The Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC) was the main

public transit Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of wh ...

operator in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, Pennsylvania, from 1940 to 1968. A

private company A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose Stock, shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in their respective listed markets. Instead, the Private equi ...

, PTC was the successor to the

Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company The Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC) was the main public transport, public transit operator in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 1940 to 1968. A Privately held company, private company, PTC was the successor to the Philadelphia Rapid Tr ...

(PRT), in operation since 1902, and was the immediate predecessor of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA).

History

PTC was established on January 1, 1940, by the merger of the PRT and several smaller, then-independent transit companies operating in and near the city. It operated a citywide system of bus, trolley, and

trackless trolley A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...

routes, the

Market–Frankford Line The L, formerly known as the Market–Frankford Line, is a rapid transit line in the SEPTA Metro network in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The L runs from the 69th Street Transit Center in Upper Darby, just outside of West Philad ...

(subway-elevated rail), the

Broad Street Line The B, formerly known as the Broad Street Line (BSL), is a rapid transit line in the SEPTA Metro network in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The line runs primarily north-south from the Fern Rock Transit Center in North Philadelphi ...

(subway), and the Delaware River Bridge Line (subway-elevated rail to City Hall in

Camden, New Jersey Camden is a City (New Jersey), city in Camden County, New Jersey, Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan region. The city was incorporated on February 13, 1828.Snyder, John P''The Story of ...

, and now part of the

PATCO Speedline The PATCO Speedline, signed as the Lindenwold Line in Philadelphia and commonly referred to as the PATCO High Speed Line, is a rapid transit route operated by the Port Authority Transit Corporation (PATCO), connecting Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ...

) which became SEPTA's City Transit Division. PTC operated the

rapid transit Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT) or heavy rail, commonly referred to as metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport that is generally built in urban areas. A grade separation, grade separated rapid transit line below ground su ...

lines in urban Philadelphia – principally the Market–Frankford Line and Broad Street Line – leasing their fixed infrastructure from the City of Philadelphia. Most suburban transit lines were operated by other private companies, including the Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company, known as Red Arrow (trolley lines), the Southern Penn Bus Company (bus lines), and the

Philadelphia and Western Railroad The Philadelphia and Western Railroad was a high-speed, third rail-equipped, commuter-hauling interurban electric railroad operating in the western suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is now SEPTA, SEPTA's Norristown High Speed Line, thoug ...

( Norristown and Strafford interurban lines). PTC's network also included the Philadelphia trolleybus system, which was much smaller, along with numerous bus lines. Among PTC's first actions was to begin replacing its aging fleet of vehicles. In 1940, the company placed orders for 130

PCC streetcar The Presidents' Conference Committee (PCC) is a streetcar (tram) design that was first built in the United States in the 1930s. The design proved successful domestically, and after World War II it was licensed for use elsewhere in the world where ...

s, 50

s, and 53

motor bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

es. In 1944, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, white PTC workers engaged in a

wildcat strike A wildcat strike is a strike action undertaken by unionised workers without union leadership's authorization, support, or approval; this is sometimes termed an unofficial industrial action. The legality of wildcat strikes varies between countries ...

aimed at preventing the promotion of African American employees to conductors and other positions. The strike ended when President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

ordered troops into the city to run the cars.Everts, Bart
An Anniversary to Forget
2014. ''Hidden City Philadelphia''. Retrieved 2017-12-18. In 1955, majority control of PTC was acquired by the

National City Lines National City Lines, Inc. (NCL) was a public transportation company. The company grew out of the Fitzgerald brothers' bus operations, founded in Minnesota, United States, in 1920 as a modest local transport company operating two buses. Part of th ...

holding company, which had a record of replacing trolleys with buses in other cities. NCL followed suit in Philadelphia. In 1954, the PTC trolley system included 45 lines, using more than 1,500 trolley cars. Between 1954 and 1958, three-fourths of the trolley lines were abandoned, and 984 trolley cars had been scrapped, replaced by 1,000 new buses. The

Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority SEPTA, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, is a regional public transportation authority that operates bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly four million people throughou ...

(SEPTA) was established in 1964, as part of efforts by the Pennsylvania legislature to coordinate government subsidies to various transit and railroad companies in southeastern Pennsylvania. The provision of public transit service was becoming increasingly unprofitable in the 1950s and 1960s, and cities across the country were municipalizing their transit systems or creating regional public transit authorities. SEPTA acquired the Philadelphia Transportation Company in 1968, taking possession of PTC at noon on September 30, 1968. The total price paid to PTC stockholders for the purchase was $47.9 million (equivalent to $ million in ).

History

See also

References

Further reading