Salt Lake City Streetcars

Index For This Page

This page was last updated on November 1, 2021.

(Return to Street Railroads Index Page)

The Streetcar Companies

Salt Lake City Railroad (1872-1901)

Salt Lake Rapid Transit Company (1890-1901)

West Side Rapid Transit (1890-1909)

Consolidated Railway (1901-1904)

Utah Light & Railway Company (1904-1914)

Utah Light & Traction Company (1914-1944)

Salt Lake City Lines (1944-1945) -- The bus company, Salt Lake City Lines, operated the last street car route in Salt Lake City, from July 1944 until the last street car ran in July 1945; from Motor Coach Age magazine.

Streetcars to Buses

Streetcars to Buses, 1926 -- An article about Utah Light & Traction as the company transitioned in 1926 from electric streetcars to gasoline motor coaches; from Motor Coach Age magazine.

Stations

Centerville, Holladay and Sandy -- Stations along the Centerville, Holladay and Sandy long distance line, as of June 1918.

Trolley Square

If Trolley Cars Could Talk -- A PDF of Julia Hogan's excellent history of Salt Lake City streetcars and Trolley Square (1989 edition) (PDF; 18 pages; 12MB)

The Story of Trolley Square -- A PDF of a six-page history of Salt Lake City's Trolley Square, reprinted from October 1972 Traction & Models magazine. (PDF; 6 pages; 7.5MB)

Trolley Square -- A PDF of three articles from Electric Railway Journal in 1909 and 1910, with drawings of the street cross-section and the buildings of Trolley Square. (PDF; 11 pages; 11.4MB)

Links

"Mass Transit in the Salt Lake Valley: 1872 to 1960" -- An scanned version of Utah Economic and Business Review, Volume 37, Number 9, September 1977.

Salt Lake City Railroad -- Clarence Reeder's excellent history of the Salt Lake City Railroad before it was electrified in 1889.

Salt Lake City Streetcars -- Articles by Mike Laine about Salt Lake City's streetcars. Written for the locally produced Gandy Dancer newsletter.

Salt Lake City Streetcars -- An excerpt from John S. McCormick's The Power To Make Good Things Happen, The History of Utah Power & Light.

Salt Lake City's Streetcar Equipment -- Lists and other infomation about the street cars themselves.

West Side Rapid Transit Co. -- Information about West Side Rapid Transit Co., a single-track street car line along Salt Lake City's Seventh West to "Tenth South" (today's 1300 South), then west across the Jordan River to the Garden City, Brighton, and Eldorado subdivisions. The line was operated with small steam locomotives and extended for seven miles, to about 3800 West. In 1893, a portion was converted to electric street car, and after 1895, steam dummy operations ended west of the Jordan River. The electric street car operated between downtown Salt Lake City and the Cannon farm at about 1000 West and 1300 South. Service ended 1909.

1939 Report of Operations -- Information extracted from Utah Light & Traction's 1939 Report of Operations.

Salt Lake City's Trolley Coaches -- An article from Bus World magazine (Volume 5, Number 2, February 1983) about Salt Lake City's trolley coaches, streetcars without rails.

Photos of Salt Lake City streetcars. (just a few for now, others to be added later)

Street Railway Journal -- An index to articles in Street Railway Journal magazine (1903-1914) and Electric Railway Journal (1914-1932).

Bus Information -- Information about the histories of bus transit systems in Utah, and the history of Utah Transit Authority.

Maps

Salt Lake City Street Car Routes -- Scanned maps of the routes of street cars in Salt Lake City.

Streetcar Conspiracy

The so-called "streetcar conspiracy" does not apply to Salt Lake City's streetcar system. National City Lines' purchase of Salt Lake City's transit system in 1944 came at a time when there was only a single route remaining. And its abandonment had been approved in May 1941, three years before, but was delayed to support the war effort.

Brad Snell's infamous streetcar conspiracy theory is hard to prove. American drivers quit riding streetcars because they wanted to, and had better alternatives. Driving a car is much more convienient that riding a street car, or light rail today. Light rail only works today because of congestion, and a common destination of sufficient density to justify the numbers of needed riders to support its high cost.

Beginning with research in the early 1980s, studying the demise of railroad passenger traffic here in Utah, it was always the same. As soon as an improved road, or a paved road came to town, rail passenger traffic fell off considerably. Paved highways started back in the 1930s, using taxpayer dollars, because our elected representatives at the time simply did what they thought we wanted, or at least what the various special interests wanted. Almost all of the various streetcar routes in Salt Lake City were abandoned in the 1920s and 1930s because Utah Light & Traction did not want to pay its share of paving the various streets as Salt Lake City proceeded to pave the streets throughout the city. I have researched all of the requests before the Public Service Commission to abandon the routes, and it was always the same circumstances. Improved roads meant more automobile traffic, and more ruts and pot holes, which in-turn led to paving, which led to abandonment of the streetcar route. It was the same in every case, a consiracy by GM is not needed to explain it, at least here in Utah. By the time National City Lines, or in our case, its Pacific City Lines subsidiary, came to Salt Lake City, there were only a one streetcar route left.

While a conspiracy would explain all things nicely (and you can find a conspiracy theory for every "bad" thing that has ever happened), the truth is, GM and its associated interests simply filled a market niche that had developed due to the way public dollars were being spent. Yes, the U.S. Senate convicted GM and its associates of anti-trust, but don't read too much into that particular political decision. It was pretty much after the fact, and rubber-tired mass transit was already well established.

On July 13, 1944, Salt Lake City Lines, a subsidiary of Pacific City Lines, took over the entire transit operations of Utah Light & Traction. (see Utah Public Service Commission case 2814, approved November 25, 1944)

(The PSC case shown above was the approval for Utah Power & Light Co. to assume ownership of all former Utah Light & Traction electric power generation and distrubution networks, following the sale of UL&T transit assets to Salt Lake City Lines. The actual PUC case, number 2776, for the sale to Salt Lake City Lines, was not available for research.)

At the time that Pacific City Lines purchased the transit operations of UL&T in July 1944, PCL was an Oakland-based holding company which controlled 12 properties in 3 western states: Montana, Washington and California. PCL's wartime earnings allowed the purchase of the Salt Lake property just a few months after acquisition of the utility-owned transit system in Sacramento, the capital of another western state, California. National City Lines had held a substantial interest in PCL but had relinquished control during a major refinancing in 1940. Management and operating methods were, however, little changed, and except for equipment numbering practices, there were few external differences between PCL and NCL properties. By spring 1946, Pacific City Lines was back under the control of National City Lines. (part from Motor Coach Age, Volume 29, Number 3, March 1987)

Streetcar Conspiracy Links

Wikipedia article about the General Motors Streetcar Conspiracy

Random Notes

Notes from Utah Power & Light archives Box 5755 (From UP&L file dated September 18, 1914; research completed on March 5, 1982)

Franchise in Bountiful dated November 27, 1912 for 43 years, assigned to UL&T on September 18, 1914.

Franchise in Centerville granted by Davis County prior to incorporation of Centerville City, on December 2, 1912.

Franchise through Davis County granted on December 2, 1912 from south boundary, on Highway No. 1, northeast for 6000 feet, then northeast along Highway No. 2 to south limits of Bountiful, then from north limits of Bountiful along Highway No. 1 to north limits of Centerville, for 43 years.

Franchise in Salt Lake County granted on March 3, 1909 through Midvale to Sandy, for 46 years.

Franchise through Murray granted on March 3, 1909 for 25 years, along State Street.

Franchise for Holladay line granted by Salt Lake County on April 3, 1911, for 44 years.

Franchise forfieted for line from Murray-Holladay Highway along Holladay-Cottonwood Road to Highway No. 72, then southeast across private property to Granite Station.

Franchise in Sandy granted on June 15, 1910, for 45 years.

Notes from "Utah Light & Traction Co., History of Origin and Development, Prepared in Connection With Federal Power Commission Request, Order Dated May 11, 1937" (From Utah Power & Light archive library) (Research completed on March 5, 1982)

When the LDS Church was forced to divest itself of its interest in Salt Lake City Railroad, the stock was purchased by Mayor Francis Armstrong and A. W. McCune in about 1889. (page 36)

The first electric car operated on August 8, 1889 at 6 p.m., from the power house on 200 East to the east end of town, then back to the Garfield depot, then back to the power house. (page 36)

Eight cars operated on nine miles of track. (page 36)

McCune bought the shares of the estate of Armstrong. (page 43)

From a Union Pacific engineering drawing dated March 1913:

The Utah Light and Railway's "2nd West" Line crossed about 1000 South on 300 West as double track. The double track ended just south of the UL&Ry's crossing of Paxton Avenue, and the line itself ended at 1300 South.
The Utah Light and Railway's "West Temple Line" was double track to 900 South, becoming single track through a equal, wye-type switch. The single track West Temple Line had a passing track located between Fremont Avenue (1120 South) and Paxton Avenue (1180 South), and ended at 2100 South.
The Utah Light and Railway's "9th South" line turned east from the east track of the West Temple Line's double track just north of where the double track became single track, at a point called "9th South Junction."
Utah Light and Railway's Midvale Branch ran west from the State Street Line to Midvale, along "Highway No.81" (now 7800 South?).
Utah Light and Railway's State Street Line ended at 1st South in Sandy.
Utah Light and Railway's Sandy Branch ran east from the State Street Line to Sandy, along Sandy's Main Street to Center Street, where the branch ended.

More Research

Much more research is needed into the relationship between Utah Light & Railway and Electric Bond & Share. EBS was a trust formed in 1905 by General Electric to control the generation of electric power in the U.S., and to increase the use of electricity by building electric railroads, both street railways and interurban railways.

(Google search "electric bond and share")

(Google search "electric bond & share")

###