From Railway to Freeway: Pacific Electric and the Motor Coach

By Eli Bail

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0916374610
• ISBN13: 9780916374617
• Release Date: January 1984
• Publisher: Interurban Pr
• Length: 196 Pages
• Weight: 2.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 11.3" x 0.8" x 11.3"

Customer Reviews

Invaluable history of Southern California's bus network

Everyone knows the history of the Pacific Electric "Red Cars" and Los Angeles Railway "Yellow Cars" that provided public transit service in Southern California from the early 1900's to about the late 1950's. Less well known, but just as important, were the fleets of buses that also served Los Angeles and its suburbs. The history of these bus routes are described in Eli Bail's _From Railway to Freeway_ The early bus (or "motor stage" as was the popular parlance then) routes operated along streets and highways in what was then a largely rural, pre-development, pre-freeway Southern California. At first, just about anyone with an automobile could have a bus line, but as time progressed, regulation and consolidation took place. Eventually, Mr. O.R. Fuller consolidated many of these smaller lines into the "Motor Transit" system, which connected Los Angeles with places as far away as Bakersfield and San Diego. In the mid 1920's, the long-distance routes were sold to Greyhound, and the shorter suburban runs ended up with Pacific Electric. The Los Angeles Railway, which mostly served Los Angeles proper and very close in suburbs, also ran buses where the rails didn't go, or (in later years) as replacements for streetcar service. Eli Bail is not a believer in the "GM Trolley Conspiracy", that is, there was no ulterior motive in replacing streetcars or interurbans with buses, other than the fact that buses were cheaper to operate. Unlike today, there were no public subsidies for transit, and the rail systems could not be sustained from the farebox alone. But the strongest bus routes in Southern California still trace the early PE, LARY and Motor Transit routes of years gone by. There are lots of high quality pictures of vehicles and street scenes, so the reader gets a feel for what it might have been like to ride around in one of these "motor stages". Highly recommended for bus fans, transit historians, or anyone interested in the history of Southern California