Trailways Transportation System

Founded 1936
Headquarters Fairfax, Virginia
Service area United States
Canada
Germany
Netherlands
Service type Intercity coach service
Operator Cooperative
Chief executive Sheila Ryba[1]
Website www.trailways.com

The Trailways Transportation System is a US-based network of approximately 70 independent bus companies that have entered into a brand licensing agreement. The company is headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia.[2]

History

A Santa Fe bus used to transport workers to defense plants during World War II.

The predecessor to Trailways Transportation System was founded February 5, 1936, by Burlington Transportation Company, Santa Fe Trails Transportation Company, Missouri Pacific Stages, Safeway Lines, Inc., and Frank Martz Coach Company.

The system originated with coast-to-coast service as the National Trailways Bus System (NTBS). Greyhound Lines had grown so quickly in the 1920s and 1930s that the Interstate Commerce Commission encouraged smaller independent operators to form the NTBS to provide competition. Unlike Greyhound, which centralized ownership, Trailways member companies became a formidable competitor while staying an association of almost 100 separate companies. In the 1950s, Morgan W. Walker, Sr., of Alexandria, Louisiana, became head of the southern division of the company. He had entered the business on a small scale during World War II as the Interurban Transportation Company of Alexandria.[3] During the 1950s and 1960s, consolidation among bus operators resulted in four of the five original Trailways members becoming part of a new company, Continental Trailways, which eventually operated the majority of Trailways routes.[4][5][6][7][8]

In 1968, under the leadership of major stockholder Kemmons Wilson, Holiday Inn acquired Continental Trailways, which remained a subsidiary of Holiday Inn until 1979, when Holiday Inn sold Trailways to private investor Henry Lea Hillman Sr., of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In the years during which Trailways was a subsidiary of Holiday Inn, television commercials for Holiday Inn frequently showed a Trailways bus stopping at a Holiday Inn hotel.

Regular route bus ridership in the United States had been declining steadily since World War II despite minor gains during the 1973 and 1979 energy crises. By 1986, the Greyhound Bus Line had been spun off from the parent company to new owners, which resulted in Greyhound Lines becoming solely a bus transportation company. It was sold off to new owners headed by Fred Currey, a former executive with the largest member of the National Trailways Bus System. The old Greyhound parent had changed its name to Dial Corporation.

Under the new ownership in 1987, led by Currey, Greyhound Lines later acquired the former Continental Trailways company, the largest member of the rival National Trailways Bus System, effectively eliminating a large portion of bus competition.[9] Although Greyhound negotiated cooperative schedules with Carolina Coach Company and Southeastern Trailways, two of the larger members of the Trailways system, many smaller carriers were effectively forced out of business. Greyhound later acquired Carolina and the intercity operations of Southeastern.[10][11] Most of the survivors diversified into charters and tours.

Current Trailways members

Today Trailways members are spread across North America. They provide charter bus service, bus tours and scheduled route services, with some members providing regular route service to areas not served by any other bus company on an interlining basis with Greyhound Lines, each other, and independent companies. Members also offer motorcoach charters and tours in competitive markets.

As of April 2015, Trailways members are:[12]

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://m.metro-magazine.com/news/293676/trailways-names-new-president-ceo
  2. ↑ "Home". Trailways Transportation System. Retrieved on June 30, 2010. "3554 Chain Bridge Road Suite 202 Fairfax VA 22030-2709".
  3. ↑ http://longrootshighbranches.blogspot.com/2006/08/morgan-wailes-walker.html
  4. ↑ "Heads Bus System". The Courtland Journal. June 3, 1947. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
  5. ↑ United Press (October 9, 1948). "American Buslines May Merge With Subsidiary". Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
  6. ↑ "Would Take Over Line". St. Joseph News-Press. September 18, 1952. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
  7. ↑ "INTERCITY BUS ROUTES - HISTORY". Retrieved January 6, 2012.
  8. ↑ "Trailways remembers Marvin E. Walsh October 27, 1906 - November 5, 2008" (PDF). Trailways Traveler. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
  9. ↑ Thomas C. Hayes (June 20, 1987). "Greyhound in Deal for Trailways". The New York Times. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
  10. ↑ Greyhound To Buy Carolina Trailways
  11. ↑ Greyhound Acquires Southeastern Trailways Business
  12. ↑ "Bus Companies Listings by Company Name". Trailways.com. Retrieved April 8, 2015.

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