Dr. D.B. “Doc” Rushing
© Copyright, 2009, 2022, Duncan Bryant Rushing
Preface
The Richmond Greyhound Lines was a regional operating company of the Greyhound Lines.
Contents
Introduction
Origin
Development
Through-coaches on Through-routes
Meeting Other Greyhound Companies
Merger into the Pennsylvania GL
Beyond the RGL, the PennGL, and the EGL
Conclusion
Very Special Articles
Related Articles
Bibliography
Introduction
The Richmond Greyhound Lines (RGL) 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 Richmond, Virginia, USA. It existed from 1929 until -60, when it became merged into the second Eastern Greyhound Lines (EGL).
Origin
The Richmond Greyhound Lines descended mainly from four different predecessor firms – the RF&P Transportation Company, the Richmond-Washington Motor Coaches, the Richmond-Norfolk Motor Coaches, and the Peninsula Transit Corporation. [The RF&P Transportation Company was the short-lived motor-coach subsidiary of the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac (RF&P) Railroad.]
Development
In August 1929 the Motor Transit Corporation (MTC), the original parent Greyhound firm – through its acquisition company, known as the Automotive Investments, Inc., based in Duluth, Minnesota – bought the Richmond-Washington Motor Coaches, which ran along US highway 1 (US-1) between the two named cities, holding and using intrastate rights (obtained from the state or Commonwealth of Virginia), thus hauling not only interstate but also intrastate passengers as well.
Later in that same month the MTC began to coördinate the schedules of its new property with the trips of the RF&P Transportation Company, which ran on the same route, but which latter firm hauled only interstate passengers because of its lack of intrastate rights.
In the next month, September 1929, the MTC formed the Richmond-Greyhound Lines (RGL), temporarily using a hyphen in the name, then bought and took over the RF&P Transportation Company, which had run only six months.
During the creation of the RGL, the RF&P Railroad acquired a 49-percent minority interest in the RGL, and the MTC retained the 51-percent majority interest.
On 05 February 1930 the MTC became renamed as The Greyhound Corporation (with an uppercase T because the word the was an integral part of the official name).
Further, in 1930 Greyhound merged into the RGL (formerly known as the RF&P Transportation Company) the Richmond-Washington Motor Coaches, which it had bought in August 1929; then in the following year, -31, Greyhound bought also the Richmond-Norfolk Motor Coaches and merged it too into the RGL. The Richmond-Norfolk firm had run between the two named cities via Petersburg, Suffolk, and Portsmouth, west of the west shore of the James River and south of the south shore of Hampton Roads. [Hampton Roads is a large natural harbor just inland from Cape Henry, the Chesapeake Bay, and the Atlantic Ocean.]
The Peninsula Transit Corporation (PTC) had begun in 1919 in Virginia, on the peninsula between the rivers James and York. The first purpose of the PTC was to haul passengers (mostly soldiers, mostly recently discharged members of the US Army after World War I) – between Camp Eustis (later renamed as Fort Eustis) and both Newport News, to the south, and Lee Hall (the nearest place with a railway station), to the north.
The PTC extended northward to Williamsburg in 1923, to Toano and Gloucester in -24, and to Richmond in -25, then provided through-service between Richmond and Norfolk, using a ferry across Hampton Roads between Newport News and Norfolk, on a route shorter than the inland one via Petersburg, Suffolk, and Portsmouth (the route of the Richmond-Norfolk Motor Coaches).
During 1931 and -32 the PTC extended its Gloucester branch northward on US-17, on the peninsula between the rivers York and Rappahannock, to Tappahannock, thence eastwardly across the Rappahannock River to Warsaw, thence both southwardly and northwardly – to the south to Reedville, Lancaster, and Irvington, near the Chesapeake Bay, and to the north to Colonial Beach, where passengers could ride a ferry across the Potomac River and then catch other buses to Washington, DC, to Baltimore, Maryland, and to other points to the north.
Predictably, through the years those ferry rides became eliminated by the construction of bridges and a tunnel (below Hampton Roads).
In 1932 the PTC bought the bus business (but not the trucking business) of the Tidewater Lines, which had begun in 1916. Thus the PTC acquired routes from Morgantown, Maryland, on the opposite side of the Potomac River across from Colonial Beach, northwardly through Waldorf to Washington and to Baltimore and southwardly from Waldorf to Leonardtown and Lexington Park, on the peninsula between the rivers Potomac and Patuxent.
Between 1932 and -36 the PTC affiliated with The Short Line System, thus interchanging passengers with other Short Line members and subsidiaries to the west, north, and northeast. [The Short Line System became unraveled during the Great Depression (and as a result of it), and most of the other firms in that system fell into irreversible financial troubles.]
The PTC in 1935 began local commuter service between Washington, DC, and Annapolis, Maryland, along two parallel routes, when an electric interurban railway failed in business and quit running.
In 1936, during a reorganization and reincorporation of the Richmond Greyhound Lines, it became slightly renamed by the removal of the hyphen from its former name.
During that same year, 1936, the RGL made a contract to buy the PTC, then in -37 it completed the purchase and merged the PTC into itself.
In the next year, 1938, Greyhound transferred the two Washington-Annapolis local commuter routes from the Richmond GL to the Capitol GL, another regional company, because those routes were so far removed from Richmond, which was the center of activity of the RGL. [The Capitol GL ran mainly on a single route, between Washington, DC, and Saint Louis, Missouri, along US-50, via Winchester, Virginia; Morgantown, West Virginia; Cincinnati, Ohio; Vincennes, Indiana; and Salem, Illinois.]
A longtime vice president of the RGL was Swan Sundstrom, who was also a longtime president of the Pennsylvania GL, based in Cleveland, Ohio, and who was one of the original drivers who had worked for Carl Eric Wickman, the main founder of the Greyhound empire, in the Mesaba Transportation Company, in Hibbing, Minnesota.
Through-coaches on Through-routes
The Richmond GL ran in part coaches just between Washington and Richmond, between Richmond and Norfolk, between Washington and Norfolk via Richmond, and between Baltimore and Norfolk via Waldorf.
Mostly, however, the RGL took part in a large number of major interlined north-south 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 companies – between various pairs of cities (first between New York City and Jacksonville), including – in the north, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Montréal, Boston, Providence, New York City, Scranton, Philadelphia, and Washington – and, in the south, Norfolk, Atlanta, Memphis, Mobile, New Orleans, Jacksonville, Orlando, Miami, and Saint Petersburg.
Meeting Other Greyhound Companies
The Richmond GL met the Southern GL (formerly the Atlantic GL) to the south and west, and the new second Eastern GL (formerly the Capitol GL, the Central GL, and the Pennsylvania GL) to the north and west. [More about those other Greyhound companies is available in my four individual articles about them.]
Merger into the Eastern GL
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 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.]
On 15 September 1960 Greyhound bought back the 49-percent minority interest of the RF&P Railroad in the Richmond GL, then merged the RGL into the new second Eastern GL. [That minority interest was the last one that Greyhound rebought from any railway; after that no longer did any railway own a piece of the Dog.]
The partial ownership of the RGL by the RF&P Railroad is the reason for which the RGL did not become merged into the Eastern Division (or into the Southern Division) until 1960.
Thus ended the Richmond GL.
Beyond the RGL, the PennGL, and the EGL
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 Richmond 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 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 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 (because of the age of book).
Motor Coach Age, ISSN 0739-117X, a publication of the Motor Bus Society, various issues, especially these:
April 1973;
December 1978;
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 19:46 EDT, Thursday, 02 June 2022.