History and Facts

Shortly after operation of the new electric cars began, the working mules of the Oakwood line started "tap-dancing" on their tracks whenever a White Line car ran nearby. Witnesses reported that sparks actually shot out of the mules’ tails! After Oakwood officials hauled the White Line into court with a stop order, this freak show was resolved by electrically bonding the mule-car tracks together. This stopped the electric currents from leaking into surrounding moist earth and traveling through the mule's iron shoes into their bellies and out their tails. No more tap-dancing mules.

 

When the first automobile arrived in Dayton in 1900, transportation continued to play an important role in the city’s development. Because streetcars were slow and inconvenient, they were replaced with electric trolley buses with rubber tires and overhead wires in September, 1947. The first trolley coaches actually arrived in 1933. Twelve Brill T-40 models were purchased when a fire destroyed all of the cars of the Dayton Street Railway Company.

 

In order to provide better service, the many local transit companies began to consolidate when the City Railway Company purchased the Dayton Street Railway Company in 1941 and the People’s Railway Company in 1945. Consolidation became a primary means for increasing service and financial stability and continued through 1956 when the privately owned City Transit Company took over the last remaining independent transit companies in Dayton. In 1972 consolidation would occur one final time when the publically-owned Miami Valley Regional Transit Authority acquired City Transit.

 

For 17 years, City Transit enjoyed growth sparked by the low-cost need for public transportation during the war years. However, once the affordability of privately owned automobiles became real, ridership declined. By the 1970's, losses forced City Transit to increase fares twice and eliminate service after 10 p.m. and on Sunday. By 1970, fares had risen to 35 cents compared to 15 cents just 10 years earlier. Operating costs were up by more than 32 percent.