Dr. D.B. “Doc” Rushing
© Copyright, 2009, 2022, Duncan Bryant Rushing
Preface
The Capitol Greyhound Lines was a regional operating company of the Greyhound Lines.
Contents
Introduction
Development
Merger into the Pennsylvania GL
Beyond the CapGL, the PennGL, and the EGL
Conclusion
Very Special Articles
Related Articles
Bibliography
Introduction
The Capitol Greyhound Lines (Capitol, CpGL, or CapGL) was an intercity highway-coach carrier and a regional operating company of the Greyhound Lines (GL). It was one of the small Greyhound firms, and it was based in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. It existed from 1930 until -54, when it became merged into the Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines (PennGL), a much larger neighboring regional company.
Development
The Capitol Greyhound Lines came into existence in November 1930, as a joint venture (owned in two equal shares) of the Blue and Gray (B&G) Transit Company and The Greyhound Corporation (with an uppercase T because the word the was an integral part of the official name). Its purpose was to operate a new single main line between Washington, DC, and Saint Louis, Missouri, via Winchester, Virginia; Clarksburg and Parkersburg, both in West Virginia; Chillicothe and Cincinnati, both in Ohio; Bedford, Shoals, and Vincennes, all three in Indiana; and Olney and Salem, both in Illinois. It ran along US highway 50 (US-50), a route shorter and six hours faster than the best alternate route then available. [The longer route ran via Baltimore, Maryland; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Wheeling, West Virginia; Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Effingham, Illinois.]
The Capitol GL ran also a branch line along US-150 between Shoals, Indiana, and Louisville, Kentucky, via Paoli, Indiana, thus creating an alternate route between Louisville and Saint Louis, which was shorter than the route via Owensboro, Kentucky, and Evansville, Indiana.
Capitol further provided local commuter service from Washington, DC, to Winchester, Virginia, and to Annapolis, Maryland, each of which was also on US-50.
The Capitol GL had acquired two parallel routes between Washington and Annapolis in 1938 by transfer from the Richmond GL (RGL). Those bus routes had begun in -35, when the Peninsula Transit Company (PTC) started a replacement service after an electric interurban railway failed in business and quit running there. In -37 the RGL bought the PTC and merged it into itself. In -38 Greyhound transferred the Washington-Annapolis routes from the RGL to the CapGL, because those routes were so far removed from Richmond, which was the center of activity of the RGL.
Capitol ran many through-coaches along its own route between Washington and Saint Louis.
However, it took part in only one interlined through-route (using pooled equipment in coöperation with one other carrier) – that is, the use of through-coaches on a through-route running through the territories of itself and one other company – with the Red Star Motor Coaches – connecting Washington, DC, via Annapolis with Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and Salisbury and Ocean City, both in Maryland, all three on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Delaware, on the Delmarva Peninsula – until 1952, when the Carolina Coach Company (the Carolina Trailways) bought the Red Star concern.
The first president of the Capitol GL was Arthur Hill, who had been also the founder and president of the B&G Transit Company.
B&G, along with the Camel City Coach Company, in 1929 had become a part of the National Highway Transport Company, which in -31 became renamed as the Atlantic Greyhound Lines (AGL). [More about that is available in my article about the AGL.]
Merger into the Pennsylvania GL
In 1954 The Greyhound Corporation, the parent Greyhound umbrella firm, bought the 50-percent ownership interest of the Atlantic GL (the successor in interest of B&G) in the Capitol GL.
In the next year, on 01 May 1955, in another round of consolidation, Greyhound merged the Capitol GL, the second Central GL, and the New England GL into the Pennsylvania GL, then redesignated the resulting combined unit as the Eastern Division of The Greyhound Corporation [known also as the new second Eastern GL (EGL)], 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).
Thus ended the Capitol GL (along with the second Central GL, the New England GL, and the Pennsylvania GL), and thus began the second Eastern GL.
Late in 1960 Greyhound merged also the Richmond GL (RGL) into the new second Eastern GL. [More about that is available in my article about the RGL.]
Beyond the CapGL, the PennGL, and the 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.
When the GLE arose, many of those administrative functions became shifted to Cleveland, Ohio; later yet those functions migrated to Chicago, Illinois, then to Phoenix, Arizona, when, in 1971, The Greyhound Corporation moved its headquarters from Chicago to an impressive brand-new 20-story building in Phoenix (one which the Del Webb organization had just built).
[More about the continuing history of the GLI (up to 2022) is available in my article entitled “Greyhound Lines after WW2.”]
Conclusion
The routes of the Capitol GL no longer exist as parts of 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 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 Pennsylvania 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.
Jon’s Trailways History Corner, an online Trailways history by Jan Hobijn (known also as Jon Hobein) at http://cw42.tripod.com/Jon.html.Meier, Albert, and John Hoschek, Over the Road. Upper Montclair: Motor Bus Society, 1975. No ISBN.
Motor Coach Age, ISSN 0739-117X, a publication of the Motor Bus Society, various issues, especially these:
September 1979;
October 1979;
July 1984;
October-December 1998;
October-December 1999.
Rushing, Duncan Bryant, Wheels, Water, Words, Wings, and Engines. New Albany: Fidelity Publishers, forthcoming.
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 18:23 EDT, Thursday, 02 June 2022.