. Special telephone lines dispensed recorded schedule and fare information for New York City and tickets were preprinted for that service.
In 1969 the Philadelphia-Mt. Laurel-New York City line was assigned Safeway's brand new 102" wide Model 07 Silver Eagles. The buses were specially permitted for the route and the 22 wide bodies quickly became favorites with the Safeway commuters, including many Greyhound drivers who lived in the Mount Laurel area and cushioned to New York City for work.
It was and still remains, a heck of a bus line.
Jon
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Installment Thirty
BLUEWAY TRAILWAYSTRAILWAYS OF NEW ENGLAND
[NOTE: Special thanks for help on research for this installment to J. W. Powell, Bob Redden, Ed Ramsdell, Tom Jones & the Motor Bus Society Library, J. W. Powell, and Marvin Walsh]
The early days of Trailways of New England (TNE) are little known or thought of. For most of us living in this day and time, the TNE we remember began in 1957 when the company was bought by Safeway and Virginia Trailways. But the company has a long and rich history stretching back to the early 20's as one of New England's major players in the bus business.
Although TNE has always been associated with Springfield, Massachusetts, in the early days, the founder of the company which came to be known as Blueway Lines, Melvin P. Aselton, Sr., came from Worcester, 125 miles to the east. In 1921 he began operating sedans carrying passengers regionally, and quickly built a line which stretched from Haverhill (pronounced "hay-ver-rell"), Massachusetts through Worcester to Hartford and New York City, where Blueway sedans or stretchouts used the Hotel Cadillac at 43rd and Broadway as their terminal.
New England in the 1920's was active bus scene, with many operations beginning. One of the most noteworthy was begun by William Vanderbilt in 1025 and became known as The Short Line. Vanderbilt expanded all over the region, including a route from Haverhill through Gardner to Springfield and New York City. He soon discontinued the Short Line route through Springfield, quite likely because it went far west of his primary operating area, and when he dropped the route, a company called Pilgrim Stage Lines took over. Pilgrim's founders were Roy Hodges of Framingham and Frank Kenney of Brockton. Both of these men had been connected with the B&W Lines, Hodges as Vice President and General Manager. Hodges and Kenney operated Pilgrim until the late 20's when Hodges sold his interest to Frank Kenney. Kenney only operated Pilgrim for a short time when he sold out to the Aseltons at Blueway Lines.
By the early 30's, Melvin Aselton's two sons, Gordon and Lionel, were both involved with Blueway. All three often drove, worked on the buses, called on agents or promoted the company and at night, would discuss strategies across the kitchen table. A 1932 timetable still shows a Blueway sedan on the cover and details 9 round trips a day from Northampton through Springfield to Hartford and New York City, a 6 hour trip. By this time, the office was located at 90 Worthington Street in Springfield, which also served as Blueway's terminal there.
In 1933, increased passenger loads and passenger demands for heavier full sized buses instead of sedans and stretchouts pushed Blueway to buy their first buses, P-216 ACF's. A year later, Blueway began using the new Midtown Bus Terminal in New York City and on April 27th, 1934, Blueway 40, a 1933 ACF P-216 was one of the first departures from the spanking new terminal. Also, in 1935, Melvin Aselton, Jr., developed a wayside inn in Norwalk, Connecticut called "Dutchland," and Blueway buses promptly began using and promoting it as a clean, first class rest stop for passengers.
It was during this period that Blueway began operating from Boston's Park Square to Worcester, Hartford and New York City. The earliest reference found to these operations in 1935 and Carl Aselton is listed as being the Boston Regional Manager. TNE also operated tours from Boston and a little known excursion line from Boston to Provincetown where connections and arrangements were in place with the Cape Cod Steamship Company.
Vanderbilt's Short Line System had become a major presence on the east coast, both as owner and operator of many routes but also with "affiliates" like Virginia Stage Lines and Carolina Coach Co. In 1936, Blueway became one of those affiliates , trading as Blueway Short Line and switched terminals in New York to the Dixie Hotel Bus Center. The arrangement was only to last a year though, as in 1937 the Short Line System fell apart when Greyhound bought several key members like Penn-Ohio and Colonial Stages which crippled the group's ability to provide a continuous long distance journey.
Blueway was running 34 units in 1937 and embarked on one of the more unusual programs for a company its size, it started a free magazine called "On Your Way." Carl Aselton in Boston served as editor and 25,000 copies were printed. Because some advertisements were taken, the 6 page 9x11" publication never cost Blueway a penny and in two months was earning a modest profit. It was considered a real achievement and first for a company Blueway's size, and was covered in trade magazines of the day.
Blueway, like others in the Short Line System like Adirondack Transit, had seen real valuable in being affiliated with a national organization and in 1938, both companies joined the National Trailways Bus System. The company now became known as Blueway Trailways.
In the mid to late 30's, Blueway's bus purchases were confined to small 25 passenger Flxibles, purchasing 7 of the gas powered units. In 1940, though, the company purchased its first larger capacity equipment, PG-3701's. Blueway would purchase 30 of the 37 passenger buses through the 40's. 1941 brought the first diesel power and surprisingly in 1948, TNE purchased the 10 Burlington Trailways Yellow Coach PDG-3701 coaches. This was an unusual purchase for Blueway in that it is the only recorded purchase of used equipment by the Aselton's. They were also TNE's first air conditioned buses and were left with Burlington's 33 passenger seat spacing.
The early 1950's were heady times for the Aselton's TNE. Over the three year period of 1950-52, the Aseltons purchased 28 new GM coaches, 6 PD-4102's in 1950, followed by 22 PD-4103's in 1951 and '52. Essentially, with the purchase of the Burlington Silversides and the 28 new GM's, the replaced the entire fleet. True to New England practice, only the last 5 PD-4103's, 261-266, were ordered with air conditioning, even though they kept the a/c on the ex-Burlington 3701's in operating order. The PD-4103's in 1951 would TNE's last new buses under the Aseltons ownership.
Two long time connecting carriers, Boston & Maine and Maine Central, joined the Trailways family in 1951. Both carriers ordered 6 PD-4103's each, which were delivered in the first quarter of 1952, matching TNE's brand new fleet for pool service running through from Bangor and Portland to Boston and New York City. By this time TNE's New York City terminal was the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Pool service to Raleigh from Boston also began that year. 1852's schedules show 4 round trips a day thru from Bangor-Portland-Boston-New York City and 3 thru round trips from Boston-New York City-Washington-Richmond-Raleigh. TNE's "Henry-J's" (4102's and 4103's) with their distinctive cream roof stripe were regularly seen from Maine to the Carolinas.
GM's new, snappy Air-Ride bus the 4104, was introduced in 1953. Greyhound got the initial 381 units delivered, but in the Spring of 1954, B&M and Maine Central got 5 4104's each. There were none ordered for TNE. The financial strain of buying 28 new buses in three years, the increased operating costs at New York's Port Authority Terminal, lack of attention to watching the pennies with too much attention to social matters by Gordon and Lionel Aselton put the company in a financial crisis which was only made worse with the increased competition from the introduction of Greyhound's Scenicruiser in 1954 and 55.
In 1956, with the sale of Maine Central Trailways and the Boston-Salisbury. MA route of B&M Trailways to Greyhound, the loss of the traffic feed at Boston was the final blow and Trailways of New England became unable to meet its financial commitments and its creditors forced it into receivership. After 36 years of continuous operation by the family, the Aseltons lost their bus line. A receiver was appointed by the court to dispose of the assets.
The Trailways association members became alarmed at the prospect of the loss on the feed traffic at New York City, and at Continental's suggestion, the association through Trailways Travel Bureau Corporation (TTBC) made application to purchase the assets. While the application for purchase was pending, TTBC operated TNE and purchased one new Flxible Vistaliner which was numbered 900 and TNE had its first new bus in almost 5 years.
The ICC, however, found that TTBC lacked, in their opinion, the personnel and expertise to operate TNE and denied the application. Realizing what was about to happen, Virginia Stage Lines and Safeway Trails applied to purchase TNE. In 1957, their application was approved and the Virginia-Safeway combination bought the company from the receiver. The purchase price was $125 thousand dollars and included the route authority and 13 buses, the last 12 PD-4103's bought by the Aseltons in 1952 and the 1956 Vistaliner purchased with permission of the receiver by TTBC. Safeway and Virginia were 50-50% partners. The new TNE brought J. W. (Cotton) Powell from Virginia Trailways to Boston to oversee the operation. Powell had begun his bus career with Carolina Trailways.
In the meantime, TNE was fighting for the two railroad bus operations north of Boston. In the case of the Maine-Central, Greyhound's purchase was a cooked deal with the Maine commission and the ICC went along. This opened Greyhound's doors too intrastate traffic in Maine. Although TNE wasn't able to save the B&M route from Boston to Salisbury, MA (on the New Hampshire line), the did get the B&M's "White Mountain Division" from Boston to Littleton and Bretton Woods and the authority in New Hampshire to Portland, ME, while a company called Interstate Passenger Service (IPS) got the rest, primarily some city operations in Portsmouth, NH and a route to Berlin, NH. With their previously held authority and the Portsmouth operation, IPS was able to piece together their own Boston-Portsmouth route. TNE and IPS got together and began pool service from New York City to Boston and Portland with IPS operating the Boston-Portsmouth section but with TNE drivers. There were 3 round trips a day with IPS and an additional trip operated entirely by TNE, bypassing Boston on the old original Blueway route through the Merimac Valley between Worcester and Haverhill.
With the Virginia-Safeway take over of TNE, 13 buses couldn't operate TNE's service plus they needed more modern equipment, the B&M and Maine Central's 10 PD-4104's were gone, part of the sale to Greyhound. Virginia immediately transferred 11 buses to TNE, 6 1956 Vistaliners and 5 1954 and 56 PD-4104's. From Safeway came 4 1955 PD-4104's and the $125 thousand cash for the deal. Virginia had just bought Consolidated Bus Lines in West Virginia and so it was decided the cash would come from Safeway and Virginia's part would be operating equipment. There was no love lost at Virginia over the departure of the 6 nearly new Flxibles and TNE quickly found out the keeping the underpowered VL's running with the Cummins JT6 engine was a nightmare.
TNE bought 12 new lav equipped 4104's in 1959, plus 3 1958 models were transferred from Safeway. Together with the other Trailways carriers in the northeast, they began a promotion called "Royal Lounge Service," which touted their new lav equipped buses, along with music, pillows and magazines coupled with use of the newly opened Massachusetts and Connecticut Turnpikes.
Unfortunately, in 1959, IPS, which had been in slippery financial footing, failed. TNE purchased the company and initially, with Greyhound objecting, wasn't able to handle local Boston-Portsmouth traffic, however, within a year that issue was solved and the service north to Portland was 100% TNE. Another route came from IPS and that's the route to Berlin, NH.
Five Star Luxury Service had been running for several years successfully, south of New York City on Safeway. In 1961, with the delivery of new PD-4106 buses to Safeway which were configured for the service, Five Star Service was extended north of New York City on TNE to Boston-Portland and Springfield. The service proved both popular and profitable and was a good public relations piece. It operated on TNE, with the addition of Model 01 Golden Eagles in 1963 and Model 05 Golden Eagles in 1969 until the early 70's when it ceased concurrent with a work stoppage on Safeway.
1961 also saw the start of a short lived pool service with The Arrow Line Trailways (R&H Bus Co.) Between Boston and New York City. In the pool, TNE brought the bus from Boston to Hartford and then Arrow took it on their route through Danbury to New York City. Arrow discontinued the service due to the fact that they expected more overhead traffic from TNE and then later sold out to Super Service, with the route finally passing to Bonanza Bus Lines.
In the late 60's, TNE was part of the sale of a number of east coast Trailways carriers to Dallas' Continental Trailways, followed in 1971 by Continental's sale to Holiday Inns. The 70's, under Holiday Inns' Currey and Murphy were not Continental's shining moments, TNE included, but in the fall of 1979, a ray of light seemed to appear when Holiday Inns sold the bus company to a financial backer name Henry Hillman who had been prodded by ex-Greyhound CEO, James Kerrigan.
In 1980, Kerrigan, who was from Massachusetts, engineered the take over of three TNE services/ The Boston-Portland route was spun off to Michaud Bus Lines, an old family run operation in Salem, MA. The Haverhill-Worcester service through the Merimac Valley went to Trombley Motor Coach and the White Mountains Division went to Concord Coach who had formerly been a competitor on that route.
Ill prepared by Kerrigan for the nuances of regular route operations, both Trombley and Michaud would give the service up in little more than a year, and TNE was back operating both routes. Concord, who had previously been involved, rationalized the service and extended it to Logan Airport at Boston and has now expanded by extending Trailways name north to Portland once again.
The folks at Trailways Inc. (TWI - Continental renamed) remained convinced that New England was a losing proposition though, and in the mid-80's a deal was struck with Springfield's Peter Pan Bus Lines to enter TNE's Boston and Springfield to New York City markets while TNE dropped back to essentially running one round trip daily on each of their routes. TWI steered all their connecting business onto Peter Pans new service.
In 1986, with little more than a franchise run on its routes and the sale of TWI to Fred Currey's privately held Greyhound, 6 years of Trailways of New England history came to a close.
Jon
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Installment Thirty One
Jacksonville Trailways
Note: Special thanks for help in preparing this history go to Tom Jones of the Motor Bus Society, Charles Wotring for sharing his picture collection and to Fred Barrett, who actually worked for Jacksonville Bus Line, and unselfishly shared his memories and facts from its past.
The roaring Twenties were just dawning when Otto M. Olson moved his family from the St. Louis suburb of Granite City, Illinois where he worked for the steel mill in management to rural Jacksonville, in central Illinois. Olson's son Freddie was hearing impaired and when they enrolled him in the Illinois School for the Deaf at Jacksonville, the lack of transportation between the Granite City and Jacksonville areas, prompted Olsen to make the move, so the family could be close to the boy.
In reality, Jacksonville had no transportation and in 1921 Olson started a bus service which he called Jacksonville Bus Line from Jacksonville to the state capitol at Springfield. The distance was 30 miles over the "state highway" which was yet to be paved. Two round trips per day were operated between Jacksonville's town square and the Illinois Hotel in Springfield.
Olson found a niche and three years later extended his service west to Winchester, IL and in that same year, 1924, pushed west to Quincy, Illinois. In 1924 Jacksonville Bus Line also received certification for its routes from the Illinois Commerce Commission.
Transportation south from Jacksonville finally started in 1927, but not by Jacksonville Bus Line, the service was started by Alton Transportation, a subsidiary of the Chicago & Alton Railroad. The railroad operated the line for less than three years, selling to Olson in 1930.
Jacksonville Bus Line was already running "bug" buses, and new ones too, included in the photos is a rear view of a brand new 1928 ACF-Fagoel which was followed by another ACF Parlor 601 job in 1929. Though purchases of early buses are sketchy, all indications are that Jacksonville Bus Line purchased new buses well into the 1950's.
Application was made to the Illinois Commission in mid-1931 to operate bus service north from Jacksonville to Peoria, Illinois, and in March 1032, the authority was granted allowing Jacksonville Bus Line to operate Peoria to St, Louis as well as Springfield to Quincy, both routes crossing in Jacksonville.
It isn't clear exactly when Jacksonville Bus Line began operating beyond Peoria to Chicago, but the April 1934 timetable clearly shows a single round trip between St. Louis, Peoria and Chicago along with a connecting trip via Blue Motor Coach Line between Peoria and Chicago. Blue Motor Coach operated between Chicago and St. Louis and Chicago and Kansas City and was purchased by the Santa Fe Railroad's bus operations in 1933.
Jacksonville Bus Line's timetable shows only one intermediate point between Peoria and Chicago, Hammond, Indiana, which sounds out of the way, but Hammond is right on the Illinois line. Jacksonville's route (using today's highway numbers) ran over US 24 from Peoria to Chenoa, then up US 66 to Joliet, then east to Hammond on US 6 and then into Chicago. Both directions on the schedule ran overnight. The northbound run left St. Louis at 8 PM, passed through Peoria at 2:35 in the morning and arrived in Chicago at 7:30 AM. Southbound, the trip left Chicago at 8 PM, was in Peoria at 1:20 AM and arrived in St. Louis at 7:50 AM.
With the ICC Act of 1935, Jacksonville Bus Line's routes were listed as St. Louis-Jacksonville-Peoria-Hammond-Chicago, and Springfield-Jacksonville-Quincy. The Peoria to Chicago route was no longer being operated in 1936, instead they showed connections with Santa Fe's Chicago-Kansas City schedules. While logical thinking might lead one to reason that Santa Fe wanted Jacksonville off the route, Santa Fe coexisted with DeLuxe for many years between Chicago and St. Louis. I would rather imagine that the Chicago service was marginal on a year round basis and Olson was just as happy to have Santa Fe be his Chicago connection and not to have his buses nine hours away from the garage.
A second route south from Jacksonville to St. Louis was begun in 1935 using US 67 and bypassing Jerseyville. Only one trip ever used this alternate route, it's only benefit being that it was slightly faster, and by the late 40's service over it was gone.
In 1938 the company joined the National Trailways Bus System, then only two years old and became known as Jacksonville Trailways. It was also able to acquire the Pittsfield-Barry-Quincy Busway who operated competing service between Jacksonville and Quincy. By 1939, Olson was operating a fleet of 15 buses.
In 1941 Olson attempted to expand again, this time from Springfield to Champaign/Urbana via Lincoln and Clinton. A strong protest was lodged by the Illinois Terminal Railroad who operated interurban cars over the route and Jacksonville's application was denied, protecting the interurban from competition. This type of a railroad-bus protest was quite common in those days.
Two brand new Fitzjohn Model 610 Falcon bus were added in 1942 during World War II. They went right to work, both on the line and pulling military charters as seen in the accompanying picture showing both of them loading selectees at East St. Louis when brand new. A Santa Fe ACF is parked behind them. Not long after accepting delivery of the two buses, Otto Olson, founder of Jacksonville Bus Line passed away and was succeeded by his wife Mabel as President of Jacksonville Trailways, while his eldest son Kenny took over duties as general manager and Freddie served as treasurer.
The year 1943 saw a unique agreement reached with Illinois Greyhound and approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission. Santa Fe Trailways' main line west from Chicago was a direct route from Chicago to Kansas City via Peoria, Quincy and Hannibal. To compete with this service, time-wise, Greyhound had a route from Chicago to Kansas City via Springfield, Jacksonville, Hannibal and Kingdom City. A major fly in the ointment for Greyhound is that they were restricted from carrying and intrastate passengers west of Springfield where they competed with Jacksonville Trailways. This not only meant they couldn't sell a ticket locally between Springfield and Jacksonville, it also meant that if they sold a ticket in Chicago to Pittsfield, when the bus got to Springfield, they couldn't carry the passenger on to Pittsfield, even though the bus was going straight there. The passenger had to wait for the next Jacksonville Trailways schedule. In exchange for Illinois Greyhound gaining the right to carry intrastate traffic, Greyhound agreed that they would only carry that traffic on non-conflicting schedules, that Jacksonville Trailways would be allowed to use their depot in St. Louis and the Greyhound would route St, Louis-Jacksonville traffic preferentially over Jacksonville Trailways instead of carrying them around via Springfield.
During the war years, Jacksonville was as busy as any of the other carriers in their service area, both on the line and also charter service for both the Selective Service System *Draft Board) and the various branches of the military. Equipment purchases switched from the smaller Fitzjohn's to Aerocoach P-37's carrying 37 passengers. Gasoline engines were still the power plant of choice, International Red Diamond engines, and although carriers like Burlington and Santa Fe Trailways featured air conditioning, Jacksonville resisted the trend along with other companies in their area like Illini-Swallow, Illinois Greyhound and Illinois Transit Lines.
Slight adjustments to routings between Peoria and Havana were made in 1946 and in 1948 m as the war traffic slowed and disappeared, the fleet had grown to 24 buses.
As the 1950's dawned with the Korean conflict going, Jacksonville made the big leap to GM's 41 passenger diesels. In 1952, two brand new PD-4103's were delivered and increasingly, the Aerocoaches purchased during the war years were replaced with mostly used GM PDA-3703's. A 3703 from Missouri Pacific was Jacksonville's first air conditioned bus and was fairly quickly joined by a PDA-4101 from Jefferson Lines and the a Silversides from Southwestern Greyhound Lines.
Most likely, around 1954, Kenny Olson, Otto and Mabel's oldest son, drowned, drowning in a bizarre swimming pool accident. Mabel and son Freddie, who was the reason for the family's initial move to Jacksonville as he attended the School for the Deaf, soldiered on alone. An outsider had to be hired to administrate the day to day operations of the company for the first time and in retrospect, it seems evident that Mabel ceased to see any reason to invest any additional money in the bus company. The last new buses to be purchased would be 1952's 4103's and the last used buses to be purchased would be the 3703, 4101 and 3751 diesels already described.
Membership in the Trailways association was terminated in 1955, more than likely in an effort to save the $2000.00 a year minimum dues. The schedule service continued, being the mainstay of the company's business. Charters could have contributed to a greater extent to revenues but were only half heartedly pursued.
In the early 50's, a man named Thomas Byrne purchased Kent Fitzgerald's Illinois and Capitol Transit Lines, renaming it Crown Transit. Crown connected with Jacksonville at Peoria, Havana, Virginia and Springfield. Byrne began a program of upgrading the equipment on the property, selling off the Aerocoaches and the 3702 and 3703 diesels he inherited from Fitzgerald's ownership. First to come were 37-4's from Midwest Trailways (Missouri Pacific), then used 4103's.
As the 1950's closed the agent at Peoria's Union Depot became John Franks. Byrne and Franks got to be quite chummy. What Byrne had his eye on was Franks' escorted tours and in 1960, with Franks' backing, a purchased a brand new PD-4104 to handle those tours. Byrne also courted Franks' favorable routing on passengers from Peoria to St. Louis via Crown and then transferring to Greyhound at Springfield. The scenario was set to route important traffic around Jacksonville. Continental Central Lines had also sold one of their routes from Peoria to Joliet to Ben Kramer's Peoria Rockford Bus Co. Kramer also owned the Blue Bird System that ran from Joliet to Chicago and Franks now had connections directly to Greyhound's station in Chicago and Greyhound ticket paper in his Peoria depot. What had been a Trailways town was now opened to Greyhound.
Mabel Olson did update her equipment, obtaining used PD-4104's. They were not purchased, however, but leased from Jefferson Lines. There would be nine 4104's from Jefferson over the next few years, The leased 4104's would be the newest buses Jacksonville would ever operate and none would be repainted but would soldier on in Jefferson's dark blue and white.
The dominating force in the bus company since Otto's death, Mabel's desire was to see the company attain its 50th anniversary. This it did in 1971. Mabel's other son Freddie passed away and in 1972 she sold the company to Ralph Everest, a Springfield travel agent and tour operator who had ties to northwestern Illinois' Tri-State Tours, a combination of Rocket Lines from Galena and River Trails from Dubuque, Iowa.
Everest kept operating the schedules but without the back ground or operating knowledge to grasp the ramifications of them. He initially purchased three MC-7's and began to do business as Everest Motor Coaches. The line was taking on less importance and, at times, when equipment was needed for charters, he'd just cancel the schedule. This further eroded the line business until he finally just did away with the schedules altogether.
Everest died of a heart attack and his widow continued their tour and travel agency business but sold their charter book to Horizon Motor Coaches of Milwaukee. Horizon is also now gone from the central Illinois scene.
Jon
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