The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1946-08-29
BY ARLEN EwoLF
Ap INCONSISTENCIES Writer

II city. the changing of the troll
ley bell is being drowned out
by the honkinq of the bus horn.
The buses may not have the
personality of the old street cars,
but they get the passengers where
they're going in better style.
Many cities already have made
a complete changeover from troll
leys to buses among them Hon-
ston, San Antonio, Syracuse, Fort
Worth, Jacksonville, Miami,
Nashville, Hartford and Grand
Rapids.
The trend began before the
war. Thomas E. Willier, trans
portation engineer, reports that
in 1884. there were $4,000 street
cars and only 1900 city buses in
the country. Ten years later, the.
proportion had just about re-
versed itself, with $4,000 street
cars and $4,000 city buses. Sew
eral hundred buses will be add
ed to that score next year in New
York alone, when the Third Ave.
Transit Co. hopes to replace all
its trolleys along five main thor
oughfares. including Boardway
and And street
BUS Takes Right of Way
During the war, bus line expan-'
sion was handicapped by lack of
equipment, gasoline rationing,
bigger passenger loads due to lack
of private cars on the road, and
shortages of tires and labor Now
that these shortages have eased
up, Willier says, the trolley is
giving the bus the right of way
again.
At the turn of The century, dur
ing the hey-day of the street car,
the choicest home sites lay along
the trolley routes connecting resi-
Dental areas with downtown dis
tricts, and many people still can
remember hanging out a lantern
on tha front porch to flag the
cars.
New York was the first city IN
the country to have tracked We
hicles-horse-drawn cars which
speeded along Broadway at a
dizzy clip in 1897. The first of
these cars. was cnristened the FAC
conlnodation, and was followed
By the "Sociable". One of the
first electrically powered street
cars appeared in Montgomery.
Ala. ia 1886.
Ho! For Trolley Excursion
In those days, the trolley was
recreation as well as transporta-
lion. Shirt-waisted Gibson Girls
and tlyeir stiff collared. bowler
toppedbeaus rode the street cars
Just for the fun Of it. especially in
the summertime.
Trolley excursions were so pop
ular that many street car COM
panies owned amusement parks.
Clubs often chartered whole
line of..Trolleys for yearly outings
1.-The leading car was decorated
with multi-colored lights, and
carried a blaring brass band.
II was the labyrinth of street
car lines in Brooklyn, incidental
ly. which gave baseball's Brook
lyn Dodgers their original name.
In the trolley era, they were
known as the Trolley Dodgers.
The beginning of the end of
this carefree era of the trolley.
the dime novel. and the tandem
bicycle came with the automo-
bile. and the explosion of the cit
les throughout suburban areas
people didn't have to rely ON troll
ley lines for transportation, and
moved ,off the beaten trolley
track.
Shuttle Buses First
Bus lines edged into the transit
picture as shuttle services TO get
the passengers from their door
steps to the main trolley lines.
As city life began to take on
some Of the hustle hustle we
know today, the old trolley lost
some Of its efficiency, Traffic
jams caused by the popularity of
private. cars slowed the trolleys
and made the traffic lodging bus
a faster way of travelling.
The bus doesn't hog the middle
of the road. explains transporta-
ton engineer Willier, former pro-
.fessor of transportation at Yale
and now market and traffic con-
Sultant for Douglas Leigh, Inc.
It's safer, because it picks up and
discharges passengers at the curb.
Even in cities, where the troll
ley is surviving today, it's in a
new streamlined form that makes
the old street car look like a poor
relation In such cities as Atlanta,
Cleveland, and Philadelphia, the
comparative cheapness of street
car electric operation, and the fact