Dr. D.B. “Doc” Rushing
Copyright, 2016, 2022, Duncan Bryant Rushing

Preface

The Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines was a regional operating company of the Greyhound Lines.

Contents

Introduction
Preview
Background
The First GLIs
GLI of Indiana
More Routes for the GLI of Indiana
From the West to Philadelphia and Beyond
Shorter Route from the West to Pittsburgh
GLI of Ohio
Truck and Bus Operations of the Pennsylvania Railroad
Pennsylvania General Transit Company
Expertise and Specialization
More Growth of the PGT Company
Finally — the Start of the Pennsylvania GL
Pennsylvania Greyhound Transit Company
Pan-American Bus Lines
Pan-American Trailways
Pan-American Greyhound Lines
Revenue Act of 1936
More Development of the Pennsy GL
Blue Ridge Lines
Motor Transit Management Company and Greyhound Management Company
Coach Numbers for the Pennsy GL
Prefix Letters
Pool (Interline) Operations
Meeting Other Greyhound Companies
More Restructuring and Renaming and the End of the Pennsylvania GL
Recap and Timeline
One More Time
Beyond the PennGL and the Second EGL
Conclusion
Very Special Articles
Related Articles
Bibliography

Introduction

          The Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines (PGL or PennGL) was an intercity highway-coach carrier and a regional operating company of the Greyhound Lines (GL).  It was based in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, as a subsidiary of The Greyhound Corporation (the parent umbrella Greyhound firm).  It existed from 1930 until -55, when it, along with the Capitol GL, the second Central GL, and the New England GL, all of which were neighboring regional operating companies, became merged together and into the parent firm and renamed as the Eastern Division of The Greyhound Corporation, which division became known also as the second Eastern Greyhound Lines. 

          The Pennsylvania GL started as a nonoperating holding company during 1930–36, and then it functioned as both a holding company and an operating company from -36 until about -53, after which it continued merely as an operating company until –55, when it became merged (as a division) into the parent Greyhound firm. 

          The PennGL was one of the larger and more financially successful of the Greyhound companies.  It operated many main high-volume trunk routes, serving large cities in several populous states (and the District of Columbia) in the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, and Midwest regions.

Preview

          If you wish to see first a preview or overview of the history of the PennGL, please consider turning or scrolling down to the “Recap and Timeline,” near the end of this article.  That will help you to gain a sense of the high points on a timeline before you dive into the details. 

Background

          The Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines traced back to the Greyhound Lines, Inc., of Indiana (the GLI of Indiana) and the Greyhound Lines, Inc., of Ohio (the GLI of Ohio).  Those two firms began in 1926 as wholly owned subsidiaries of the Motor Transit Corporation (MTC), which on 05 February 1930 became renamed as The Greyhound Corporation (with an uppercase T because the word the was an integral part of the official name).  [As you can read below, in the section about the start of the “Pennsy” GL, in 1934 the parent Greyhound firm, The Greyhound Corporation, renamed the GLI of Indiana as the Pennsylvania GL of Indiana (the PGL of Indiana).]

The First GLIs

          Late in the 1920s there were three Greyhound subsidiaries (not divisions) which used the name of the Greyhound Lines, Inc. (the GLI) – that is, the GLI of Indiana, the GLI of Ohio, and the GLI of Delaware.  Those three firms are sometimes known collectively as the first GLI (or GLIs in the plural).  The third of them, the GLI of Delaware, was a short-lived subsidiary which did not take part in the story of the PennGL.  [The GLI of Ohio, which ran in 1927-30, was separate and different from three other Greyhound companies with similar names – separate and different from the EGL of Ohio, which ran in 1929-33, and both the first Ohio GL, which later ran in 1935–41, and the second Ohio GL, which even later ran in 1946–48.]

          In 1930, when The Greyhound Corporation, the parent umbrella firm, formed the Pennsylvania GL, it redistributed the routes of the GLI of Indiana and the GLI of Ohio.  From those two older subsidiaries Greyhound assigned to the PennGL (through a series of complex moves, described below, in several sections) most of the east-west routes plus most or all of the other routes paralleling or coinciding with those of the Pennsylvania Railroad (or at least supporting them). 

          However, all those “PGL” routes in Indiana remained with the GLI of Indiana – to continue to comply with an Indiana statute which required “domestic” corporations within the Hoosier State – and in 1934 the parent firm renamed that subsidiary as the Pennsylvania GL of Indiana (the PGL of Indiana).  [More about that statute is available below, in the next section, about the GLI of Indiana.] 

          [The second GLI did not come into existence until 1967.  During the 1960s and -70s The Greyhound Corporation underwent a huge (and nearly explosive) expansion, which went far beyond the transport industry.  Greyhound bought a large number of subsidiaries (and formed several new ones) in a wide variety of specialties.  During that time of growth and diversification, Greyhound in 1967 formed the second Greyhound Lines, Inc. (the second GLI) and placed all its motor-coach operations into the new GLI (as a subsidiary of The Greyhound Corporation).  The parent firm sold the second GLI in 1987 to a new unrelated corporate owner, the GLI Holding Company, based in Dallas, Texas, under the promotion of Fred Currey, a former executive of the Continental Trailways.  More about that is available in my article entitled “Greyhound Lines after WW2.”] 

          As you see, the potential for confusion and complexity in the names has already begun; it will soon become even greater, so please fasten your seat belt. 

          Please bear in mind that I’m a longtime tutor, mentor, coach, guide, teacher, instructor, professor, writer, and editor, so I have some deeply ingrained tendencies to offer many tips, cautions, explanations, and reminders – to help others to deal with difficult and challenging points – so I’ll repeatedly insert many pointers about the potentially confusing and complicating names and changes in this article.  If you continue to read here, you’ll soon see what I mean.  The repetitions help me to learn and understand material of this sort and to remember it, so maybe they’ll help you too.  I hope so.

            [If you wish, please read my article about the differences between divisions and subsidiaries of corporations.]

GLI of Indiana

          The Motor Transit Corporation (MTC), the original Greyhound firm, before it became renamed as The Greyhound Corporation (on 05 February 1930), started a new route between Chicago, Illinois, and Indianapolis, Indiana, on 01 February 1927, five months after its formation (as the MTC).

          To obey an Indiana statute (one which required that corporations doing business in the Hoosier State be “domiciled” there), the MTC on 23 November 1926 formed a wholly owned subsidiary (not a division), based in Indiana and named as the Greyhound Lines, Inc., of Indiana (the GLI of Indiana), to conduct the route between Chicago and Indianapolis, which was and still is almost entirely in Indiana.  The operation of that new route started on 01 February 1927, using Fageol (pronounced as “fad-jull,” rhyming with “fragile” or “satchel”) Safety Coaches, apparently transferred from Edwin Ekstrom’s Safety Motor Coach Lines, which he operated in western Michigan and onward to Chicago.  [More about the Safety Motor Coach Lines is available below, in the next section, and much more is available in my article about the Great Lakes GL.]

          Thus the GLI of Indiana became the first business unit of the growing Greyhound empire to make a public use of the name of the Greyhound Lines.

          The GLI of Indiana in September 1928 took over also the third Blue Goose Lines, which had started in December 1925, and which had made the third use of that same name by the same founders, running in the Hoosier State from Indianapolis southwardly to Evansville and northwardly to Kokomo and onward to Fort Wayne, all four in Indiana.  The MTC bought the third Blue Goose Lines from Ralph A.L. Bogan and Swan Sundstrom, two original busmen (and collaborators of Carl Eric Wickman, the main founder of the Greyhound empire) from northern Minnesota.  The GLI of Indiana later extended that route from Fort Wayne to Detroit, Michigan.  The route between Indianapolis and Detroit paralleled a railway route of the PRR. 

          [Bogan and Sundstrom in 1922 had used the same brand name (Blue Goose Lines) for a previous bus company (the Gray Motor Stage Line, running in Wisconsin, between Janesville and Watertown); in -23 they used it again for their Detroit-Toledo Transportation Company; then in -25 they used it yet again for their third Blue Goose Lines (as described above in the previous paragraph).  Eventually all three of those routes became segments of the growing Greyhound route network.] 

          [Originally the route between Indianapolis and Kokomo had been a property of Sundstrom and George Watson, the latter of whom later became the president of the Greyvan Lines, which even later became renamed as the Greyhound Van Lines.] 

          [The two sellers of the three Blue Goose firms (Bogan and Sundstrom) continued as key players at Greyhound.  Bogan later served as the vice president of The Greyhound Corporation during the presidencies of both Wickman and Orville Swan “Sven” Caesar (who also had been one of the original busmen and collaborators of Wickman in northern Minnesota).  Sundstrom later served as the longtime president of the Pennsylvania GL and concurrently as the vice president of the Richmond GL.] 

          [Incidentally, the life and the career of Ralph Bogan were varied and colorful:  His first wife was Margaret “Peggy” Wickman, who was the daughter of Carl Eric Wickman (the main founder of the Greyhound empire).  Bogan managed the Greyhound transit services at the World’s Fairs in Chicago in 1933-34, in Cleveland in 1936-37, and in New York City in 1939-40.  During World War II (WW2) he served as a commissioned officer (a commander) in the US Naval Reserve, and he organized and operated transport services for the federal Office of Defense Transportation (ODT).]

          On 05 February 1930 the Motor Transit Corporation (MTC), the original Greyhound firm, became renamed as The Greyhound Corporation.

More Routes for the GLI of Indiana

          The Safety Motor Coach Lines had resulted in 1924 (with the backing of Wickman in Minnesota) from the work of Edwin Carl “Ed” Ekstrom, an accountant, born in Ludington, Michigan, but raised in Hibbing, Minnesota.  [Ekstrom in 1917 had become an investor and participant in the Mesaba [sic] Transportation Company, based in Hibbing, the first incorporated firm (which replaced the Hibbing Transportation Company, a partnership consisting of Eric Wickman, Ralph Bogan, and others) leading to the founding of the Greyhound empire.]

          In 1926, after the Motor Transit Corporation (MTC) came into existence (as a nonoperating holding company), its first purchase was Ekstrom’s Safety Motor Coach Lines, and Ekstrom became the first president of the MTC.

           [When the MTC bought the Safety Motor Coach Lines, Ekstrom’s company contributed to the MTC not only the name Greyhound and the image of a greyhound dog but also the blue-and-white livery (color scheme) used on Ekstrom’s coaches.  Ekstrom is said to have proposed the use of the name of the Greyhound Lines even before he left (with the support of his associates in Minnesota) to go back east.  More about Ekstrom and his Safety Motor Coach Lines is available in my article about the Great Lakes GL.]

          The second purchase by the MTC, on the same day as that of Ekstrom’s firm, was the Interstate Stages, which ran between Detroit and Chicago, and which used the brand name, trade name, or service name of the Oriole Lines and named its coaches as the Oriole Flyers.

          The Interstate Stages owned a subsidiary, named as the Cardinal Stage Lines, running only one or two (variously) trips each day in each direction, between Chicago and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and onward (across the Delaware River) to Camden, New Jersey, via Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, and Youngstown, all the last three in the Buckeye State, and Pittsburgh, Gettysburg, and Lancaster, all the last three in the Keystone State.  [That’s the first glimmer of a possibility of the MTC’s heading to Philadelphia (and elsewhere along the East Coast).]

          Because Cardinal held only interstate authority (without intrastate authority) within Pennsylvania, in a typical pattern for multistate carriers in that era, whenever Cardinal in Pennsylvania picked up an intrastate passenger bound for Philadelphia, the firm engaged in a convenient fiction, also typical for such circumstances in those times, by issuing to that passenger a ticket bearing a stated destination of Camden, New Jersey, directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, even if the passenger debarked in Philadelphia.  [Thus the coaches often ran empty (or nearly so) across the river between the Quaker City and Camden.]

          In November 1928 the MTC bought the Southland Transportation Company, running between Indianapolis and Louisville, Kentucky, via Cincinnati, Ohio, then it merged the Indianapolis-Cincinnati route into the GLI of Indiana and the Cincinnati-Louisville segment into the GLI of Ohio.  That extended the Detroit-Cincinnati route of the GLI of Ohio from Cincinnati to Louisville, where it connected again (in addition to its first connection in Cincinnati) with the Consolidated Coach Corporation, which in 1931 began to use the brand name, trade name, or service name of the Southeastern GL, and which in -36 became renamed as the Southeastern Greyhound Lines.  Those two steps connected not only Detroit but also Chicago and Indianapolis (plus Wisconsin, Minnesota, and other states) with Florida, the Gulf Coast, and much of the rest of the Southeast.

          In or about 1930 the GLI of Indiana took over, from the Indiana Public-service Company, the rights to its direct route between Indianapolis and Louisville.  Thus the GLI of Indiana extended its Chicago-Indianapolis route directly to Louisville (bypassing Cincinnati).  By doing so, it not only completed its parallel route of the PRR railway route between Chicago and Louisville but also again connected Chicago (in Louisville as well as Cincinnati) with Florida, the Gulf Coast, and much of the rest of the Southeast via the Consolidated Coach Corporation, which soon became the Southeastern GL.  The direct route between Chicago and Louisville became a major high-volume trunk for the PennGL. 

From the West to Philadelphia and Beyond

          The MTC at first allowed Interstate and Cardinal to operate independently as wholly owned subsidiaries.

          In 1928, however, the MTC merged the Cardinal Stage Lines, running between Chicago and Camden, into the GLI of Indiana, and in the next year, -29, it merged the Interstate Stages, running between Chicago and Detroit, into the Safety Motor Coach Lines (as a subsidiary of the MTC).

          By the merger of Cardinal into the GLI of Indiana, the MTC gained a route all the way from Chicago (indeed, all the way from Wisconsin and Minnesota) to Philadelphia and Camden, ready to make connections to New York City, Baltimore, and Washington (and to prepare to extend its own route network, both northwardly and southwardly, along the Atlantic seaboard).  That merger provided the seed from which the PennGL soon grew and developed.

          In August 1928 the MTC bought also the Cleveland-Pittsburgh Motor Stages (running between the two named cities) and merged it too into the GLI of Indiana.

          [On 11 September 1928 a coach of the YellowaY-Pioneer System completed the first regularly scheduled coast-to-coast bus trip in the US, from Los Angeles, California, to New York City, by a single operating company; however, that service did not long continue with any regularity because of the difficulties for a single thinly capitalized firm to sustain such an extended and ambitious operation. More about YellowaY-Pioneer will be available in my forthcoming article about the Pacific GL.]

          On 30 September 1928, the same day when the MTC merged Cardinal into the GLI of Indiana, Greyhound also began a shuttle route from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on its route (along US-30) between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, to Baltimore, Maryland, and onward to Washington, DC.  Soon the increase in the volume of the passenger traffic there required the dispatch of separate coaches to Baltimore and to Washington and back to Gettysburg.

          On 15 October 1928 the GLI of Indiana started a new direct route between Gettysburg and New York City via Harrisburg, Allentown, and Easton, all three in the Keystone State.

Shorter Route from the West to Pittsburgh

          On 05 December 1928 the GLI of Indiana started a faster alternate direct (shortcut) route between Chicago and Pittsburgh along US-30, via Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Lima, Marion, Mansfield, and Canton, all the last four in Ohio, in addition to the longer and slower route via Detroit, Toledo, and Cleveland.  [Significantly, that new route paralleled the mainline route of the “Pennsy” Railroad between Chicago and Pittsburgh (on the way to Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, New York City, and the rest of the East Coast).  That last fact is crucially important to the development of the PennGL.]

          About the same time, late in 1928, the GLI of Indiana entered into a through-traffic interchange agreement with the People’s Rapid Transit (PRT) Company, based in Philadelphia, which ran between Washington, DC, and New York City via not only Philadelphia but also both Baltimore, Maryland, to the southwest, and Trenton, New Jersey, to the northeast, plus along a branch line between Philadelphia and Atlantic City, New Jersey.  [The PRT Company was a property of the Mitten Management Company, a family-owned corporation, which was also a major shareholder of the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company, a city-transit carrier based in the Quaker City.  In 1924 the Mitten parent firm had formed PRT, with the financial support of the PRR, and in -25 PRT had begun to run.]

          Thus both Greyhound and PRT gained the advantage of mutually valuable connections for their long-distance through-passengers.

          In May 1929 the MTC bought the YellowaY-Pioneer Stages, based in San Francisco, California, which W.E. “Buck” Travis had assembled in the previous year, -28, when his Pioneer Stages had bought the YellowaY System, from the newly formed American Motor Transportation Company, based in Oakland, California.  [More about the YellowaY-Pioneer Stages will be available in my forthcoming article about the Pacific GL.]

          Although the YellowaY-Pioneer route network lay mostly in the West, it included also a route between Saint Louis, Missouri, and Pittsburgh, which the MTC transferred to the GLI of Indiana, the latter of which already ran through Pittsburgh on its route between Chicago and the East Coast.  That route provided a means by which the PennGL later reached from Saint Louis to Philadelphia via Indianapolis, Columbus, and Pittsburgh. 

            YellowaY had connected in Pittsburgh with the Purple Stages, running between Pittsburgh and both Philadelphia and Camden along the Lincoln Highway, also designated there as US highway 30 (US-30).

          To maintain the continuity of the previous interchange arrangement (of Purple and YellowaY-Pioneer) and to enhance MTC’s competitive position, the MTC then bought also the Purple Stages and merged it too into the GLI of Indiana.

          At about that same time, the MTC bought, took over, and merged into the GLI of Indiana three more operations in the Midwest:

                   the Central Stages, running between Pittsburgh and Youngstown;
                   the Crescent Tours, running between Pittsburgh and Cleveland;
                   and four routes from the Indiana Service Company (which continued to provide local city-transit service in Fort Wayne) – from South Bend to Michigan City and from Fort Wayne to Huntington, Warsaw, and South Bend, all in the Hoosier State.

          According to the best information now available, that last purchase (the routes based in Fort Wayne and in South Bend) was the first acquisition of intrastate rights by Greyhound along routes on which it had already run with interstate rights only.

          On 05 February 1930 the MTC became renamed as The Greyhound Corporation.

          On 29 March 1930 the parent Greyhound firm, The Greyhound Corporation, formed the main undenominated Pennsylvania GL, then it redistributed the routes of the GLI of Indiana and the GLI of Ohio (as described below, in the section about the start of the PennGL), and in -34 it renamed the GLI of Indiana as the Pennsylvania GL of Indiana (the PGL of Indiana).  Later, in -32, Greyhound formed also the PGL of Illinois, which then held and used the certificates for the “PGL” routes across Illinois.  [More about the PGL of Illinois is available below, in the section about the start of the PennGL.]

          [Also in 1930 the Safety Motor Coach Lines became renamed as the Eastern Greyhound Lines (EGL) of Michigan (the EGL of Michigan), then in -35 (briefly) as the Central Greyhound Lines (CGL) of Michigan (the CGL of Michigan, the third CGL); then in -36 it became merged into the undenominated main second Central GL.]

GLI of Ohio

          In November 1926, when the MTC formed the GLI of Indiana, it formed also a sister subsidiary (not a division), named as the Greyhound Lines, Inc., of Ohio (the GLI of Ohio), which in June 1927 took over the Indianapolis-Cincinnati Bus Company, running between those two named cities, using Fageol Safety Coaches and at least one ACF.  The Indianapolis-Cincinnati firm ran also another route – between Indianapolis and Richmond, Indiana, on the way to Dayton, Columbus, Pittsburgh, and the East Coast, which the MTC in 1930 transferred to the GLI of Indiana.  Despite the name of the GLI of Ohio, that corporation too (in addition to the GLI of Indiana) was based in Indiana (to obey the Indiana statute described above, in the section about the GLI of Indiana).

          Then a year later, in November 1927, the GLI of Ohio (which, again, as described above, in the section about the first GLIs, was separate and different from the EGL of Ohio and each of the two later iterations of the Ohio GL) – the GLI of Ohio took over the Detroit and Cincinnati Coach Lines, which had used the brand name, trade name, or service name of the Sunny South Lines, running between the two named cities.  Thus Greyhound gained the intrastate rights in Ohio, in addition to the interstate rights, along a large part of the route between Detroit and Cincinnati.  [The MTC had bought that firm, in a typical move, through its related acquisition company, the Automotive Investments, Inc., based in Duluth, Minnesota.]

          [The seller of the Sunny South Lines was Walter Nisun, who had founded it, and who later, about 1934, sold to Greyhound (for the PennGL) another of his motor-coach properties, running between Detroit and Saint Louis, Missouri, via Fort Wayne and Indianapolis, both in the Hoosier State.  Nisun also operated the Detroit-Chicago Motor Bus Company, which failed in business in 1929.  Later, to run between Chicago and New York City, he formed the Ni Sun Lines, which took over the defunct Nuway Lines (formerly known as the Safeway Lines, which was separate and different from a later Trailways member company with a similar name, the Safeway Trails (the Safeway Trailways), which long ran between Washington, DC, and New York City, and which in 1936 was one of the five founding members of the National Trailways Bus System).  Nisun then obtained for his Ni Sun Lines an Ohio certificate (just before the deadline before the federal ICC began to exercise its new jurisdiction), and then, without operating Ni Sun, he sold it to the All American Bus Lines, which later became the American Buslines [sic].  That last firm later became merged with the first Burlington Trailways (another of the founding members of the Trailways association), and the resulting firm soon became bought and renamed as the Continental American Lines as a subsidiary (not a division) of the Transcontinental Bus System (the Continental Trailways), which subsidiary in 1959 first enabled the Continental Trailways to reach from coast to coast, between California and New York.] 

Truck and Bus Operations
of the Pennsylvania Railroad

          During the 1920s the executives and managers of the “Pennsy” Railroad (PRR) did not show any sign of concern about the possibility of significant competition from motor coaches on the rapidly developing highways.  The location of the PRR enabled it to connect the populous and industrial Midwest (as far westward as Chicago and Saint Louis) with the populous Mid-Atlantic region and its major cities (between Washington and New York City) – along with connections in all directions. 

          In September 1923 the PRR began to take advantage of the freshly paved highways – by establishing what its executives called their “motor service” – by contracting with a successful and respected trucking company, one using the name of the Scott Brothers, which had started in the drayage business in Philadelphia in  1868.  That firm then began to haul the local cargo of the PRR near Philadelphia, then soon it started hauling the PRR’s local cargo between Baltimore and New York City via Philadelphia and between Philadelphia and Harrisburg (westwardly on the way to Pittsburgh).  For that service the Scott firm used a fleet of trucks painted with the PRR signature color of Tuscan red and marked with the PRR keystone trademark. 

          The purpose of that program was to make available more track capacity (which had become scarce and in demand) for more freight through-trains on the finite or limited capacity of its track system, which had become very busy.  Its rail traffic was so heavy that it had and used four-track main lines between Washington and New York City (via Philadelphia) and between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia (via Altoona and Harrisburg).  

          [The Pennsylvania Railroad Company, founded in 1846 and based in Philadelphia, was one of the larger railway firms in the US.  It was a highly respected one, which, starting in 1916, called itself, with much justification, “the standard railroad of the world.”  In 1968 the “Pennsy” Railroad and its archrival, the New York Central (railway) System, merged with each other, and the resulting firm became named as the Penn Central Transportation Company; then in 1976 Penn Central, having irreversibly failed in business and having gone into bankruptcy, was one of several financially troubled railway firms which Conrail (the Consolidated Rail Corporation) took over and began to operate.  Then in 1998 two other railway firms – CSX and Norfolk Southern – jointly bought Conrail and divided it between themselves, after which Conrail ceased to exist.]

          Then in August 1926 the Pennsylvania Railroad started its own passenger “motor service” (in addition to its cargo “motor service”) on several routes based in Chambersburg, about 50 miles southwest of Harrisburg, using five White buses, painted with the PRR signature color of Tuscan red and marked with the PRR keystone trademark and the single word “Pennsylvania” (along with the small legal data).

            After about six months, though, the PRR turned over those routes and buses to the same Scott Brothers.    

Pennsylvania General Transit Company

          Then in October 1928 the PRR, apparently intent on building a PRR bus system, incorporated the Pennsylvania General Transit (PGT) Company; however, at first, after several starts and spurts in several widely separated places, nothing of consequence continued long. 

          Next, with more apparent seriousness of intent and firmness of purpose, in January 1929 the PRR bought – and placed under its PGT Company – 75-percent controlling interests in three bus companies from the Mitten Management Company (a family-owned corporation based in Philadelphia, first mentioned above, in the section entitled “Shorter Route from the West to Pittsburgh”):

                   the People’s Rapid Transit (PRT) Company, running between Washington and New York City via Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Trenton and on a branch route between Philadelphia and Atlantic City;
                   the Montgomery Bus Company;
                   and the Philadelphia Suburban Transit Company, which was a subsidiary of that same Montgomery Bus Company.

          The PRT Company was a true intercity carrier.  It used a fleet of 76 Yellow Coach gasoline-electric buses (in several early variations of the Z type) with Lang parlor-car bodies, and it already (since late in the previous year, 1928) had and used an interchange agreement with the GLI of Indiana (to exchange passengers in Philadelphia and New York City, which were their only two common points).  [As described both above and below, in other sections, the GLI of Indiana in 1934 became renamed as the PGL of Indiana.] 

          The PRR allowed the PRT Company to continue to run as a semiautonomous subsidiary until the PRR bought the remaining minority interest in the PRT (in  1930) and then merged it into the main undenominated Pennsylvania GL (in 1936), as described below, in the section about the start of the PennGL.  

          The Montgomery Bus Company ran mainly through Montgomery County (to the northwest of downtown Philadelphia), mostly along the famous “main line” of the PRR between Philadelphia and Harrisburg (and onward to Pittsburgh).

          The Philadelphia Suburban Transit Company, using about 30 buses, ran mostly between Overbrook (northwest of downtown Philadelphia) and other suburbs on the west side of the Quaker City. 

          On 13 February 1929 the buses of the PRT Company began to stop at the PRR railway stations in the towns and cities on their routes (in addition to stopping at PRT’s own bus stations in those places), and the ticket agents of the PRR in those PRR stations started selling PRT bus tickets, including reserved-seat assignments.

          The Philadelphia shop of the PRT Company was a converted streetcar barn on Girard Avenue, which later became the longtime Greyhound shop in Philadelphia. 

          In April 1929 the PRT Company bought from the Washington Motor Coach Company its rights to haul local and intrastate passengers between Baltimore and Washington.

          During the early months of 1929 the PGT Company (a property of the PRR) – after the PRR in January 1929 bought controlling interests in the PRT Company (and two suburban bus systems) and placed them under the PGT Company – then PGT embarked on the strategy of a major expansion within its home state and on one route into Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.  It applied for certificates for intrastate authority along nearly 40 new routes, including those between Pittsburgh and Scranton, between Wilkes-Barre and Washington via Harrisburg, between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia along both the Lincoln Highway (US-30, via Greensburg, Bedford, Chambersburg, Gettysburg, York, and Lancaster) and the William Penn Highway (US-22, via Ebensburg, Lewistown, and Harrisburg), between Harrisburg and Baltimore, and between Philadelphia and Norfolk, Virginia, via Salisbury, Maryland, on the Delmarva Peninsula (containing Delaware, the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and a small part of Virginia).

          [Please bear in mind the differences between those two bus companies with similar names – the People’s Rapid Transit Company and the Pennsylvania General Transit Company – and their similar abbreviations – PRT and PGT.  The former one (PRT) was the older one, which ran between Washington and New York City via Philadelphia, whereas the latter one (PGT) was the newer one, which the “Pennsy” Railroad (PRR) had formed for its bus operations.] 

          In PGT’s applications for those certificates, it claimed that PGT could most effectively (better than its rivals) coördinate motor-coach services with the existing PRR railway lines.  

          Not surprisingly, the PGT Company received most of those certificates. 

Expertise and Specialization

          The PRR executives had shown much interest in contracting for the Greyhound Lines to operate the new PRR bus service (that is, its PGT Company).  The railway bosses said that they especially wished to take advantage of the expertise of Greyhound’s new Motor Transit Management Company – which on 05 February 1930 became renamed as the Greyhound Management Company – so that the PRR people could concentrate their own expertise on running the trains of the PRR.  [More about those two management companies is available below in a later section.] 

          On 10 June 1929 five Will coaches of the GLI of Indiana, using the operating authority of the PGT Company, began to run five round trips daily between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.  Those cars bore the livery and the name of the Greyhound Lines, including images of greyhound dogs, and they bore also (in small lettering, of course), the name of the Pennsylvania General Transit Company and the required legal data. 

          That is, Greyhound coaches (with Greyhound livery and markings) of the GLI of Indiana, for the benefit of the PGT Company, lawfully using the official authority of PGT, started hauling passengers between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia – and then Greyhound long continued to haul many other passengers while using that same method or pattern – on that route and on many others – until 1936, when PGT (along with PRT) became merged into the Pennsylvania GL, which thus became not only a holding company, as before, but also an operating carrier in its own right.

          Soon the PGT Company applied for intrastate certificates also across Ohio on routes paralleling the railway routes of the PRR, and the PRR bought about 9 percent of the common stock of the MTC (which soon became The Greyhound Corporation). 

          During the following months the GLI of Indiana continued to increase its operation of the motor-coach service of the PGT Company in that same way. 

          To prepare for Greyhound to run the new PGT route between Philadelphia and Norfolk, the MTC formed another subsidiary, the Pennsylvania-Virginia General Transit Company, a “domestic” corporation based in Virginia, to hold and use the Virginia certificate for service between Norfolk and the Maryland state line (on the Delmarva Peninsula).  That new subsidiary became renamed in 1934 as the Pennsylvania GL of Virginia (the PGL of Virginia).

          Likewise, to prepare for Greyhound to run the new PGT route between Indianapolis and Vincennes, Indiana, along one route to Saint Louis, the MTC formed yet another subsidiary, the Pennsylvania-Indiana General Transit Company, a “domestic” corporation based in Indiana, to hold and use the Indiana certificate for service between Indianapolis and Vincennes, on the Illinois state line.  In the next year, 1930, however, the MTC transferred that route to the GLI of Indiana.  [The MTC had already reassigned to the GLI of Indiana the route between Indianapolis and Terre Haute (the direct route to Saint Louis), which the GLI of Indiana had previously acquired from the YellowaY-Pioneer Stages and the Pickwick-Greyhound Lines, as described below, in the section about the start of the PennGL.]  In 1934 Greyhound renamed the GLI of Indiana as the Pennsylvania GL of Indiana (the PGL of Indiana), as mentioned in several other places in this article.

          The PRR bus subsidiaries continued to apply for local and intrastate authority on its routes (where they did not already hold it), including the routes on which the GLI of Indiana had previously held and used interstate authority alone.    

More Growth of the PGT Company

          In July 1929, in a complex and curious case, the New Jersey Board of Public-utility Commissioners granted limited intrastate operating certificates for service between Camden (across the Delaware River from Philadelphia) and various points on the Atlantic seashore – to all of the competing carriers in that corridor, including PGT, each of which had previously run along those routes with interstate authority alone.  [At some time no longer known, PGT had succeeded the PRT Company on its route there because that PRT branch route paralleled a PRR railway line.]  Neither PRT nor PGT ever did much business in that market. 

          [Most of those other carriers involved were already properties (some through intermediate corporations) of the famous Public Service Interstate Transportation Company (commonly known as Public Service or simply PS).] 

          Then, late in 1929, the PGT Company greatly expanded – in the far west of Pennsylvania, across the panhandle of West Virginia and into Ohio, in the northeast corner of Ohio, and in the southwest corner of New York – thus: 

          First, in August 1929 PGT took over the West Ridge Transportation Company, which PGT kept as a wholly owned subsidiary, and which soon in turn bought several other bus operations, including the Greenville-Mercer Bus Company, the Titusville-Meadville Bus Line, and a route between Titusville and Oil City (from the Edwards Motor Transit Company).  Other West Ridge routes included those between Buffalo and Pittsburgh via Erie, between Erie and Binghamton via Wellsville, between Erie and Jamestown via Warren, and between Erie and Ashtabula (nearly to Cleveland).

          Next, in the autumn of 1929 West Ridge bought also the Buffalo Interurban Coach Company; the Olean, Bradford, and Salamanca Bus Company; and a route between Greensburg and Blairsville via New Alexandria (from two McDevitt brothers in New Alexandria).  PGT transferred the routes of those two incorporated firms (in New York) to the MTC, which then assigned them to the Eastern GL of New York (the EGL of New York, which in 1935 became renamed as the CGL of New York).  [The EGL of New York (and therefore also the CGL of New York) ran in northern Upstate New York and between Cleveland and New York City via Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany.  More about the EGL of New York and the CGL of New York is available in my article about the Central GL.]

          In 1929 the PGT Company also filed for intrastate authority – and received it – along several local and suburban routes based in Pittsburgh, radiating almost entirely to the south, west, and southwest, as far away as Uniontown.  Apparently PGT bought at least some of the previous carriers on those routes, for PGT inherited a variety of used buses, about 60 of them, likely previously used on those same routes.

          Further, in 1930 PGT bought an unincorporated bus firm running in New Jersey between Trenton and Seaside Park via Tom’s River and a route between Tom’s River and Point Pleasant (from the White Bus Line) – to support (and coördinate with) the PRR railway service across the south end of New Jersey, which passenger service never greatly flourished. 

          For a short while, starting on 01 April 1930, the PGT Company ran a combination bus-and-train service between New York City and Chicago and between New York City and Saint Louis, during the time while motor coaches still did not yet usually make overnight trips.  Thus the passengers rode the PGT and GLI buses by day and the PRR trains by night.  However, overnight bus operations gradually became more available and more accepted, and the Great Depression became more intense, so PGT discontinued that hybrid service. 

Finally – the Start of the Pennsylvania GL

          During 1929 the MTC and the PRR began negotiations which led to the creation of the PennGL. 

          In 1930 The Greyhound Corporation, the parent Greyhound firm under its new name, established two new regional operating subsidiaries (not divisions) – the first Central GL and the Pennsylvania GL.

          The purpose of the Pennsylvania GL was to provide an entity in which the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) soon bought a minority interest – a Greyhound subsidiary in a territory which coincided with the territory of the railway firm – so that the railway company could supplement its train service, substitute bus service in the place of some of its unprofitable or marginally profitable passenger trains, and, most important, make available more track capacity (which had become scarce and in demand) for its more profitable freight trains on the finite or limited capacity of its track system, which had become very busy.  [A discussion of this circumstance first appeared above, near the start of the section about the truck and bus operations of the “Pennsy” Railroad.]

          On 29 March 1930 The Greyhound Corporation formed the Pennsylvania GL (in Delaware, the most popular and most corporation-friendly state) as not an operating company but rather a holding company for the entire system of all the “PGL” lines thus far in existence – that is, all the PGT routes and other routes which had become destined to become parts of what eventually became the PennGL.  That total route network eventually reached from Chicago and Saint Louis in the Midwest to New York City, Washington, and Norfolk in the East – and from Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo (briefly), Pittsburgh, and New York City in the North to Washington and Norfolk in the South. 

          The routes involved then were the various properties of the GLI of Indiana, the PGT Company, the Montgomery Bus Company, the West Ridge Transportation Company, and the Buffalo Interurban Coach Company, along with the subsidiaries of the three last firms, albeit temporarily.

          Shortly afterward Greyhound bought also the Interstate Highway Limited, with its route between Pittsburgh and Detroit, and merged it too into the PGT Company.

          [Please recall that the Pennsylvania GL was then not an operating company but rather a holding company, which owned the corporations named (just above), which were the subsidiaries and the operating companies of the PennGL.] 

          Placing all those routes and operations under (and later into) the new PennGL required many steps during the following years. 

          Meanwhile, on 09 June 1930, The Greyhound Corporation formed also the first Central GL (based in Indiana).  

          Greyhound then redistributed the routes of the GLI of Indiana and the GLI of Ohio between the GLI of Indiana and the first Central GL.  The east-west routes went to or stayed with the GLI of Indiana, as did the other routes paralleling or coinciding with those of the “Pennsy” Railroad.  The remaining ones, between Evansville and Indianapolis and between Detroit and Louisville, went to the new Central GL.  In 1948 that latter route became a major corridor of the Great Lakes GL.  [More about the Central GL and the Great Lakes GL is available in my articles about those two other regional companies.]

          Specifically, all those “PGL” routes in Indiana – that is, those from Chicago through Fort Wayne toward Pittsburgh and from Indianapolis to Richmond, Cincinnati, Louisville, Terre Haute, Chicago, and Toledo (via Fort Wayne), along with a branch line between Richmond and Cincinnati – those “PGL” routes remained with the GLI of Indiana – to continue to obey an Indiana statute which required “domestic” corporations within the Hoosier State – and then in 1934 the parent Greyhound firm renamed the GLI of Indiana as the Pennsylvania GL of Indiana (the PGL of Indiana). 

          The GLI of Indiana in November 1928 had taken over a route between Indianapolis and Louisville (from the Indiana Public-service Company).  Thus it connected Chicago (and much of the rest of the populous Midwest) with Florida, the Gulf Coast, and the rest of the Southeast via the Consolidated Coach Corporation, which in 1931 began to use the brand name, trade name, or service name of the Southeastern GL, and which in -36 became renamed as the Southeastern Greyhound Lines.  That direct route between Chicago and Louisville became a major trunk line of the PennGL.

          Further, in 1930, when the parent Greyhound firm formed the first Central GL, it incorporated the CGL also in Indiana – to obey that same Indiana statute – so that the CGL could lawfully operate its route in Indiana (that is, the one between Evansville and Indianapolis) in addition to its other routes in other states.

          Although the GLI of Indiana continued to operate (with its revised combination of routes), the GLI of Ohio ceased to operate (because it no longer had even one route of its own), so the parent Greyhound firm dissolved the GLI of Ohio.

          Those steps cleared and prepared the way to share the ownership of the new PennGL with the Pennsylvania Railroad, and the PRR then bought a large but minority (noncontrolling) interest in the PennGL.

          On 20 November 1930, in a major watershed event, the PRR and The Greyhound Corporation, acting jointly, reorganized the PRT Company (and obtained a new charter for it), in which the “Pennsy” and Greyhound held equal ownership interests, and the two owners rearranged their other subsidiaries.  [PRT, the People’s Rapid Transit Company, continued, as a semiautonomous subsidiary, to run its parlor coaches between Washington and New York City via Philadelphia.]  The PRR kept all of the Montgomery Bus Company.  Greyhound held little interest in the local and suburban routes around Pittsburgh, so they went to a new carrier, the Penn Bus Company, which the West Penn Railways formed for its expansion into bus services.  [Greyhound kept a 10-percent interest in that new bus firm.]

          Further, starting on 01 January 1931, in an important symbolic move throughout the entire system, the blue-and-white livery and the greyhound dogs became applied to all the coaches which did not yet have them, and the full name “Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines” became applied to all of them.  [Previously the coaches of the GLI of Indiana had borne the short name “Greyhound Lines.”]  The keystone trademark of the PRR also appeared on the sides of all the coaches. 

          Next, effective on 01 January 1932, a major set of administrative and organizational changes took place in accounting protocols and in a realignment of some of the operating certificates.  Pittsburgh became a division point.  Afterward, regardless of the origins of the respective routes, the PGL of Indiana conducted all the routes to the west of Pittsburgh, and the PGT Company conducted all the routes to the east of Pittsburgh.  However, the PRT Company was then still a separate semiautonomous corporation (until 1936), so it did not become involved in that arrangement; that is, PRT continued to conduct its own routes (between Washington and New York City). 

          Later in 1932 the parent Greyhound firm formed also the Pennsylvania GL of Illinois (the PGL of Illinois) – as first mentioned above, near the end of the section about more routes for the GLI of Indiana – to provide a “domestic” corporation based in Illinois to hold the certificates for the “PGL” routes within Illinois.  The purpose of that move was to obey an Illinois statute (similar to the one in Indiana, as described above, in the section about the GLI of Indiana).  The Illinois routes involved were the ones between Saint Louis and Terre Haute (on the direct way to Indianapolis) and between Saint Louis and Vincennes (on an alternate route to Indianapolis).  The former of those two routes had started with both YellowaY-Pioneer and the Pickwick-Greyhound Lines, and the latter one had come from Pickwick-Greyhound alone.  [More about the Pickwick-Greyhound Lines and the YellowaY-Pioneer Stages is available in my forthcoming articles about the Pacific GL and the Southwestern GL.]

          Between 1932 and -34 the Public Service (PS) Company bought most of the gasoline-electric Yellow Coaches which PRT had run (between Washington and New York City via Philadelphia). 

Pennsylvania Greyhound Transit Company

          Then in 1934 a series of name changes took place: 

                   the GLI of Indiana became the Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines of Indiana (the PGL of Indiana);
                   the Pennsylvania General Transit (PGT) Company became the Pennsylvania Greyhound Transit (the second PGT) Company;
                   the Pennsylvania-Virginia General Transit Company became the Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines of Virginia (the PGL of Virginia);
                   the Buffalo Interurban Coach Company became the Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines of New York (the PGL of New York).

          During that time Greyhound sold several minor routes, mostly some of the local ones received from the first PGT Company. 

          On the other hand, Greyhound also bought several more routes and rights, including the rights to the route between Buffalo and Washington via Sunbury and Harrisburg (from the Edwards Motor Transit Company). 

          Further, on 28 January 1935 Greyhound merged the PGL of New York, along with the West Ridge Transportation Company and the rights between Buffalo and Sunbury, into the CGL of New York, which had just become formed.  [More about the CGL of New York is available in my article about the Central GL.] 

Pan-American Bus Lines

         On 01 December 1934, which was not a good time for starting a new business firm of almost any sort, Paul Sheahan bought a bus firm which ran between Columbia, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia.  [Sheahan had previously served as the vice president and general manager of John Gilmer’s Old South Lines; more about Gilmer and that firm is available in my articles about the Atlantic GL, the Teche GL, and the Southeastern GL.] 

         Then on 11 December 1934 in the Palmetto State, Sheahan incorporated his new firm, naming it as the Pan-American (“Pan-Am”) Bus Lines (PABL) and stating its purpose to conduct an express motor-coach service between New York City and Miami, with only limited stops along the way.  [In 1941, as described below in a later section (“Pan-American Greyhound Lines“), the Pennsylvania GL became involved in the Pan-Am adventure.]

         During the same month, December 1934, the firm bought the rights to the route between Columbia and Charlotte, North Carolina, thus reaching toward New York City, albeit on a circuitous route – because the Atlantic GL already ran directly between Jacksonville and the Northeast via Raleigh, North Carolina, along US-1. 

         [During the 1940s and -50s, while the Trailways member companies continued to cobble together their through-routes, their route from New York City and Washington to Miami was even more circuitous – farther inland and westwardly – via Charlottesville and Lynchburg, Virginia; Greensboro and Charlotte, North Carolina; Augusta, Georgia; and Lake City, Tampa, and Fort Myers, Florida (along the Gulf Coast of Florida) – because Greyhound already held and used the short direct routes, closer to the East Coast and along it.]

         Nonetheless, the Pan-Am firm started running between Charlotte and Savannah – with just one weekly trip in each direction – barely enough to keep its first certificates alive while preparing to expand – with just 15 intermediate stops. 

         Then in the next year, 1935, over the protests of the established carriers on existing parallel routes, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), by its newly expanded jurisdiction under the federal Motor Carrier Act of 1935, granted to Pan-Am a certificate of convenience and necessity, which was the very first such certificate issued under that new statute.  The ICC explained its rationale for the grant despite the protests – because Pan-Am had proposed to provide a new type of express service – through-coaches with limited stops and no transfer (from one coach to another) – a class of service different from any existing service then available from any other carrier. 

         On 10 August 1935, in the depth of the Great Depression, Pan-Am started running its “Florida Limited” on its entire route, between New York City and Miami, with one weekly trip in each direction, using two 33-seat White 54-A long-nose coaches.  It touted its service as “the thru line,” using “new equipment” and “finest equipment” with “no local stops” and “one bus all the way.”  Perhaps to justify the longer inland route, it boasted the “Shenandoah Valley route.”  However, to take advantage of that truly scenic locale, Pan-Am arranged its schedules so that its coaches passed through there during daylight hours. 

         The Pan-Am Bus Lines moved its headquarters from Columbia to Charlotte, which was Sheahan’s hometown. 

         Then on 06 November 1935 Pan-Am increased to two weekly round trips, and on 03 February 1936 it increased to three weekly round trips (after the addition of two more Whites). 

         Further, in 1938 Pan-Am bought six handsome White 7788 parlor coaches with underfloor engines.  [The 7788 was a modified 788 city-transit car with highway-speed gearing, reclining seats, window curtains, reading lamps, overhead parcel racks, dual fuel tanks, and a rooftop luggage bin at the tail.] 

         By January 1940 Pan-Am had begun to run two round trips every day. 

         Still, though, the Pan-Am firm – a new one without interchange agreements (to exchange passengers with other carriers) at any point along its route – was at a distinct disadvantage, whereas not only Greyhound but also the member firms of the new Trailways trade association were able to exchange passengers with their respective fellow companies and with many independent ones. 

Pan-American Trailways

         Sheahan owned also a trucking firm, which was based in Charlotte, and he wanted to give more of his time and effort to that other company, so he leased the operation of Pan-Am to a new firm, the Pan-American Trailways, a Virginia corporation, formed for that purpose.  The parties closed their deal on 11 July 1940, and the lease became effective on 17 August 1940. 

         The shareholders in the new company were the Virginia Stage Lines (the Virginia Trailways), the Safeway Trails (the Safeway Trailways), and the Eastern Trails (the Eastern Trailways).  [The Eastern Trailways was a subsidiary of the Safeway Trailways.]  The home office of the Pan-Am Trailways was in Charlottesville, at the same location as the headquarters of the Virginia Trailways. 

         Those in charge of the new firm clearly intended to run their leased firm long-term.  They caused all the coaches to be repainted into the Trailways livery, they bought four new ACF coaches (likely 37-PBs), and they extended the southern terminus from Miami to Miami Beach (thus providing through-service to and from Miami Beach for the first time aboard any carrier).

         However, that arrangement did not last long.  The Pan-Am Trailways had begun to operate on 17 August 1940, after filing its request for approval by the ICC.  Then on 11 February 1941, not quite six months later, the ICC gave its approval, but it imposed certain modifications or requirements, which caused a basic and serious disagreement between the lessor and the lessee.  The Trailways firm immediately withdrew from the lease and ceased its operation.   

         On the next day Sheahan’s Pan-Am Bus Lines resumed operating itself. 

Pan-American Greyhound Lines

         Promptly, though, Sheahan approached Greyhound with a proposal, which led to a pair of contracts, on 31 March and 21 April 1941, calling for the Pennsylvania GL (between New York City and Washington), the Atlantic GL (between Washington and Jacksonville), and the Florida Motor Lines (FML, between Jacksonville and Miami) to operate the Pan-Am Bus Lines, using the PABL certificate authority, and for the four parties to share the revenue, costs, and expenses according to detailed plans.  Then on 22 August 1941 all four parties filed a joint application for approval by the ICC. 

         On 13 November 1941 the ICC denied the application, holding that the proposed pooling arrangement violated the ICC Act. 

         Two weeks later, however, on 29 November 1941, the PennGL, the AGL, and the FML incorporated the Pan-Am Greyhound Lines (PAGL), based in Charleston, West Virginia, which was the headquarters of the AGL.  Those three promoters owned the stock in the new Greyhound firm.  The AGL owned 51 percent, the PennGL owned 19 percent, and the FML owned the other 30 percent. 

         Both Sheahan personally and the Pan-Am Bus Lines had fallen deeply into debt, which the Pan-Am GL assumed in full, and Sheahan then transferred all his stock in his firm (the PABL) to the PAGL. 

         Then on 05 December 1941 (two days before the attack on Pearl Harbor), Sheahan, the PABL, the PAGL, the AGL, the PennGL, and the FML filed a joint application with the ICC for its approval of the financial agreement, the temporary lease (of the PABL by the PAGL), and the eventual sale (of the PABL to the PAGL). 

         On 16 January 1942, pending the approval, the PAGL began to operate the PABL, and on 02 June 1942 the ICC gave its approval to the lease, the sale, the financial terms, and the control of the PAGL by the AGL. 

         The Pan-Am GL then moved its headquarters from Charleston to Roanoke, Virginia, in the territory of the AGL, and it continued running two round trips each day, merged the assets of the PABL into the PAGL, and (in 1943) dissolved the PABL. 

         After the AGL (through the PAGL) took over the PABL, then the PAGL shifted from the original inland route of the PABL (via Charlottesville and Charlotte) to the shorter, quicker, direct route of the AGL (via Richmond and Raleigh) and onward to Savannah and beyond to Miami.  That change brought in also the Richmond GL, which ran the route segment between Washington and Richmond.  [More about the RGL is available in my article about that firm.] 

         In February 1945, under the sponsorship of the AGL, the PAGL received eight new GM PGA-3702s, numbered as 951-958. 

         On 01 January 1946 The Greyhound Corporation bought the Florida Motor Lines and then (in February) renamed it as the Florida Greyhound Lines (FGL). 

         During 1946 (with the approval of the ICC), the AGL bought the shares of both the PennGL and the FGL (the successor in interest of the FML) of the PAGL. 

         Finally, on 16 April 1947, the ICC gave its consent for the AGL to merge the PAGL into itself, so the merger took place.  The AGL dissolved the newly empty PAGL corporation, realigned and redistributed the operating certificates with the PennGL, the RGL, and the FML, and it transferred the 3702s from the PAGL into the fleet of the AGL. 

         Thus ended the Pan-American experiment. 

Revenue Act of 1936

          Meanwhile, in 1936, The Greyhound Corporation began to eliminate its multiple (and often complex) intermediate holding companies (between the parent firm and the operating subsidiaries).  The purpose of those steps was to avoid a hugely increased federal income tax on the undistributed earnings of corporate subsidiaries (in part as a result of a legislative socioeconomic motive to make more cash available to the public during the Great Depression).  The tax increase took place under the infamous federal Revenue Act of 1936, which the Congress of the US had passed (and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had signed) as a means by which to cause or force a simplification of complicated corporate structures in the public-utility industries (including the transport industries).  Changes in the federal laws soon allowed transport companies to return to the use of holding companies with their subsidiary corporations; however, Greyhound continued using mostly divisions, although it did use also a few subsidiaries.  [If you wish, please read my article about corporate divisions, subsidiaries, and the differences between them.]

          On 01 January 1936 The Greyhound Corporation, in anticipation of the forthcoming new statute, the parent Greyhound firm, previously a holding company rather than an operating company, taking its first step, merged the EGL of New England (formerly a subsidiary) into itself (as a division).  [More about the EGL of New England is available in my articles about the Central GL and the New England GL.]

          That action – as a part of the tax strategy – caused the parent firm, The Greyhound Corporation, to become not only a holding company but also an operating company – with its own ICC-MC number (1515).  [Later Greyhound kept and continued using also the MC numbers 1501 and 1511, which other subsidiaries had obtained from the ICC.]

          Further, The Greyhound Corporation continued as both a holding company and an operating company – because the new federal statute (the Revenue Act of 1936) allowed operating corporations to own and hold operating subsidiaries, although the act heavily taxed nonoperating holding corporations with operating subsidiaries.]

          During that year and during that process, The Greyhound Corporation, as an operating carrier as well as a holding company, allowed the Pennsylvania GL to continue as a corporate subsidiary of the parent Greyhound firm.  It merged the two larger subsidiaries of the PGL into the PGL, causing the PGL to become an operating carrier as well as a holding company – by merging into it both PGT and PRT (and dissolving the PGT and PRT corporations).  However, because of the necessity to maintain “domestic” corporations for operations in Indiana, Illinois, and Virginia, the PennGL continued to hold three such subsidiaries – the PGL of Indiana [previously named as the GLI of Indiana), the PGL of Illinois, and the PGL of Virginia – as long as the state requirements remained in place (until about 1953)]. 

          Thus the Pennsylvania Greyhound Transit (PGT) Company became a part of the Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines, which continued until 1955, when the PennGL became a part of the second Eastern GL.  

          And thus ended both PGT and PRT. 

More Development of the Pennsy GL

          On 29 December 1938 The Greyhound Corporation bought the Buckeye Stages, which ran in Ohio, as its name implies.  Thus Greyhound gained not only some new routes with intrastate rights but also other intrastate rights along several routes on which Greyhound had previously run with interstate rights alone.  To the second Central GL the parent Greyhound firm assigned only the route between Cleveland and Norwalk via Elyria, all in the Buckeye State. 

          However, Greyhound assigned to the PennGL a large number of the other former-Buckeye routes, including the major ones between Cleveland and Cincinnati via Akron, Wooster, Mansfield, and Columbus and between Detroit and Pittsburgh via Toledo, Mansfield, Wooster, and Canton.  The latter route gained intrastate rights along a large part of the shortcut route between Chicago and Pittsburgh via Fort Wayne, Mansfield, Wooster, and Canton, which the GLI of Indiana had started in 1928.

          The PennGL then ran some of the former-Buckeye routes, sold some of them, and ran some for a while and later sold them. 

          On 01 October 1940 The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (an agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) opened to the public the first segment of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, between Irwin (near Pittsburgh) and Carlisle (near Harrisburg), and the Pennsylvania GL immediately started running some of its express schedules along that road.  The Turnpike was the first long-distance grade-separated controlled-access highway in the US.  The Turnpike Commission provided charge accounts to commercial users, and, not surprisingly, the commission issued account number 1 to the PennGL.  

          The Greyhound Corporation, the parent firm, in December 1941 bought back 50 percent of the interest of the Pennsylvania Railroad in the PennGL. 

          In 1944 the “Pennsy” GL bought the Doylestown and Easton Motor Coach Company, which had started running in -26, not merely between the two named towns but rather between Philadelphia and Easton via Doylestown (about 60 miles). 

Blue Ridge Lines

          One obvious link missing from the route network of the PennGL was an alternate direct one connecting Pittsburgh with Baltimore and Washington, DC.  However, that was long a property of the Blue Ridge Transportation Company (using the brand name, trade name, or service name of the Blue Ridge Lines), based in Hagerstown, Maryland, which in January 1928 had begun its route, via Uniontown (in Pennsylvania) and Cumberland and Frederick (both in Maryland), including a branch between Frederick and Washington. 

          Early during the 1930s the Blue Ridge Lines (BRL) bought other carriers, thus gaining also a direct route from Uniontown (and therefore also from Baltimore and Washington) to Cleveland, bypassing Pittsburgh – via Washington (in Pennsylvania) and Steubenville, Canton, and Akron (all in Ohio) – plus several routes from Pittsburgh to Wheeling and to Clarksburg and Morgantown, all the last three in West Virginia. 

          The BRL developed also a route between Harrisburg and Winchester, Virginia, via Hagerstown, along with branch lines between Hagerstown and Baltimore.  

          Predictably, Greyhound sought the BRL for many years, but the BRL steadfastly continued as an independent operation. 

          By 1954, however, the climate had changed, so discussions and negotiations became more serious and specific; then on 01 August 1955, three months after the end of the PennGL, The Greyhound Corporation closed its purchase of the BRL, along with its 34 ACF-Brill IC-41s and five GM PD-4104s, and Greyhound merged the BRL into the new second Eastern GL (which had succeeded the PennGL). 

          Thus ended the quest of the BRL by Greyhound.

Motor Transit Management Company
and Greyhound Management Company

          About 1928 the Motor Transit Corporation (MTC), the original Greyhound umbrella firm, seeking consistency and efficiency in the rapidly growing activities of its operating subsidiaries in the Midwest (east of Chicago and Saint Louis) and the Northeast, formed another subsidiary, the Motor Transit Management Company, based in Cleveland, Ohio.  Its function was to own the coaches, buildings, and other facilities, to manage the workforce, and to conduct the activities of the various regional subsidiaries, which continued to hold their respective certificates for their routes. 

          The original ones involved were the GLI of Indiana, the GLI of Ohio, the Safety Motor Coach Lines, and the first PGT Company.  As more subsidiaries (and then divisions) came into existence in those regions, then those new firms became added to the list of the ones under the direction and administration of the management company.  Of course, the newly formed Pennsylvania GL was among the additions to the carriers under the management firm, along with the PGL of Illinois, the PGL of Indiana, and the PGL of Virginia.  Eventually the other Greyhound companies were the first Central GL, the second Central GL, the CGL of Michigan, the CGL of New York, the first Eastern GL, the EGL of Michigan, the EGL of New England, the Illinois GL, the New England GL, the first Ohio GL, the Richmond GL, and the Canadian Greyhound Lines, Limited.

          On 05 February 1930, when the MTC became renamed as The Greyhound Corporation, then Greyhound renamed the Motor Transit Management Company as the Greyhound Management Company.

         The headquarters of the management company remained in Cleveland throughout its life, at 920 Superior Avenue East.  [The home offices of two other Greyhound subsidiaries were also in Cleveland – the second Central GL (along with the CGL of New York), at 2600 Hamilton Avenue, and the Pennsylvania GL (along with the PGL of Illinois, the PGL of Indiana, and the PGL of Virginia), at 2341 Carnegie Avenue.]

          The president of the management firm (under both names) was Orville Swan “Sven” Caesar, who had been one of the original busmen and an associate of Carl Eric Wickman, the main founder of the Greyhound empire, in northern Minnesota.  Caesar later succeeded Wickman as the chairman and president of The Greyhound Corporation.  [More about Wickman and Caesar will be available in my forthcoming article about the Northland GL.]

          About the middle of 1941 the parent Greyhound firm discontinued that centralized approach, and it transferred all the managerial and administrative functions to the respective regional operating companies and to the headquarters of The Greyhound Corporation (in Chicago). 

Coach Numbers for the Pennsy GL

          Starting in 1937, when the PennGL began to add new coaches to its fleet, it introduced an atypical approach for assigning side (fleet) numbers to them.  The first two digits of each side number told the last two digits in the year of the manufacture of that coach.  Thus the Yellow Coach 743s (192 of them) bore the numbers 3700-3871 and 3900-3919, and 30 Flxible 25BRs bore the numbers 3951-3970. 

          Then 123 Yellow Coach pre-WW2 Silversides (PGG-4101, PDG-4101, and PDG-3701) bore the numbers 4000-4059 and 4100-4162; six Yellow Coach 740s bore the numbers 4060-4065, five Yellow Coach PG-2502s bore the numbers 4066-4070, and nine Flxible 29BRs bore the numbers 4071-4079. 

          In 1941 more additions were 47 Yellow Coach Silversides (PDG-3701 and PDG-4101), numbered as 4100-4146, three Yellow Coach TD-4001s, numbered as 4160-4162, and 20 Flxible 29BRs, numbered as 4170-4189. 

          During the wartime restrictions, the 1942 arrivals were 40 Yellow Coach PDA-3701s, numbered as 4200-4239, 19 ACF 37-PBSs (of steel construction), numbered as 4250-4268, and 27 Aerocoach P-33s, numbered as 4269-4295. 

          In 1943, while the restrictions were even more stringent, the PennGL received 10 tractor-trailer “cattle cars,” using Ford tractors, numbered as 4300-4319 (with even numbers for tractors and odd numbers for trailers).  [The PGL used those rigs on runs to and from defense plants and military bases.] 

          Then in 1944 all the new cars were GM products (after the change in the brand name from Yellow Coach to GM Coach in 1943): 12 TG-4006s, as 4400-4411, two PDA-3702s, as 4415-4416, and 72 PGA-3702s, as 4420-4491. 

          The year 1945 brought 70 GM PDA-3702s (just before the end of WW2), as 4500-4569, and 30 ACF-Brill IC-41s (shortly after the end of WW2), as 4570-4599.  [Those IC-41s bore serial numbers 002-031, the first production ones after one demonstrator (with serial number 001).]

          [The ACF 37-PBS and ACF-Brill IC-41 coaches were products of a plant on Woodland Avenue (near South 60th Street) in Philadelphia.  The brand name became changed in 1944 from ACF to ACF-Brill.]

          [All of the Yellow Coach PDA-3701s and GM PDA-3702s were products of not the Yellow or GMC T&C plant in Pontiac but rather a four-wheel-automobile plant of the Pontiac Motor Division in Pontiac – while the T&C plant remained dedicated to building DUKW “Duck” amphibious vehicles for the armed forces (and other war-related products).]

          [More about the ACF Motors Company, the ACF-Brill Motors Company, the Yellow Truck and Coach (T&C) Manufacturing Company, and the GMC Truck and Coach (T&C) Division (of the GM Corporation) will be available in my forthcoming articles on those builders.] 

          The PennGL did not receive any new coach during 1946. 

          Simpler deliveries began in 1947, which brought 94 GM Silversides PD-3751s, numbered as 4700-4793. 

Prefix Letters

          In 1948, when Greyhound introduced the prefix letters for the fleet numbers (side numbers) of the coaches, the PennGL received 92 more PD-3751s, numbered from P-4800 through P-4891.

          The PennGL added the prefix letter P to all the older coaches still in its fleet, as the other Greyhound divisions and subsidiaries also added their respective assigned prefix letters.  [However, two Greyhound companies – the Overland GL and the Southeastern GL – did not add prefix letters in 1948 – not until later – because those two firms had not yet become divisions or subsidiaries of The Greyhound Corporation – because Greyhound then held only minority interests in them.]

          The PGL did not receive even one new coach during 1949-50. 

          The GM PD-4103s, 108 of them, numbered from P-5092 through P-5199, arrived in 1951.

          The year 1952 brought 20 GM TDM-4509s, numbered as P-5200 through P-5219, for suburban service based in Washington, DC, to Baltimore and to Annapolis. 

          The GM Highway Traveler PD-4104s, 67 of them, arrived in 1953 and -54, with the numbers from P-5300 through P-5320 and from P-5400 through P-5445. 

          Then the remarkable, anticipated, and celebrated GM Scenicruiser PD-4501 arrived at the PGL in 1954 and -55, numbered as P-5446 (which had the serial 001, the first one from the assembly line) through P-5480 and from P-5500 through P-5546.  [After that there were more Scenicruisers previously ordered for the PennGL, but, because of the reorganization and renaming of the PGL into the second Eastern GL (as described below, in the next section), those future Cruisers went to the second EGL with the E prefix (albeit with the originally intended numbers in the 5500 and 5600 series).] 

          [More is available about the GM Scenicruiser PD-4501 in my article about that very special coach.]

          Thus ended deliveries of new coaches to the Pennsylvania GL. 

          Finally, however, for several months in 1955, the PennGL leased the only GM Golden Chariot PD-4901, numbered as P-5599, and ran it in service between Philadelphia and New York City.  It did not bear the image of a greyhound dog or any lettering other than the side number and the mandatory legal information.  

          [A list of all of the prefix letters appears in a section, named as “Prefix Letters for the Greyhound Companies,” in one of my other articles, entitled “Growing Up at Greyhound,” which is also chapter 2 from my autobiography, which I call Wheels, Water, Words, Wings, and Engines.]

Pool (Interline) Operations

          As soon as the Super Coaches (Yellow Coach 719 and 743) began to arrive from the builder, the PennGL started to run them on increasingly long-distance through-schedules, starting with those between New York City and Florida (both Miami and Saint Petersburg), coöperating with the Richmond GL (between Washington and Richmond), the Atlantic GL (between Richmond and Jacksonville), and the Florida Motor Lines (which in 1946 became bought and renamed as the Florida GL, between Jacksonville and both Miami and Saint Petersburg). 

          Of course, the PennGL also ran the new coaches on its own increasingly long-distance routes, including those connecting New York City with both Chicago and Saint Louis. 

          After the diesel-powered coaches began to arrive, the PennGL continued to add more major long-distance interline through-routes (using pooled equipment in coöperation with other Greyhound companies) – that is, the use of through-coaches on through-routes running through the territories of two or more Greyhound operating companies. 

          By 1955, when the PennGL became renamed as the second Eastern GL, it had likewise taken part also in many other interline routes, including those connecting New York City with Atlanta and New Orleans (with the Richmond GL, the Atlantic GL, and the Southeastern GL – and connecting Chicago with Birmingham, Mobile, Miami, and Saint Petersburg (with the Southeastern GL and the Florida GL).  

          However, for travel in 1955 through Chicago or across the Mississippi River, it was still necessary to change coaches in Chicago or in Saint Louis, Memphis, or New Orleans. 

          Still, though, using Scenicruisers and Super Scenicruisers, the second Eastern GL (the successor to the PennGL) began to extend former-PGL routes into coast-to-coast interline routes, thus: 

                   about 1960 between New York City and Dallas via Washington, Roanoke, Nashville, and Memphis (with the Southern GL and the fifth Central GL);
                   about 1962 between New York City and both Los Angeles and San Francisco via Chicago (with the fifth Central GL and the Western GL) and between New York City and Los Angeles also via Saint Louis (with the fifth Central GL and the Western GL);
                   about 1963 between New York City and Tulsa, Oklahoma, via Saint Louis (with the fifth Central GL);
                   about 1966 between New York City and San Diego, California, via Saint Louis (with the fifth Central GL and the Western GL);
                   about 1968 between New York City and both Laredo and San Antonio, both in Texas, via Saint Louis (with the fifth Central GL).

Meeting Other Greyhound Companies

          In 1955, when the Pennsylvania GL became renamed as the second Eastern GL, it had met several other Greyhound operating companies – the second Central GL in Chicago, Saint Louis, Detroit, Washington, New York City, and many other intermediate points; the CGL of New York in Cleveland and New York City; the New England GL in New York City; the Richmond GL in Norfolk and Washington; the Atlantic GL in Norfolk, Washington, Pittsburgh, Columbus, and Cincinnati; the Southeastern GL in Cincinnati, Louisville, Evansville, Paducah, and Saint Louis; the Southwestern GL in Saint Louis; the Overland GL and the Northland GL in Chicago; and the Great Lakes GL in Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Evansville, Louisville, Cincinnati, Columbus, and several other points. 

More Restructuring and Renaming
and the End of the Pennsylvania GL

          About 1953 Greyhound merged the assets and operations of the PGL of Indiana and the PGL of Virginia into the main undenominated PennGL, and it then dissolved those two subsidiary corporations.

          Thus the PennGL became no longer both a holding company and an operating company but rather just an operating company. 

          Soon the Pennsylvania Railroad ended its investment in the Pennsylvania GL.  In 1953 those parties, along with the parent Greyhound firm, reached an agreement, under which The Greyhound Corporation would buy back all of the remaining interest of the PRR in the PennGL.  The parties closed their deal in May 1954.

          Next The Greyhound Corporation merged the PennGL into the parent firm as a division and then dissolved the old subsidiary corporation of the PennGL. 

          In 1954 The Greyhound Corporation (the parent Greyhound firm) also bought the 50-percent share of the Atlantic GL in the Capitol GL.  [The parent firm already owned the other half of the Capitol GL.]  

          Then in the next year, on 01 May 1955, the parent Greyhound firm merged the Capitol GL, the second Central GL, and the New England GL into the Pennsylvania GL, and then Greyhound renamed the PennGL as the Eastern Division of The Greyhound Corporation.  The new division, called also the second Eastern GL (EGL), was the first of four huge new divisions, along with Southern, Western, and Central, which last name became used again (in the fifth of six instances).  [More about the Capitol GL, the second Central GL, and the New England GL is available in my articles about those three individual operating companies.]

          Thus ended the Capitol GL, the second Central GL, the New England GL, and the Pennsylvania GL, and thus began the second Eastern GL. 

          The renaming of the “Pennsy” GL as the second Eastern GL caused a small change in the side numbers (fleet numbers) of the coaches from the PennGL – the change in the prefix letter from P to E.  That move freed the P (as a prefix letter), which Greyhound then reassigned to the Pacific GL, which had previously used the letter K.  [E became the prefix letter for all the coaches assigned to the new EGL; it had previously been the letter for the New England GL.]

Recap and Timeline

          Because the history of the Pennsylvania GL is so complex, it’s helpful to review the high points (but, I hope, not too many small details not germane to the big picture) of that history – and to place it on a timeline – thus:

         1846

          On 13 April 1846 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania issued a charter to The Pennsylvania Railroad Company.  The railway system grew and flourished. 

         1923

          In September 1923 the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) started its “motor service” by hiring the Scott Brothers to haul its local cargo in and near Philadelphia and soon between New York City and Baltimore via Philadelphia and between Philadelphia and Harrisburg (on the way to Pittsburgh). 

         1924

          In 1924 the Mitten Management Company, with financial support from the PRR, formed the People’s Rapid Transit (PRT) Company, to operate highway motor coaches between Washington and New York City via Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Trenton.

         1925

          In August 1925 the PRT Company started running.

         1926

          In August 1926 the PRR started its own passenger “motor service” on several routes based in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and it soon (about six months later) turned over those routes and its buses to the same Scott Brothers. 

          On 20 September 1926 Carl Eric Wickman and his associates in Duluth, Minnesota, formed the Motor Transit Corporation (MTC).  They intended for the MTC not to operate any motor-coach service but rather to own (“hold”) subsidiary operating companies.  They expected to buy some pre-existing firms and to create some new ones.  [On 05 February 1930 the MTC became renamed as The Greyhound Corporation.]

          The MTC promptly – on 25 October 1926 – bought two existing firms on the same day – the Safety Motor Coach Lines (which Wickman had sponsored) and the Interstate Stages and its subsidiary, the Cardinal Stage Lines.  The last of those firms, Cardinal, ran between Chicago and Philadelphia via Detroit, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh – through Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. 

          Edwin Carl “Ed” Ekstrom, the founder and seller of the Safety Motor Coach Lines, became the first president of the MTC. 

          On 23 November 1926 the MTC formed two subsidiaries – the GLI of Indiana – to run a new route between Chicago and Indianapolis – and the GLI of Ohio – to take over certain future routes (including one between Indianapolis and Richmond, Indiana, on the way to Dayton, Columbus, and Pittsburgh). 

         1927

          On 01 February 1927 the GLI of Indiana started running (between Chicago and Indianapolis), thus becoming the first business unit of the growing Greyhound empire to make a public use of the name of the Greyhound Lines. 

          On 20 June 1927 the MTC bought the Indianapolis-Cincinnati Bus Company, which ran not only between the named cities but also between Indianapolis and Richmond, Indiana, on the way to Dayton, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and the rest of the East Coast.  The MTC merged the latter route, between Indianapolis and Richmond, into the GLI of Indiana (and it merged the former route, between Indianapolis and Cincinnati, into the GLI of Ohio). 

         1928

          Sometime during 1928 the MTC formed the Motor Transit Management Company and based it in Cleveland – to own the coaches, buildings, and other facilities, to manage the workforce, and to conduct the activities of the various regional subsidiaries in the Midwest (east of Chicago and Saint Louis) and in the Northeast.  The regional companies continued to hold their respective certificates for their routes, and the management firm conducted the operations.  Orville Swan “Sven” Caesar, an associate of Wickman in Hibbing, served as the president of the management firm, which in 1930 became renamed as the Greyhound Management Company. 

          Sometime during 1928 the GLI of Indiana took over the Detroit-Toledo-Cleveland Bus Company, connecting the named cities. 

          On 01 August 1928 the GLI of Indiana took over the Cleveland-Pittsburgh Motor Stages, running between the named cities.

          In September 1928 the GLI of Indiana took over the third Blue Goose Lines, which included a route between Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, which later became extended from Fort Wayne to Detroit.  That route paralleled a railway route of the PRR (between Indianapolis and Detroit). 

          On 30 September 1928 the MTC merged the Cardinal Stage Lines into the GLI of Indiana, thus giving the MTC a route all the way from Chicago (and from Wisconsin and Minnesota) to Philadelphia, ready to make connections to New York City, Baltimore, and Washington (and to prepare to extend its route network along the Atlantic seaboard).  That merger provided the seed from which the PennGL soon grew and developed. 

          On that same day, 30 September 1928, the GLI of Indiana started a shuttle service on a branch line from Gettysburg (on the Cardinal route, on US-30, between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia) to Baltimore and onward to Washington.  Soon the passenger traffic there grew enough to require separate coaches to the two different destinations. 

          In October 1928 the PRR, apparently intent on building a PRR bus system, formed the Pennsylvania General Transit (PGT) Company.

          On 15 October 1928 the GLI of Indiana started a new alternate shortcut route between Gettysburg and New York City via Harrisburg, Allentown, and Easton, thus bypassing Philadelphia and Trenton. 

          In November 1928 the MTC bought the Southland Transportation Company, running between Indianapolis and Louisville, Kentucky, via Cincinnati, Ohio, then merged the Indianapolis-Cincinnati route (which paralleled another PRR railway route) into the GLI of Indiana. 

          On 05 December 1928 the GLI of Indiana started a new alternate shortcut route between Chicago and Pittsburgh via Fort Wayne, Lima, Marion, Mansfield, and Canton, thus bypassing Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, and Youngstown.  Significantly, that route paralleled the railway route of the PRR between Chicago and Pittsburgh. 

          Late in 1928 the GLI of Indiana made an interchange agreement (for the exchange of passengers, the honoring of tickets, and the sharing of fares) with the People’s Rapid Transit (PRT) Company, which ran between Washington and New York City via Philadelphia. 

         1929

          In January 1929 the PRR bought a 75-percent interest in the PRT Company, which ran between Washington and New York City via Philadelphia. 

          In April 1929 PRT bought from the Washington Motor Coach Company its local rights between Washington and Baltimore.

          Early in 1929 the PGT Company (the new subsidiary of the PRR) filed applications for intrastate certificates on nearly 40 new routes in Pennsylvania, and it received most of them.

          In May 1929 the MTC bought the YellowaY-Pioneer (sometimes called also Pioneer-YellowaY) System.  Although that firm ran mostly in the West, it had also a route between Saint Louis and Pittsburgh, which the MTC assigned to the GLI of Indiana.  [The other routes went to other Greyhound companies.]

          The MTC bought also the Purple Stages (running between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia), with which YellowaY-Pioneer had connected in Pittsburgh.

          At about that same time, the MTC bought, took over, and merged into the GLI of Indiana three more operations in the Midwest, including these two:

                   the Central Stages, running between Pittsburgh and Youngstown,
                   and the Crescent Tours, running between Pittsburgh and Cleveland.

          During 1929 the MTC and the PRR began negotiations which led to the creation of the PennGL. 

          On 10 June 1929, after the PGT Company sought the expertise of the Motor Transit Management Company, the GLI of Indiana, which already ran between Pittsburgh and the Midwest and between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, began to run Greyhound coaches over PGT routes, first between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, while lawfully using PGT certificates. 

          In 1929, to run the new route between Philadelphia and Norfolk, the MTC formed the Pennsylvania-Virginia General Transit Company. 

          In the autumn of 1929 the PGT Company took over the West Ridge Transportation Company (which ran mostly in a triangle within the corners of Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Erie, plus a route between Erie and Binghamton) and the Buffalo Interurban Coach Company (which ran in the western tail of New York).

         1930

          On 05 February 1930 the Motor Transit Corporation became renamed as The Greyhound Corporation, and the Motor Transit Management Company became renamed as the Greyhound Management Company. 

          On 29 March 1930 the Greyhound parent firm, under its new name, formed the main undenominated Pennsylvania GL, which at first served not as an operating company but rather a holding company (to own subsidiary operating firms). 

          In or about 1930 the GLI of Indiana took over, from the Indiana Public-service Company, the rights to the route between Indianapolis and Louisville.  Thus it extended its Chicago-Indianapolis route directly to Louisville (bypassing Cincinnati).  By doing so it not only completed its parallel route of the PRR railway route between Chicago and Louisville but also connected Chicago (in Louisville as well as Cincinnati) with Florida, the Gulf Coast, and much of the rest of the Southeast via the Consolidated Coach Corporation, which soon became the Southeastern GL.  Thus the route between Chicago and Louisville became a major high-volume trunk line for the PennGL. 

          On 09 June 1930 the Greyhound parent firm formed the first Central GL.

          Soon afterward Greyhound redistributed the routes of the GLI of Indiana and the GLI of Ohio to the GLI of Indiana and the first Central GL.  Greyhound assigned to the GLI of Indiana all the routes paralleling the railway routes of the PRR, and it assigned to the first Central GL the other routes.  Then the PennGL conducted all the routes of the GLI of Indiana, the PGT Company, and several other properties of the PRR – but not the PRT Company, which continued as a semiautonomous subsidiary until 1936.  [The Greyhound Management Company provided the management and administration for all the operations (except those of the PRT) of the PennGL.]

          Soon afterward the PennGL took over also the Interstate Highway Limited, running between Detroit and Pittsburgh. 

          During the following months the parent Greyhound firm and the PennGL pared the route network of the PennGL, eliminating from it any route which did not parallel, support, or complement the railway network of the PRR – to pave the way for the PRR to share in the ownership of the PennGL. 

          The PRR bought a large but minority (noncontrolling) interest in the PennGL.

          On 20 November 1930 the PRR and The Greyhound Corporation reorganized the PRT Company (running between Washington and New York City), in which the “Pennsy” and Greyhound held equal ownership interests, and the two owners rearranged their other subsidiaries.

         1931

          Starting on 01 January 1931, the blue–and–white livery and the greyhound dogs became applied to all the coaches which did not yet have them, and the full name “Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines” became applied to them.  [Previously the coaches of the GLI of Indiana had borne the short name “Greyhound Lines.”]  The keystone trademark of the PRR also appeared on the sides of all the coaches. 

         1932

          On 01 January 1932 Pittsburgh became a division point.  Henceforth, regardless of the origins of the respective routes, the GLI of Indiana conducted all the routes to the west of Pittsburgh, and the PGT Company conducted all the routes to the east of Pittsburgh.  Still, though, the PRT continued to conduct its own routes (between Washington and New York City).  [And, of course, the Greyhound Management Company continued to provide the management and administration for all the operations (except PRT) of the PennGL.] 

          Later in 1932 Greyhound formed the PennGL of Illinois. 

         1934

          In 1934 a series of name changes took place: 

                   the GLI of Indiana became the PGL of Indiana; 
                   the Pennsylvania General Transit (PGT) Company became the Pennsylvania Greyhound Transit (the second PGT) Company;
                   the Pennsylvania-Virginia General Transit Company became the Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines of Virginia (the PGL of Virginia);
                   the Buffalo Interurban Coach Company became the Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines of New York (the PGL of New York). 

          In or about 1934 Walter Nisun sold to the Pennsylvania GL another of his motor-coach properties, running between Detroit and Saint Louis, Missouri, via Fort Wayne and Indianapolis.  [In November 1927 he had sold to the MTC his Detroit and Cincinnati Coach Lines, which had used the brand name, trade name, or service name of the Sunny South Lines.]

         1935

          On 28 January 1935 Greyhound merged the PGL of New York and the West Ridge Transportation Company into the CGL of New York, which Greyhound had just formed. 

         1936

          In response to the federal Revenue Act of 1936, The Greyhound Corporation merged both PGT and PRT into the PennGL, thus causing the PGL to become an operating carrier as well as a holding company.  [However, the PGL of Illinois, the PGL of Indiana, and the PGL of Virginia continued as subsidiaries – as long as the respective state requirements remained in place.]  Then Greyhound dissolved the newly empty corporate shells of both PGT and PRT. 

          Thus the Pennsylvania Greyhound Transit (the second PGT) Company and the PRT Company became parts of the Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines, which continued until 1955, when the PennGL became a part of the second Eastern GL.

         1941

          About the middle of 1941 The Greyhound Corporation, the parent umbrella firm, discontinued the Greyhound Management Company; it dissolved that subsidiary and transferred all the managerial and administrative functions to the respective regional operating companies and to the headquarters of the parent firm (in Chicago).

          In December 1941 The Greyhound Corporation bought back 50 percent of the ownership interest of the PRR in the PennGL. 

         1942

          On 16 January 1942 the Pan-Am Greyhound Lines (PAGL), a new corporation, took over the Pan-Am Bus Lines (PABL), which ran a premium limited-stop express service between New York City and Miami, but which had become financially troubled.  The owners of the PAGL were the Atlantic GL, the Pennsylvania GL, and the Florida Motor Lines (which in 1946 became the Florida GL). 

         1946

          The Atlantic GL bought the shares of the PennGL in the PAGL.

         1947

          About the middle of 1947 the Atlantic GL merged the PAGL into itself, then it dissolved the newly empty PAGL corporation.

         1953

          About 1953 Greyhound merged the assets and operations of the PGL of Indiana and the PGL of Virginia into the main undenominated PennGL, and it then dissolved those two subsidiary corporations. 

         1954

          In May 1954 The Greyhound Corporation bought back all of the remaining ownership interest of the PRR in the PennGL. 

          Next the parent firm merged the PennGL into itself as a division and then dissolved the old subsidiary corporation of the PennGL. 

         1955

          On 01 May 1955 The Greyhound Corporation merged the Capitol GL, the second Central GL, and the New England GL into the Pennsylvania GL, and then Greyhound renamed the newly expanded PennGL as the Eastern Division of the parent firm.  The new division, called also the second Eastern GL (EGL), was the first of four huge new divisions, along with Southern, Western, and Central (in the fifth of six uses of the name of the Central GL). 

One More Time

          Because of the complex firms (and their confusing names) involved in this history, let’s take one more careful look at each of these five major ones: 

         GLI of Indiana

          The Motor Transit Corporation (MTC), the original Greyhound firm, before it became renamed as The Greyhound Corporation, on 23 November 1926 formed a wholly owned subsidiary (not a division), based in Indiana and named as the Greyhound Lines, Inc., of Indiana (the GLI of Indiana), to conduct a new route between Chicago and Indianapolis.

          As the new Greyhound empire continued to expand, the GLI of Indiana became the particular regional Greyhound company which reached toward and to Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and the rest of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.  

          On 10 June 1929, after the PGT Company sought the expertise of the Motor Transit Management Company, the GLI of Indiana, which already ran between Pittsburgh and the Midwest and between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, began to run Greyhound coaches over PGT routes – on behalf of PGT – while lawfully using the official operating authority of PGT.  That arrangement continued until 1936, when PGT became merged into the PennGL. 

         People’s Rapid Transit Company 

          The People’s Rapid Transit (PRT) Company ran between Washington, DC, and New York City via Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Trenton.  It started in 1925, as a property of the Mitten Management Company, which was a family-owned corporation based in Philadelphia.  [Do not confuse it with the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company, which was another property of the Mitten firm and was a city-transit carrier.]

          In January 1929 the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) bought a 75-percent interest in the PRT Company; in the following year, -30, the PRR bought the remaining 25-percent interest; on 20 November 1930 the PRR and Greyhound, acting jointly, reorganized the PRT Company (and obtained a new charter for it), in which the PRR and Greyhound held equal ownership interests.  The new arrangement allowed PRT to continue to operate as a semiautonomous firm. 

          In 1936 Greyhound and the PRR merged the assets of the PRT Company into the PennGL, then they dissolved the empty PRT corporate shell. 

         Pennsylvania General Transit Company

          In October 1928 the PRR, apparently intent on building a PRR bus system, incorporated the Pennsylvania General Transit (PGT) Company.

          Next, in January 1929, the PRR bought a 75-percent interest in the PRT and placed it (as a semiautonomous subsidiary) under its new PGT Company. 

          On 10 June 1929, under the terms of a contract between PGT and the GLI of Indiana, the latter firm, lawfully using the official operating authority of the PGT Company, began to conduct PGT’s scheduled runs, first between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.  That mode of operation continued until 1936, when PGT – under its new name – along with PRT – became merged into the PennGL, which thus became not only a holding company, as before, but also an operating carrier in its own right. 

         Pennsylvania Greyhound Transit Company

          In 1934 the PRR renamed the Pennsylvania General Transit (the first PGT) Company as the Pennsylvania Greyhound Transit (the second PGT) Company – with the consent of the parent Greyhound firm (The Greyhound Corporation).

          That name and that firm remained in place until 1936, when Greyhound and the PRR merged the second PGT into the PennGL.

         Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines 

          On 29 March 1930 The Greyhound Corporation incorporated the Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines (PennGL) – not as an operating company but rather as a holding company – to own (“hold”) all of the subsidiary operating carriers (existing ones and future ones) destined to make up what would eventually become the PennGL – that is, the system consisting of the routes paralleling, supporting, and complementing the railway routes of the Pennsylvania Railroad. 

          The PRR bought a large but minority (noncontrolling) interest in the PennGL.

          In December 1941 The Greyhound Corporation bought back half of the interest of the PRR in the PennGL, and in May 1954 Greyhound bought back all of the remaining interest of the PRR.

          On 01 May 1955 The Greyhound Corporation merged the Capitol GL, the second Central GL, and the New England GL into the Pennsylvania GL, and then Greyhound renamed the newly expanded PennGL as the Eastern Division of the parent firm, which division became known also as the second Eastern GL.  [Later Greyhound consolidated its other regional divisions into just three other huge new divisions – Central, Southern, and Western.]  

Beyond the PennGL and the Second EGL

        Later, about 1969, The Greyhound Corporation reorganized again, into just two humongous divisions, named as the Greyhound Lines East (GLE) and the Greyhound Lines West (GLW); even later, about 1975, it eliminated those two divisions, thus leaving a single gargantuan undivided nationwide fleet and a likewise undivided nationwide management and administrative organization.

            [More about the continuing history of the GLI (up to 2022) is available in my article entitled “Greyhound Lines after WW2.”]

Conclusion

          The Pennsylvania GL made a major, indispensable, and lasting contribution to the present Greyhound route network.

Very Special Articles

         Please check also my very special cornerstone articles at this website:

                   “Northland Greyhound Lines” (NGL):  It tells not only the history of the NGL but also the origin and the early years of the overall Greyhound Lines, starting in 1914 in Hibbing, Minnesota.  [The people and the events involved in the early part of the story of the NGL are the same people and events involved also in the origin and the early development of the larger Greyhound empire (including its many divisions and subsidiaries).]
                   “Greyhound Lines after WW2”:  It describes:
                            the major mergers and consolidations (1948-75);
                            the changes in leadership at the top;
                            the move from Chicago to Phoenix (in 1971);
                            the sales of the Greyhound Lines, Inc. (GLI, in 1987, 1999, 2007, and 2021);
                            the purchase (in 1987) of the Trailways, Inc. (TWI, previously known as the Continental Trailways) and the merger of the TWI into the GLI;
                            the sad and regrettable deterioration in the level of service of the formerly great and formerly respected (but now utterly disgraced and discredited) Greyhound Lines;
                            and the latest development of Greyhound under the ownership of FlixMobility (a German firm) and under the oversight of Flix North America (with a recent Turkish immigrant as the chief executive).
                   “The Scenicruiser”:  It covers the background, conception, evolution, development, design, creation, production, rebuilding, repowering, and operation of the GM PD-4501, the famous, beloved, unmatched, and iconic Scenicruiser (an exclusive coach built for Greyhound alone, which served in the fleet from 1954 until about 1975).
                   “Growing Up at Greyhound”:  It tells about my growing up at Greyhound — as the title says — while my father worked as a longtime (37-year) coach operator for the Greyhound Lines, starting in 1940.

Related Articles

          Please see also my articles about the Atlantic Greyhound Lines, the Capitol Greyhound Lines, the Central Greyhound Lines, the Dixie Greyhound Lines, the Florida Greyhound Lines, the Great Lakes Greyhound Lines, the Illinois Greyhound Lines, the New England Greyhound Lines, the Northland Greyhound Lines, the Northwest Greyhound Lines, the Ohio Greyhound Lines, the Overland Greyhound Lines, the Pacific Greyhound Lines, the Pickwick-Greyhound Lines, the Richmond Greyhound Lines, the Southeastern Greyhound Lines, the Southwestern Greyhound Lines, the Teche Greyhound Lines, the Valley Greyhound Lines, The Greyhound Corporation, and the Tennessee Coach Company.

Bibliography

          Jackson, Carlton, Hounds of the Road.  Dubuque: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company,  1984.  ISBN 0-87972-207-3.

          Meier, Albert, and John Hoschek, Over the Road.  Upper Montclair: Motor Bus Society,  1975.  No ISBN (because of the age of the book).

          Motor Coach Age, ISSN 0739-117X, a publication of the Motor Bus Society, various issues, especially these:

                   April-May 1954;
                   June 1954;
                   August 1972;
                   December 1978;
                   September 1979;
                   October 1979;
                   July 1984;
                   August 1987;
                   July-August 1990;
                   April-June 1995;
                   October-December 1998;
                   October-December 1999;          
                   January-March 2001.

          Rushing, Duncan Bryant, Wheels, Water, Words, Wings, and Engines.  New Albany: Fidelity Publishers, forthcoming.

          Russell’s Official National Motor-coach Guide (“Russell’s Guide”), no ISSN (because of the age of the books), a publication of Russell’s Railway and Motor-bus Guide Company (later renamed as Russell’s Guides, Inc.), various issues, especially these:

                   February 1940;
                   March 1941;
                   September 1947;
                   February 1949;
                   September 1954;
                   May 1961;
                   June 1962;
                   March 1963;
                   October 1966;
                   December 1968.

          Schisgall, Oscar, The Greyhound Story.  Chicago: J.G. Ferguson Publishing Company,  1985.  ISBN 0-385-19690-3.

          Online schedules and historical data at www.greyhound.com.

:::

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Posted at 09:50 EDT, Tuesday, 07 June 2022.

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