, but the Tiverton area services became part of North Devon. On 19 August 1986, Devon General became the first National Bus Company subsidiary to be privatised under the Transport Act 1985 being sold in a management buy out led by managing director Harry Blundred. An experimental high frequency service using 22 minibuses was introduced in Exeter on 27 February 1984. In 1992, the operations in Torbay and Newton Abbot were split off to a new Bayline company, while Devon General continued to operate in the Exeter area. Both companies were sold to Stagecoach in 1996, and in 2003 was rebranded Stagecoach Devon.

In May 2007 Cooks Coaches of Wellington was purchased by Stagecoach with over 50 buses. In 2024, Stagecoach South West won the tender to operate Taunton's Park & Ride service between Silk Mills and Gateway, servicing the local hospital and Taunton town centre. The service began on Monday 12th February, after The Buses of Somerset pulled out of the contract with Somerset Council.

From a slow start, Exeter became one of the first cities in the United Kingdom to have a fleet of entirely low floor buses after introduction of the buses to the A and H service. Changes to routes in Exeter in September 2007 caused complaints from residents of the affected areas. The following month, Devon County Council announced that it would fund Stagecoach until March 2008 to restore some of these services after the council received more than 80 letters from passengers. The services resumed partially in late October and fully in November,

Operation of three park & ride services for Exeter started in December 2009 using 13 buses painted in special colours. In September 2013, two Stagecoach Gold routes were introduced in competition with First Devon & Cornwall's routes X80 and X81. Running from Torquay to Totnes every 30 minutes they were to operate alternatively to Dartmouth and Plymouth. The service to Dartmouth has since been replaced by service 92. First Devon & Cornwall withdrew their network of services in Plymouth and South Devon from September 2015. Stagecoach acquired their depot in Plymouth along with its outstations in Tavistock and Dartmouth, and operated a smaller network of routes that First had withdrawn. The First park and ride fleet initially remained at Plymouth on hire to Stagecoach along with buses transferred from Stagecoach Manchester and Stagecoach East Kent as well as other locations. This was a temporary solution until 22 Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMCs and 5 Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMCs could be delivered. The South West Falcon service was launched in February 2016. This is a limited stop coach service between Plymouth and Bristol which serves places such as Exeter, Taunton and Bristol Airport. Following the overnight collapse of major Cornish operator Western Greyhound, Stagecoach were one of the operators to provide emergency replacement services.

Stagecoach South West operate around 400 buses.

On 5 October 2019, a Stagecoach Gold bus overturned on the A385 road between Totnes and Paignton injuring 37 people, 8 seriously.