Salt Lake City Streetcars
Index For This Page
This page was last updated on April 4, 2013.
(This is a work in progress; research continues.)
The Streetcar Companies
- Salt Lake City Railroad
- Salt Lake Rapid Transit Company
- Consolidated Railway
- Utah Light & Railway Company
- Utah Light & Traction Company
- Salt Lake City Lines
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 Streetcar Timeline — A timeline of events of streetcar development in Salt Lake City.
Salt Lake City's Streetcar Equipment — Lists and other infomation about the streetcars themselves.
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.
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.
On July 13, 1944, Salt Lake City Lines, a subsidiary of Pacific City Lines, took over the entire transit operations of Utah Light & Traction. At the time that Pacific City Lines purchased the transit operations of UL&T, 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, National City Lines was again in control of Pacific City Lines. (part from Motor Coach Age, Volume 29, Number 3, March 1987)
Streetcar Conspiracy Links
- Wikipedia article about the General Motors Streetcar Conspiracy
- Bradford Snell's GM conspiracy defended
- Zachary Schrag's comparison on both sides of the argument (PDF)
- Martha Bianco's discussion of the subject (PDF)
- Cliff Slater wrote a summary called "General Motors and the Demise of Streetcars", which blames the market, not a GM conspiracy, for the demise of streetcars (version 1; PDF) (version 2; PDF)
- A rebuttal against the conspiracy from "The Straight Dope"
- Guy Span's "Paving The Way For Buses", published in Bay Crossings, April 2003, Volume 4, Number 3
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)
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 1) (Google search 2)
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