Dr. D.B. “Doc” Rushing
© Copyright, 2009, 2022, Duncan Bryant Rushing
Preface
The Florida Greyhound Lines was a regional operating company of the Greyhound Lines.
Contents
Introduction
Origin
Development
Pan-American Bus Lines
Pan-American Trailways
Pan-American Greyhound Lines
Purchase of the Florida Motor Lines by The Greyhound Corporation
Merger into the Southeastern GL
Merger of the SEGL with the Atlantic GL
Beyond the FGL, the SEGL, and the SGL
Conclusion
Very Special Articles
Related Articles
Bibliography
Introduction
The Florida Greyhound Lines (Florida or FGL) was an intercity highway-coach carrier and a regional operating company of the Greyhound Lines (GL). It was based in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. It existed from 1946 until -57, when it became merged into the Southeastern Greyhound Lines (SEGL), a much larger neighboring regional company.
Origin
The immediate predecessor of the Florida Greyhound Lines was the Florida Motor Lines (FML), which began in January 1926. It started when the firm of Stone and Webster, a multistate public-utility management-service company, established a headquarters in Orlando for the FML and then consolidated several properties, which it had bought and operated in the Sunshine State. The FML then owned 150 coaches and ran them along 1,290 route miles.
The largest and strongest of those subsidiaries (of the FML) was the Florida Motor Transportation (FMT) Company, based in Miami, which had begun in 1919. It had resulted from a merger between two other firms, each likewise based in Miami, and each of which had started in 1914 – the Clyde Passenger Express, running 32 miles southwardly to Homestead, and the White Star Auto Line, running 60 miles northwardly to West Palm Beach. The FMT Company had extended northwardly along the East Coast to Jacksonville in 1921.
The second largest subsidiary was the White Stage Line Company, which had begun in 1918 as the White Bus Line, running between Tampa and Saint Petersburg. Later, starting in -24, it ran along US highway 92 (US-92) on a shortcut on the new Gandy Bridge across Tampa Bay, which shortened the distance from 43 miles to just 19. It had also extended to Orlando in -24 and to West Palm Beach in -25.
Then in January 1926 the Florida Motor Lines came into existence, and it took over those properties of Stone and Webster. In -27 the FML also began to provide tour and sightseeing services in Miami, Miami Beach, Jacksonville, Saint Augustine, and Daytona Beach.
Development
In 1933 the FML moved its home office from Orlando to Jacksonville.
The FML continued to grow and to expand within the Sunshine State, mostly by acquiring other pre-existing firms.
However, in one notable instance among others, the FML obtained a certificate (of public convenience and necessity) for a new route extending southwardly from Homestead (near the tip of the mainland on US-1, the Dixie Highway) and continuing to Key West along the Overseas Highway. The FML began operating that route in 1936, while the road was still under construction, at first by using in part two ferry-boat rides, which spanned two gaps among the islands until -38, when the last bridge became complete and open for traffic.
The FML made connections to the north (in Jacksonville) with the Atlantic GL and to the north and northwest (in Jacksonville, Lake City, and Tallahassee) with the Consolidated Coach Corporation (which in 1931 began using the name of the Southeastern Greyhound Lines) and the Union Bus Company (which in 1941 became bought by and merged into the Southeastern 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 Florida Motor Lines 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 (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 Florida Motor Lines (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.
Purchase of the Florida Motor Lines
by The Greyhound Corporation
On the first day of 1946 The Greyhound Corporation bought the Florida Motor Lines (FML), then in the next month Greyhound renamed the FML as the Florida Greyhound Lines (FGL).
The FGL was first a wholly owned subsidiary of the parent Greyhound firm, then on the last day of 1949 it became a division of The Greyhound Corporation (with an uppercase T because the word the was an integral part of the official name of the corporate entity). [If you wish, please see my article about the differences between divisions and subsidiaries.]
When Greyhound took over the FML, in 1946, the FML ran along 2,750 route miles throughout the Sunshine State – from Jacksonville, Lake City, and Tallahassee – through Orlando, Tampa, and Saint Petersburg – to Miami and Key West – especially along US-1 (the Dixie Highway) on the East Coast between Jacksonville and Miami via Saint Augustine, Daytona Beach, Titusville, Melbourne, Vero Beach, Fort Pierce, Stuart, West Palm Beach, and Fort Lauderdale – including local suburban commuter service from Miami to Homestead and to Fort Lauderdale. It ran throughout Florida and along all the major routes – except one in the southwest part of the peninsula, which was the exclusive territory of the Tamiami Trail Tours (a member of the Trailways trade association, then named as the National Trailways Bus System, and thus known also as the Tamiami Trailways) – along US-41, the Tamiami Trail, from Tampa to Miami via Fort Myers and Naples.
By 1957 the Florida GL took part in major interlined 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 regional operating companies – connecting Miami and Saint Petersburg with Los Angeles, Houston, New Orleans, Saint Louis, Chicago, Louisville, Nashville, Memphis, Birmingham, Atlanta, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toronto, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Boston, New York City, and Washington.
Merger into the Southeastern GL
On 01 October 1957 The Greyhound Corporation merged the Florida GL into the Southeastern GL, a neighboring operating company, based in Lexington, Kentucky. Afterward the SEGL owned 1,122 coaches, and it held about 15,500 route-miles. The SEGL renumbered the FGL coaches into the numbering scheme that it had created during the mergers of 1954 (the mergers of the Dixie GL and the Teche GL into the SEGL).
Thus ended the Florida GL.
Merger of the SEGL with the Atlantic GL
On 01 November 1960, in another round of consolidation, Greyhound further merged the Southeastern GL with – not into but rather with – the Atlantic GL (AGL), yet another neighboring operating company – thus forming the last of four huge new divisions, the Southern Division of The Greyhound Corporation (known also as the Southern GL, along with Central, Eastern, and Western). The Southern GL reached as far to the north as Springfield and Effingham, both in Illinois, Columbus in Ohio, Wheeling in West Virginia, Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC; as far to the east as the Atlantic Ocean; as far to the south as Miami and Key West; and as far to the west as Cincinnati, Saint Louis, Memphis, Vicksburg, Natchez, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and Lake Charles – from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Ohio River to the Gulf of Mexico and into it.
Thus ended both the Southeastern GL and the Atlantic GL, and thus began the Southern GL.
The SEGL arrived with 873 coaches, and the AGL brought 400, so the Southern GL started with 1,273 coaches, and it held about 24,000 route-miles.
The Greyhound Corporation renumbered all the coaches in a new four-digit fleetwide numbering scheme, which continued temporarily to use the prefix letter M (for the SGL). However, when the new GM PD-4106s began to arrive, in February 1961, they did not bear prefix letters (throughout the entire fleet nationwide), and the letters then started to disappear from the older cars. [The first 4106 for Greyhound was 6201 (GM PD-4106-002), assigned to the Southern GL.]
{The Atlantic GL had been based in Charleston, West Virginia. It ran from Charleston throughout the Mountain State and to Cincinnati and Columbus, both in Ohio; Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania; Washington, DC; Richmond, Roanoke, and Norfolk, all three in Virginia; through the Carolinas; to Knoxville in Tennessee; Atlanta, Augusta, and Savannah, all three in Georgia; and Jacksonville in Florida. The AGL met the new Eastern GL to the north, the new Central GL to the northwest, and the Southeastern GL to the west and south – along with the Richmond GL in Washington and in Norfolk and Richmond, both in Virginia. The AGL also had run extensive local suburban commuter service based in its hometown of Charleston and in Portsmouth, Ohio; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Sumter, South Carolina; and [in conjunction with the Queen City Coach Company (the Queen City Trailways)] in Charlotte, North Carolina.}
Beyond the FGL, the SEGL, and the SGL
When the Southern GL came into existence, in 1960, the headquarters functions became gradually transferred from Lexington, Kentucky, and Charleston, West Virginia, to Atlanta, Georgia, and its suburbs – except the accounting department, which stayed in Lexington (for all of the SGL).
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 from Atlanta 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 Florida GL made a major, significant, 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 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, the Greyhound Lines after WW2, the Tennessee Coach Company, and the Scenicruiser.
Bibliography
Backfire, the corporate newspaper of the Southeastern Greyhound Lines, all issues, from January 1938 through February -56.
Hixson, Kenneth, Pick of the Litter. Lexington: Centerville Book Company, 2001. ISBN 0–87642–016–1.
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 (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-June 1995;
October-December 1997;
October-December 1998.
Rushing, Duncan Bryant, Wheels, Water, Words, Wings, and Engines. South Bend: 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 21:25 EDT, Saturday, 04 June 2022.