Teche Greyhound Lines - Wheeling and Dealing

Wheeling and Dealing

In 1929 the Old South Coach Lines came into existence – to buy (from the Alabama Bus Company) a short branch line (with a length of about 59 miles), between Birmingham and Tuscaloosa (both in Alabama), then promptly extended about 93 more miles (by application rather than purchase) from Tuscaloosa to Meridian (in Mississippi).

The next year, 1930, the Teche Lines bought the Old South Coach Lines, thereby completing its route between New Orleans and Birmingham.

The Old South Lines (entirely different from the Old South Coach Lines) was a property of John Gilmer, who previously (in 1925) had founded the Camel City Coach Company, based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, which (in 1929) became the southern half of the National Highway Transport (NHT) Company, based in Charleston, West Virginia, which (in 1931) became renamed as the Atlantic Greyhound Lines.

In 1933 the Old South Lines started running between Charlotte (in North Carolina) and Atlanta (in Georgia) and between Columbia (in South Carolina) and Atlanta.

Gilmer’s Old South Lines in 1934 bought the route between Montgomery and Atlanta (including an alternate loop through Columbus in Georgia) – from the Hood Coach Lines, which on that route had begun its first service (in 1930 between Atlanta and Columbus, then in 1933 onward to Montgomery), and which had soon tried (unsuccessfully) to run additional routes between Atlanta and Macon (in Georgia), between Macon and Savannah (in Georgia), and between Macon and Jacksonville (in Florida) via Waycross (in Georgia).

[Hood in November 1934 sold also the latter routes – to the Consolidated Coach Corporation and the Union Bus Company (acting jointly), with the Atlanta-Macon and Macon-Waycross-Jacksonville routes going to Consolidated (which in 1936 became renamed as the Southeastern Greyhound Lines) and with the Macon-Savannah route going to Union (which in 1941 was bought by and merged into the Southeastern GL) – thereby gaining for Consolidated and Union (and therefore later for Greyhound) not only a new route between Macon and Savannah and a parallel alternate route between Atlanta and Macon but also a quicker alternate route between Macon and Jacksonville (about 50 miles shorter than its older route via Valdosta in Georgia and Lake City in Florida).

After that last sale the Hood firm, no longer holding any other route, went out of business.

In 1935 the Atlantic GL bought the Old South routes to Atlanta from Charlotte and from Columbia, thereby preparing to establish connections in Atlanta with the Teche GL and the Southeastern GL.

In February 1936 Teche bought the Old South route between Montgomery and Atlanta (with the loop through Columbus), thereby completing its route between New Orleans and Atlanta.