UtahRails.net Copyright 2000-2008 Don Strack

Utah Transit Authority's Buses

Compiled by Don Strack

This page was last updated on December 15, 2007.

This information is in the form of expanded research notes, and exists as a first draft of an as-yet incomplete research project. I have lots and lots of newspaper clippings and other notes that have yet to be compiled into any sort of history — work continues.

Streetcar Information:

(Click here for information about streetcars in Utah, including basic information about the history and operations of Salt Lake City's streetcars.)

Bus Information:

Motor Coach Age, the magazine of the Motor Bus Society, published a four-part history in 1987-1988 of buses in Salt Lake City and other cities in northern Utah. Back issues are long out of print and unavailable, so to preserve this vital part of the history of transportation in Utah, the text of the articles is presented here:

Bus World — An excellent article about Salt Lake City's electric coaches, also known as trackless trolleys.

Photos of the electric trolley coaches from the article in Bus World, and the above Motor Coach Age articles.

Other UTA bus information:

Wikipedia article for UTA

Some basic history, excerpted from The Salt Lake Tribune, December 9, 2001:

A Century Ago, Salt Lake Was Transit Model
by Will Bagley

UTA will open another 2.4 miles of TRAX next Saturday, giving Salt Lake City almost 18 miles of light rail, a fraction the 146 miles of track  in the glory days of the Utah Light and Traction Company. At its peak, ULTC convenient mass transit reached from Holladay to Centerville.

With the encouragement of Brigham Young, the Salt Lake City Railroad brought the first mule-powered streetcars to town in 1872, though old timers complained that "it's still quicker to walk."       

After Salt Lake City became one of the first five American cities to generate electric power in 1881, electricity replaced horsepower to drive the trolleys, considerably reducing downtown road-apple pollution. By the turn of the century, Salt Lake was a checkerboard of tracks that reached into every neighborhood.  

In 1907 the Emigration Canyon Railroad extended the lines far up into the mountains, while interurban railroads served the Wasatch Front from Cache Valley to Payson. You could take a train to Park City, a fact folks enjoying the Parleys Canyon parking lot can ponder next February.     

One of the most intriguing tycoons of the Gilded Age, railroad magnate Edward Henry Harriman, deserves much of the credit for the cheap and efficient streetcar system that made Utah a model for mass transit a century ago.     

Born on Long Island in 1848, Harriman made his first fortune on Wall Street and used it to build a vast railroad empire in the West that was founded on his control of the Union Pacific.       

Salt Lake City's competing trolley lines merged to form Utah Light and Railway in 1901. Harriman bought the company in 1906 and transformed it into the finest electric utility and streetcar operation in America. He replaced the power lines that had made downtown a rat's nest of wire with underground conduits. (The wires are making a comeback.)      

Harriman added steel streetcars and 80 miles of new track. He spent $3.5 million in 1908 to build a mission-style trolley barn that filled an entire block in the old Tenth Ward.       

"Overcoming so-called insurmountable obstacles, doing things judged impossible, were the tasks he liked best," naturalist John Muir of Sierra Club fame wrote of Harriman. The mogul's engineers built a tunnel through the Sierra Nevada and laid the Lucin Cutoff, the causeway that crossed the Great Salt Lake north of Ogden. When he died in 1909, Harriman controlled 60,000 miles of track.

Buses began to replace trolleys in the 1920s, and Salt Lake's streetcars made their last run in 1946.      

Edward Harriman left several legacies to Utah and America, including his son Averell, who founded Sun Valley ski resort. Utah Light and Traction became today's Utah Power and Light. Harriman's trolley barn is now Trolley Square, whose design incorporates fragments of  landmarks such as Tooele's Anaconda Mine and the Culmer and Dinwoody mansions.

Chronology History

March 1, 1946:
Salt Lake City Lines purchased the stock, equipment, and interests of the Airways Motor Coach Lines (from Utah Public Service Commission case 2941).

Airways was incorporated in Wyoming, owned 23 buses, and provided all bus service south of 2100 South, east of Redwood Road, and west of Wasatch Boulevard to the south line of Salt Lake County. The Airways bus shops were located at 29 East 900 South, between Main Street and State Street.

Salt Lake City Lines in engaged in bus and electric coach operation in Salt Lake City.  No mention is made of street car service.

The purchase price was $125,000.00 with the purchase agreement signed on February 4, 1946.

Approved February 27, 1946; sale to take effect on March 1, 1946.

1967:
An excerpt from an earlier history of the Bamberger Railroad by Don Strack:

Bamberger Railroad on June 26, 1953, sold its bus subsidiary, Bamberger Transportation Co., to the Lake Shore Motor Coach Lines Co., newly organized for the purpose. Lake Shore's president and organizer, Dale Barratt, was general manager of Salt Lake City Lines, the local bus company that had taken over the streetcar lines in Salt Lake City. Barratt was also regional director of the parent company, National City Lines. (Salt Lake Tribune, June 27, 1953)

The sale became effective on July 3, when Lake Shore took ownership of Bamberger's 17 buses. In a side note about later bus operations, Barratt sold Lake Shore to Salt Lake City Lines in 1965 and left Utah. In August 1968, Barratt returned and purchased all interests in Salt Lake City lines, which he sold to the new Utah Transit Authority in August 1970. The former Lake Shore (ex-Bamberger) operations were split off from Salt Lake City Lines in May 1969 and sold to Cook Transportation of Logan. (Motor Coach Age, June-July 1987, pp. 4-6)

General Bus Information

Additional Bus Information

From Steve Parkin's "New Look" article:

"General Motors “New Look” buses were the workhorses of most North American Transit Systems starting late in 1959 until the late 1980’s in the U.S.A." "This style of bus started a whole generation of new designs from several manufacturers, all following the basic new look style - larger windows on these buses set them all apart from buses produced in what became known as the Old Look style. Incidentally, General Motors continued to produce a small capacity Old Look bus for another 10 years after the start of the New Look’s production. These were all US built, and in 1969 a 29 foot version of the New Look, also US built,  replaced them."

"The original production began in late 1959 at Pontiac, Michigan, with model TDH-5301, a 40’ by 102” bus. Some of these early US built buses were imported by Canadian customers through Diesel Division of General Motors of Canada. In 1961, a second production line was started at London, Ontario. The TDH-5301 was also the first model built in Canada." "These buses were produced in several lengths, 29, 35 and 40 feet. Depending on the model, available widths were 96 inches or 102 inches. There were “Transit” versions as well as a “Suburban” version that featured high back seats, overhead luggage racks and optional under floor luggage bays. These were also geared more for highway speeds whereas the Transit versions were built for stop and go city driving. The Suburban version typically only had a front door, although the basic body style was the same for all models. US production ended in 1977 but continued in Canada until 1986."

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