SEPTA City Transit Division Surface Routes - History

History

SEPTA inherited many of the routes from Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC), but has frequently elected to replace tracked trolley lines with buses. Transit in the City of Philadelphia started out with several dozen horse car, cable, and traction companies. In 1895 these companies began uniting under three main operations Electric Traction Company, People's Traction Company, and Philadelphia Traction Company. By 1896 all three traction companies consolidated under the new Union Traction Company. In 1902 Union Traction Company went bankrupt and the company was reorganized under the name of Philadelphia Rapid Transit (PRT) on July 1, 1902. Despite the efforts by Thomas E. Mitten the Philadelphia Rapid Transit went bankrupt in 1939 and the Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC) was created to take over its operation on January 1, 1940. National City Lines took over management control of the PTC in the 1950s and began converting streetcar lines to bus routes. SEPTA which was created in 1962 bought and took over PTC transit operations on September 30, 1968. After the purchase of the Red Arrow Lines on January 29, 1970 SEPTA designated the city services at its "City Transit Division". Today, the following bus or trackless trolley routes were once streetcar operations: Routes 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 12, 17, 23, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 33, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43, 46, 47, 48, 52 (formerly streetcar Route 70), 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 59, 60, 61, 64, 66, 73, 75 and 79. Many of the numbered routes were once lettered or named bus routes these include Routes 1, 8, 14, 18, 19, 21, 24, 35, 65, 67, 68, 70, 77 and 80. The first bus route was the Route A established in 1923 between Center City Philadelphia and Frankford Terminal via Strawberry Mansion, Hunting Park Ave., and Roosevelt Blvd. Route R replaced Route A along Hunting Park Ave, and Roosevelt Blvd. Route A then served Roxborough, Andorra within Philadelphia and Barren Hill in Montgomery County. Route A was eliminated and replaced by bus Routes 9, 27, and 32 on February 4, 1984.