History
The first public transportation in Nashville began in 1860 when the McGavock and Mt. Vernon Horse Railroad Company and the South Nashville Street Railroad Company were joined together to create a public transportation system using steam and mules to power rail cars. The first electric streetcar in Nashville came in 1889. Over the years, several different companies offered transit in Nashville. The first buses came in 1926, as a complement to the preceding rail lines. In 1930, Tennessee Electric Power Company took over the transit system and phased out streetcars 10 years later. In 1953, the company was reorganized and changed its name to Nashville Transit Company. The next 20 years saw the decline of public transportation in Nashville and the rise of the automobile. This led to higher fares and service cutbacks for the transit system. In order to keep public transportation in the city viable, Metro-Nashville government purchased the Nashville Transit Company and created the Metropolitan Transit Authority in 1973.
Due to the flood in May, 2010, Nashville MTA suffered losses to their fleet and their maintenance/administration offices. The total losses amounted to 42 buses, nearly 50 paratransit vans, various other support vehicles and severe damage caused to both the maintenance/administration offices and to the Riverfront Music City Star train station. Service was interrupted for 4 days, with limited service being restored afterwards for the next four weeks. In early June, 2010, Nashville MTA obtained loaner buses and other vehicles from surrounding transit agencies, including Memphis, Cincinnati, Clarksville and others. Regular transit service was restored shortly thereafter.
Read more about this topic: Nashville Metropolitan Transit Authority
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“A poet’s object is not to tell what actually happened but what could or would happen either probably or inevitably.... For this reason poetry is something more scientific and serious than history, because poetry tends to give general truths while history gives particular facts.”
—Aristotle (384–323 B.C.)
“Every literary critic believes he will outwit history and have the last word.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“We know only a single science, the science of history. One can look at history from two sides and divide it into the history of nature and the history of men. However, the two sides are not to be divided off; as long as men exist the history of nature and the history of men are mutually conditioned.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)