Salt Lake Terminal Company
This page was last updated on October 15, 2010.
Additional Information
- Salt Lake Terminal Company — An excerpt from Ira Swett's "Interurbans of Utah".
- Corporate information — Information from the files of the Utah State Public Utilities Commission.
The Salt Lake Terminal Company was a joint company owned by Bamberger Railroad and Salt Lake & Utah Railroad, and served as the two companies terminal in Salt Lake City. There was a joint passenger terminal that stood on the southwest corner of West Temple and South Temple streets in Salt Lake City, where today's Symphony Hall is located.
Timeline
November 29, 1913
Salt Lake Terminal Company organized to build a joint union station in Salt Lake City. Owned jointly by Bamberger Electric Railroad and Salt Lake & Utah Railroad. (Utah PSC corporate index 10380)
1946
With the abandonment of the Salt Lake & Utah Railroad in March 1946, Bamberger Railroad became sole owner of the Salt Lake Terminal Company at auction on July 26, 1946, for the price of $1.00.
April 22, 1947
Julian Bamberger purchased the Salt Lake Rail and Bus Terminal, approved by the federal ICC on April 22, 1947. At the same time, he became sole owner of the Bamberger Railroad. (ICC Financial Docket 15643 and 15644, ICC Finance Reports, Volume 267, p.826)
In late 1947, Bamberger sold the terminal buildings and yards to Interstate Transit Company, a Union Pacific subsidiary.
Interstate Transit Company
Union Pacific Stages
Union Pacific Railroad formed its Union Pacific Stages bus subsidiary in 1927. In 1929 Union Pacific and Chicago & North Western Railway acquired joint ownership of Interstate Transit Lines.
In 1943 the two bus companies began operating under the name Overland Greyhound Lines, with Union Pacific retaining its partial ownership. In 1952 the railroad sold its remaining interest to Greyhound.
Overland Greyhound Lines, based in Omaha, Nebraska, was formed in 1952 by combining the interests and routes of Union Pacific Stages and Interstate Transit Lines. Union Pacific Stages had been the highway-coach subsidiary of Union Pacific Railroad, and Interstate Transit Lines, was a highway-coach subsidiary jointly owned by the Union Pacific and Chicago & North Wetsern Railway.
Competing railroad-bus service in Salt Lake City was provided by Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad. In 1926 D&RGW formed its bus subsidiary Denver-Colorado Springs-Pueblo Motor Way. In 1927 D&RGW formed bus subsidiary Rio Grande Motor Way. In 1935 D&RGW formed bus subsidiary Denver-Salt Lake-Pacific Stages. In 1936 Rio Grande Motor Way joined Trailways, which was sold in 1948 to Continental Trailways, part of the Transcontinental Bus System.
The following description in 1949 comes from Ira Swett's book:
Overland Greyhound Lines spent more than $200,000 in remodeling the Terminal. The Terminal encompasses a complete shopping center, a Post House restaurant seating 128, barber shop, tailor shop, drug store and news stand. The Terminal is air-conditioned and the interior has been modernized using a blue-stone composite material. Expensive rest rooms finished in tile and equipped with showers are located in the basement. The remodeled Terminal is able to serve a passenger load of more than a million persons annually, with 16 busses and two electric trains able to load simultaneously. About 200 busses daily moved through the Terminal in 1949.
The new bus concourse occupied the site of the two southernmost tracks and was at a much higher level. Two tracks remained for trains and were in use up until abandonment of rail passenger service. The subsequent sale of Bamberger's bus subsidiary removed the last physical evidence of the two Interurban companies from public view. The northern most track has been kept to deliver coal and freight to the building.
January 15, 1949
Overland Greyhound Lines, a Union Pacific subsidiary, opened its new terminal on January 15, 1949. The bus company had purchased the old interurban terminal from the Bamberger Railroad and was reported as spending $400,000 to completely remodel the interior and exterior of the building. (Deseret News, January 11, 1949)
January 29, 1968
Greyhound announced that it would move its terminal from its current location at West Temple and South Temple streets, to a new location at South Temple and 200 West, occupying a new terminal building designed for the purpose. The terminal is being moved to make way for the new Salt Lake County Civic Auditorium, also known as the Salt Palace. (Deseret News, January 29, 1968)
(Ground was broken for the new Salt Palace in March 1967; the Salt Palace name was selected in a contest in March 1965.)
April 16, 1968
Greyhound held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new terminal at the northeast corner of South Temple and 200 West streets, one block west of its former site. (Deseret News, April 13, 1968)
January 7, 1969
Greyhound formally opened its new terminal in Salt Lake City. To serve the traveling public, the facility was in use as early as December 15, 1968, but formal completion was delayed while subcontractors finished some of the final work. (Deseret News, November 14, 1968)
Research has not yet found a newspaper news item about the terminal actually opening.
Demolition of the old terminal likely started in February or March 1969, after Greyhound formally opened the new terminal.
The three-day ceremony for the completion of the first portion of Salt Palace, the new sports arena, started on July 12, 1969. (Deseret News, July 9, 1969) (That same sports arena was demolished beginning in December 1993.)
After being demolished in early 1969, the site of the former Salt Lake Rail and Bus Terminal at the southwest corner of South Temple and West Temple streets became a parking lot for use by Salt Palace visitors.
On March 10, 1977, ground was broken for a new Bicentennial Arts Center, to include a new concert hall and a new gallery for the Salt Lake Arts Center. The new concert hall was named Maurice Abravanel Hall and became the new home of the Utah Symphony.
The Salt Lake Arts Center opened on May 11, 1979, and Abravanel Hall held its opening ceremony on September 14, 1979.
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