Lehigh Valley Transit Company

The Lehigh Valley Transit Company (LVT) was a Pennsylvania interurban rail transport company that operated a network of city and interurban trolley lines. In poor financial condition, LVT abruptly abandoned operation of its Philadelphia Division Allentown to Philadelphia line in September, 1951. LVT gave patrons no prior notice, and puzzled riders waited in vain to be picked up the next day. The LVT is considered the last of the eastern U.S. side of road, hill and dale, town street to farm land interurbans in the United States, although the Media end of the present day 100-year-old Upper Darby to Media former Red Arrow trolley line — now SEPTA Route 101 — has some of these same characteristics. As was customary for interurban trolleys, the LVT Philadelphia Division ran fast in open country, but once in a village or town it slowly progressed down streets, made frequent stops, and navigated sharp streetcar-like turns at intersections.

The Liberty Bell line had a terminal in each town with a waiting room and a ticket agent. In the larger towns LVT had facilities to handle trolley freight. Coming south from its downtown Allentown terminal, the LVT's Philadelphia Division served the Pennsylvania villages of Coopersburg, Quakertown, Perkasie, Sellersville, Souderton, Hatfield, Lansdale, and Norristown. In Norristown, its third-rail-equipped cars continued on the high-speed Philadelphia and Western to its 69th Street, Upper Darby terminus, which was the western terminus of the Philadelphia city subway-elevated. Philadelphia and Western Railroad crews operated the LVT cars from Norristown south. Much of the LVT's route was paralleled by the Reading Railroad's steam powered Bethlehem Branch and had many of the same stops. In Lansdale, the two stations faced each other. The Reading operated passenger service directly to its busy downtown Market Street Reading Terminal in Philadelphia, but the LVT was less expensive for frugal riders and made many more village, local, and roadside stops. Some patrons would ride the Reading, for example, from downtown Philadelphia to Lansdale, then walk across the street to the LVT station to catch the interurban home.

In 1939, LVT purchased thirteen used lightweight high-speed Cincinnati and Lake Erie Railroad Red Devil cars from the abandoned Cincinnati to Toledo, Ohio, interurban to augment its older, heavier, and slower 700 and 800 series interurban cars. The former Red Devils were reconditioned by the innovative LVT Allentown shops and were then operated from Allentown to Philadelphia as Liberty Bell Limiteds. The LVT advertised for and ran freight, but it was a small part of the business. Like most interurbans, its primary income was from passenger service.Box motor freight trolleys usually operated at night, but LVT sometimes ran scheduled passenger trips as a "mixed" train with a freight box motor coupled behind the older 800 or 700 series of passenger coach. The former C&LE Liberty Bell Limiteds were not built with couplers. During the World War II years, LVT carried full loads including standees on its overworked equipment. When the war ended, ridership rapidly declined, and LVT again faced bankruptcy and abandonment as it had during the Great Depression.