Transition to Buses (1930 to 1970s)
![Picture](/uploads/2/6/0/6/26062495/7318649.jpg?331)
Image Source: Cincinnati-Transit.net
With improvements for the internal combustion engine being innovated during the early twentieth century, numerous bus companies started to emerge in the 1930s, and, combined with advancements in road paving surfaces (eliminating need for maintenance-heavy tracks), the Green Line started to move towards using electric trolley buses (Tenkotte and Claypool 2009).
Others factors in the 1930s created changes for how the Green Line operated, including:
The Green Line ran its last streetcar on July 1, 1950. The occasion was celebrated with a farewell parade, marking the occasion with the outgoing streetcars in front led by the special 'Kentucky Car' (now on display at the Beringer Crawford Museum at Devou Park); the streetcars were symbolically followed by new, modern GM buses (see the photo below).
Previous Phase: Electric Streetcars | Next Phase: Transition from a Private to Publicly Run System
Others factors in the 1930s created changes for how the Green Line operated, including:
- The Great Depression and the 1937 Ohio River flood put a financial strain on all businesses.
- A new federal law, the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, caused great difficulties for the streetcar operators by making it illegal for a single business to both provide public transportation and supply electricity to other parties. The new law also created restrictions for when transit services crossed state lines. Many holding companies operating both streetcars and electric utilities were forced to sell off one of the companies, and, as the utility business was often the more lucrative business, the transit companies were sold (Tenkotte and Claypool 2009). The newly independent transit companies then had to purchase electricity at full price, causing further hardship for the new, struggling companies (Tenkotte and Claypool 2009).
- World War II brought with it mandated tire and gas rationing, which drove motorists back to public transit. This directly led the Green Line's ridership more than doubling during the war years, enabling the company to realize a profit for first time in over a decade (Tenkotte and Claypool 2009). Ridership on the Green Line peaked with 41 million passengers in 1946 (Tenkotte and Claypool 2009). Despite the fact that the Green Line won the exclusive contract to provide transportation to the planned Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky Airport, ridership dropped overall due to the rise of private automobile use.
The Green Line ran its last streetcar on July 1, 1950. The occasion was celebrated with a farewell parade, marking the occasion with the outgoing streetcars in front led by the special 'Kentucky Car' (now on display at the Beringer Crawford Museum at Devou Park); the streetcars were symbolically followed by new, modern GM buses (see the photo below).
Previous Phase: Electric Streetcars | Next Phase: Transition from a Private to Publicly Run System